History of the College

In 2015 the Odesa Technical College of the Odesa National Academy of Food Technologies, one of the leading educational institutions of Ukraine, of accreditation levels I–II, celebrated its 85th anniversary.

The history of this educational institution began as follows: on 10 March 1930, in accordance with a decision of Tsentrosoiuz and Soiuzpromkhlibovypechennia of the USSR, a specialised technical school was established in Odesa to train technician-technologists and technician-mechanics for the baking industry, under the name “All-Union Technical School of the Baking Industry”. The technical school was located in the centre of working-class Peresyp, in a small building where the first 4 groups of students began their studies.

In 1932 the technical school was moved to a 2-storey building on the premises of the Odesa Bakery No. 2. At that time the student body consisted of 3 groups of first-year students and 4 groups of second-year students. Theoretical classes took place on the premises of Odesa Bakery No. 2.

In 1932 the first graduation of young specialists took place:

• 75 technician-technologists
• 25 technician-mechanics

The library of the technical school held 12 thousand books (textbooks and study guides). In 1933–34 a three-storey dormitory building for 150 people was built next to the technical school. The technical school existed until 1 August 1941 and was closed owing to the temporary occupation of Odesa. During its work from 1930 to 1941 the technical school trained 885 specialists, of whom 860 were technician-technologists and 25 were technician-mechanics of the baking industry. During the Great Patriotic War all the property of the technical school was lost.

Many lecturers and students of the technical school went to the front to defend the Motherland; some of them never returned to the work they loved and died the death of the brave on the battlefields.

Those who returned began, in April 1944, to re-establish anew the noble work of training specialists for the food industry that had been interrupted by the war and the occupation.

In accordance with an order of the Ministry of the Food Industry, the technical school was now called the “Odesa Technical School of the Food Industry of the Ukrainian SSR”. At that time the technical school was housed in a school building at 14 Tyraspolska Street.

The technical school initially opened 3 divisions: baking, confectionery and pasta, and from 1 September 1944 a winemaking division was organised in place of the abolished oils and fats division. All the divisions had a technological profile.

In the summer of 1944 the technical school moved to a building at 28 Lozina Street, where it remained until 15 February 1966. At the end of the technical school’s yard, in a one-storey building, there was a one-storey bakery equipped with one oven, a dough mixer, a dough divider and other equipment. In the technical school building itself there was a bagel workshop with two ovens for making bagels and dry rings.

On a contractual basis the technical school’s management leased these workshops to the Odesa Bread Factory and to the resort trade organisation, which baked bread of various kinds and bread rolls, using the technical school’s students as trainee workers under the guidance of experienced masters and lecturer-specialists of the technical school.

These training bakeries played a significant positive role at that time and were closed in 1953.

In 1945 the first 12 technician-technologists of bread baking, whose studies had been interrupted by the war, left the walls of the technical school.

From 1 September 1946 a baking and mechanical division was organised.

In 1946 a club of 150 sq. m with a stage was equipped at the technical school, where festive evenings were held.

In 1948 a part-time division was opened at the technical school, and Yosyp Omeliianovych Horzheni was appointed its head and remained continuously in this post until 1987. The part-time division had 4 groups (120 people).

In 1954 an additional building was added to the technical school building, housing 6 lecture rooms, a gymnasium, a locksmith and machine workshop, an assembly hall for 500 seats and administrative offices (of the director, deputy director and accounts office).

In the summer of 1955, in connection with the closure of the Odesa Technical School of the USSR (located in the building at 130 Mechnikova Street, near Chumka), 305 students of years 3 and 4 of the closed technical school were transferred to our technical school in the specialties of tobacco processing and planning and economics.

In 1960 the training of flour millers at the full-time division was discontinued. In the same year, at the request of the Odesa Sugar Refinery and by decision of the Black Sea Regional Economic Council, an evening division consisting of 2 groups in the specialty “Technology of Sugar Substances” was opened at the technical school.

In 1959 the training of winemaking specialists was opened again at the full-time and part-time divisions, and in 1960–1961 the training of specialists in meat, dairy and sugar production.

In 1962, with the graduation of the last group of tobacco specialists, this division ceased to exist, and in the same year the training of sugar industry mechanics began at the evening division.

In the spring of 1960, on a former rubbish dump – a wasteland rising on the right-hand side of the Moscow Road (where there once stood a count’s estate, a regimental church and a cork factory) – construction began on a new teaching building, the first of an entire educational complex consisting of:

• a) a 4-storey teaching building for 960 places (commissioned on 15 February 1966);
• b) a 4-storey laboratory building (commissioned in 1969);
• c) a 6-storey dormitory for 712 places (commissioned in 1969);
• d) a 4-storey production building (commissioned in 1970);
• e) a second dormitory for 630 places (commissioned in 1972).

In May 1968, in accordance with an order of the Ministry of the Food Industry of the USSR, the technical school building at 28 Lozina Street was transferred to the commissioning and adjustment administration “Orgkharchoprom”; however, our training workshops – 4 chemistry laboratories, 2 classrooms for refrigeration and compressor machines and units, and measurement and testing laboratories – were also located there, and classes were held there until June 1969, after which they were moved to the new laboratory building (54 Frunze Street). The part-time and evening divisions also remained in the old building until the beginning of the 1969/70 academic year.

In 1964 the training of specialists in refrigeration and compressor machines and units was opened at the full-time, evening and part-time divisions, and from 1967 the training of technician-planners for food industry enterprises began.

By order of the Ministry of Education of the USSR, since 1964 the technical school has been a regional and sectoral base technical school, which does it credit and imposes great responsibility.

Since 1965 the technical school has borne the honorary title of the sports club "Yunist".

The training of technician-planners began in 1967. In 1966 the technical school moved to a new teaching base at 54 Frunze (Balkivska) Street.

1970 – construction of the educational complex was completed (3 teaching buildings, 2 dormitories). In 1989 the training of specialists in the specialty “Maintenance and Repair of Computer Equipment” began, and in 1992 the specialty “Commercial Activity” was introduced. By Order No. 249 of 19.12.90 of the State Committee for the Food Industry of the Ukrainian SSR, the food industry technical school was granted the status of a college with two-level training of specialists. By a decision of the Board of the Ministry of Education of 26.-5.93 (Minutes No. 12/2), the decision of the Interbranch Accreditation Commission to grant the Odesa Technical College a licence to carry out educational activities at the second level of accreditation was approved. In 1994 the college joined complexes with higher education institutions: OPU, ODAKhT, ODAZ and UDAKhT, and in 1999 UALP. 1997 – the material base and specialties of the Odesa Evening Technical School of Light Industry, which was closed by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, were transferred to the college.

From September 1998 the training of students began at the full-time division in the specialties: garment production, production of leather goods and enterprise economics. 1964–1994 – by order of the Ministry of Education of the USSR the technical school was a regional and sectoral base educational institution. 1979–1994 – by order of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine the technical school was the centre of the Council of Directors of technical schools of the Odesa region. The college trains junior specialists and bachelors in 7 specialties.

At present the following divisions operate at the college:

• the technology division;
• the economics division;
• the electronics and refrigeration division.

Technology and Economics Divisions

They train junior specialists in bread-baking, confectionery and pasta production and in the production of food concentrates, intended to work in production units of processing enterprises, self-financing, contract and lease teams, in the posts of manager or performer of technological operations in the production of bread, rusk, bagel, pasta and confectionery products.

A junior specialist of the technological profile is trained to work in the following posts: production supervisor, technician-technologist, technician-laboratory assistant, workshop head, shift head, engineer-technologist, quality control supervisor, quality engineer, as well as in the workplaces of master baker, finished-product inspector and master confectioner.

The role of a junior specialist in economics is determined by the fact that this is a specialist with a high level of professional education, trained for planning and economic, organisational and managerial, and financial activity in the field of economics in production, in the service sector and in management, in accordance with the professional specialisation.

A junior specialist in commodity science and commercial activity is intended to work at trade enterprises, in the sphere of intermediary services and in the sales units of industrial and agricultural enterprises.

They must be prepared to work in the State Customs Committee of Ukraine and at the customs offices of Ukraine, in order to create conditions for the formation of a market economy and for growth in foreign economic activity.

Electronics and Refrigeration Division

It trains junior specialists in refrigeration and compressor machines and units, prepared for entrepreneurial, organisational and managerial, and design and engineering activity in the field of creating and operating refrigeration machines and units.

A junior specialist is intended to work at industrial enterprises that use refrigeration and have refrigeration and compressor machines and units and air conditioning systems.

A junior specialist in the maintenance of computer and intelligent systems and networks is trained to work in the operation, adjustment and development of computer systems, in maintenance, in creating software, in creating user programs and in implementing them.

A junior specialist is intended to work at state enterprises, in research institutes, research laboratories, at university departments, in computing centres, firms, banks and commercial organisations of various forms of ownership, in the post of junior specialist in computer engineering.

Educational and extracurricular work at the college is an integral part of the teaching and educational process.

Today the college’s structure includes a student club, at which the following operate: a Ukrainian song choir; a dance group; a KVN team; the mini-theatre “DIuK”; and a sports club.

The college holds interesting evenings, concerts, creative meetings and sports competitions, in which students necessarily take part. The amateur art and sports groups take part in competitions and concerts, where they win prizes.

College resources: it has its own dormitory for 712 places, located near the main buildings. A café and a canteen operate on the first floor.

The library is an auxiliary informational, cultural and production structural subdivision of the college and is directly subordinate to the director of the college. The library holds 92 thousand books.

The Educational Computing Centre provides for the study and acquisition of computer-use skills, and coordinates matters of computerisation of the teaching process and of the work of the college’s structural subdivisions.

For training placements the college has locksmith, electrical and radio installation, electrical and radio measurement, and sewing workshops.

In 2004, by order of the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, the college became part of the structure of the Odesa National Academy of Food Technologies as a separate structural subdivision.