The concept of technological development of Russia until 2030, accepted It was designed to ensure the accelerated development of scientific, personnel and engineering qualifications in the country in May this year. For this reason, we must take care of the personnel of the future today. Who will educate college and university students? What qualifications will be needed in a few years and how can the gap between vocational training and the requirements of companies in the energy sector be minimized? In the “Scientific and technological development and digital transformation” session, participants tried to find answers to these and similar questions. Integration of information and technology as a factor in the development of the Russian fuel and energy complex.” The discussion was moderated by Alexey Kulapin, Director General of the Russian Energy Agency (REA) of the Ministry of Energy of Russia.
Science and business integration
In his speech, Sergei Machekhin, Deputy General Director of Project Engineering, Sustainable Development and International Cooperation at RusHydro, stated that companies today lack the deep integration of university and postgraduate professional education and the necessary competencies and requirements for work.
“Today we are a little isolated from each other. Of course, in my opinion, great attention should be paid to such a part of the interaction between basic applied science and the consumer as the restructuring of existing technological processes,” noted the expert.
In his opinion, most companies that have already spent large amounts of money and time to create professional production systems are in a kind of professional isolation.
This means that universities need to create a program to train new specialists who will make the production engineering process their main profession.
Mikhail Khardikov, Director of Operations of the En+ energy and metallurgical holding, noted that the main thing is not to miss the stage when the integration of knowledge and competences of future specialists begins. The company attaches great importance to the formation of personnel reserves and their involvement in the sector from a young age. According to the top manager, when choosing a future profession, the main motivator of young people today is not salary and benefits, but interesting tasks, prospects and future career.
“Therefore, of course (to attract the attention of young people – socialbites.ca note) we need to start as early as possible, and we are doing this. We start school with career guidance in the 10th grade. This year, 200 school children in Siberia participated in our career guidance programs. This is the first step to understanding what the energy sector is, the first immersion in the profession,” said Mikhail Khardikov.
The second issue brought up by the top manager of En+ was secondary vocational education.
Hydroelectric engineering is a unique profession; There are very few educational institutions teaching these specialties because the market is limited and there are not many hydroelectric power plants.
However, the company participates in the Federal “Professionalism” Program with two projects. This is the Ust-Labinsk Social Pedagogical College, as well as an energy college in Irkutsk, in which En+ has invested about 30 million rubles a year for 10 years.
This is consistent work with young people, and this must translate into quality,” the expert noted. The company pays special attention to cooperation with universities; in addition to standard training in specialties, En+ is developing the IT Academy project designed to attract specialists in digital professions to the industry and
It also supports talented students through its scholarship program.
“This year we have 800 scholars who will receive personalized scholarships from En+ and Rusal. These are not only power engineers and metallurgists, but also future teachers and doctors,” Khardikov noted.
Towards universities
The issue of integration of university education and business in terms of higher education institutions was continued by Nikolai Rogalev, rector of the National Research University “Moscow Energy Institute”.
“In this respect, integration means the practical use of the knowledge we convey to students at universities,” the rector emphasized, noting that there are all mechanisms that will enable companies to participate more actively in the educational process.
Rector of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas IM Gubkin Viktor Martynov supported his colleague that all integration mechanisms are available, but the main question is how they are used.
“As always at intersections, everything slides,” he said.
According to Viktor Martynov, the problem is the low salaries of graduate students and teachers. Thus, they enter the sector where they are offered much higher salaries. There is no one left to do science.
The rector sees a way out of this situation in the creation of an industry plan – long-term scientific projects that solve industry problems with long-term financing so that the institutes do not compete with each other.
Speaking about personnel training, it is important not to forget about the quality of the teaching staff of universities – Mikhail Khardikov supported this question. Who are these teachers who will teach the “Vocational” course to students in colleges and technical schools? For example, Khardikov gave his name to the En+ project, in which they train teachers for the Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute and the Energy Institute.
At the end of the conversation, the holding’s top manager suggested opening a personnel training center in Krasnoyarsk in order not to transport teachers from Central Russia to future Siberian and Far Eastern energy engineers.