Over the next few years, the staff shortage in Metallurgy will only get worse. Some companies have come to realize that the talent pool of technical experts should be formed independently and literally from school, believes Dmitry AKOPOV, CEO of consulting company Partners.

As noted by many market experts, the number of working-age population is declining, reproduction of labor power is slow, and the internal mobility of the population is low, exacerbating the situation even more.

Also, there are very few individuals among the old staff who are able to work in modern factories and meet the current dynamics.

The Soviet system of training and retraining largely met the needs of the industry at the time. But even if it is to revive, it is unlikely to meet the requirements of the industry today.

Contemporary enterprises often need multi-workers holding several professions and skills to manage a large automated production thus changing the attitude of the workers to the enterprise and making it significantly use human resources more flexibly.

Unfortunately, the contemporary education system is not ready to provide relevant professionals. Over the past 20 years, the number of educational institutions has grown more than ten times, but the quality of education has deteriorated sharply. At present, most of the educational institutions do not take cater for the needs of the business.

In the post-Soviet era, engineering and technical specialties fell into the low-paid category. The younger generation tends to get humanitarian education. As a consequence, the domestic industry is facing a shortage of qualified engineers and technicians.

Large industrial companies have to gradually run their own programs of professional training and formation of talent pool and literally growing professionals straight from school.

According to the expert estimates by Jacobson Partners, metallurgists’ investments in education projects are nearly equal to government expenses on training professionals in universities. Thus, industrial companies offer options to set-off educational projects when establishing the base for income tax, and compensate the cost of education of students in in-house faculties from the state budget, subsidizing part of the interest on loans obtained to finance the construction of buildings and purchase of school equipment and materials for projects in the field of education.

One of the most successful examples in the market is the ChTPZ Group’s educational project Future of the White Metallurgy implemented in the form of a public and private partnership (PPP) with the Government of the Sverdlovsk region. The German dual system of education was introduced as part of the PPP in the Pervouralsk Metallurgical College (PMC) whereby students spend only a third of the time studying the theory and two-thirds in the field.

The graduates of this college obtain several specialties and have an opportunity to start their career with some experience and without additional training which is required for admission to work for a college graduate. Moreover, since 2012 all PMC graduates who are subject to be drafted in the army do their service together in the military unit located in the village of Gorny Schit of the Sverdlovsk region which allows them to maintain communication as potential colleagues after the training is completed. Most of those who come to work in production are familiar with the team, naturally introducing the old staff to new practices.

The ChTPZ example is followed by other participants in the metallurgical market. Not everyone has managed to build a stable multi-functional training system of their own. Nevertheless, in the short term, the number of such projects will increase and the quality of education will rise, as it is becoming one of the key factors of competitiveness and comprehensive operation of metallurgical enterprises in contemporary Russia.

It is worth noting that the government is gradually taking steps towards the initiatives of industrial enterprises. Thus, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives developed a Road Map called the National System of Competences and Qualifications, which represents a set of recommendations for monitoring the labor market demand and encouraging investments in vocational education.