15.02.2008 // Irina Arefyeva

In order to ensure the stable economic development of Russia, we should intensify the training of specialists for all sectors

This has been proved by constant surveys of the labor market. The market is full of lawyers and economists. They are already experiencing problems with employment as today employers need machine-tool operators, electricians, fitters, welders, crane operators, constructors.  

In Russia personnel training is carried out in two directions: on-site and within the system of primary professional education.

Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant has very complex equipment and production process requiring specific professional knowledge and skills. So, we can’t train personnel on-site. For over two decades already we have been supplied with professional workers by Desnogorsk Professional Technical College. Today, Smolensk NPP employs over 5,000 people – 59% of them are workers, mostly graduates of Desnogorsk college. 

When the plant was just launching its units, it employed 50–60 people a year: electricians, fitters of reactor and turbine equipment, fitters of measuring systems, constructors. We had a contract with the college: their students came here on probation 2–3 times throughout their study; our specialists were invited into examining boards during graduation exams. Only the best were granted skill categories and were employed with our company.

Today, our cooperation is continued – just like everywhere in Russia. Smolensk NPP and Desnogorks Professional Technical College have a long-term cooperation agreement and are committed to jointly enhance the quality of professional education and to cultivate personal and professional culture among workers. We try to train highly qualified skilled workers as today Rosenergoatom Concern and Smolensk NPP, in particular, urgently need professionals for implementing their large-scale projects.  

The college has a board of trustees and the director of Smolensk NPP is one of the trustees. The board helps the college to effectively organize its education process and to improve its material-technical base. In 2007 Smolensk NPP helped the college to repair its welding workshops and to equip the workplaces in the laboratory of measuring systems.

Recently, the sides have adopted a provision on professional selection and professional testing of students in the framework of the personnel training program of Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant. The document was signed by the director of Smolensk NPP A.Petrov and the director of the college A.Zenkina in Apr 2007.

The adoption of the provision is supposed to help to improve the selection system and to reveal qualified, competent and devoted young people – people who can become real nuclear power engineers.

In order to encourage the students of Desnogorsk college Smolensk NPP grants scholarships to the best. 
 
The deputy head of the thermal automatics and measurements department V.Ponomaryov, who has a very big experience of work with probationers, the probation courses at Smolensk NPP are organized in such a way as to stimulate students’ interest in their future profession. And this interest is steadily growing. Probations help our specialists to reveal talents and to try to recruit the best.

Smolensk NPP is constantly upgrading its equipment and needs people who will be able to cope with it. The graduates of Desnogorsk college are a good reserve for the plant and guarantee of its further development.

Today, our industry is quickly developing and needs more and more specialists. Schoolchildren of Desnogorsk and nearby villages are offered an excellent opportunity to get primary professional education at Desnogorsk Professional Technical College and further employment in one of the most advanced sectors of our economy, nuclear industry.