OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. Training and subsequent employment for highly qualified engineers in priority development sectors of the economy was the subject on the agenda.

In particular, the meeting discussed the need to step up cooperation between universities and employers on improving higher professional education teaching programmes.

The meeting took place at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Before we start work today, I would first like to say a few words about a matter not directly related to today’s meeting. I am referring to the situation in the global economy, above all in Europe, and how it could affect our economy and financial system.

Quite simply, I want to say that what is happening is obviously worrying, but at the same time, we do have successful experience in handling serious crises. At any rate, we have reached the point today where we do not need to spend time developing new crisis management instruments. I am not suggesting that we need these instruments right now, for the situation is still developing, but whatever the case, I draw the Government’s attention to the need to follow events as closely as possible, analyse development on the European and other markets, and make decisions accordingly.

As before, our priorities are still to keep unemployment in check, ensure the financial system’s stable operation, and fulfil our social commitments. These are things we will discuss further with the Government and Central Bank.

I remind you that we began our modernisation work back when the crisis was in full swing, and in order to avoid the negative impact of a possible second wave of the crisis, we had to strengthen our response models for such situations. I hope we have succeeded in these efforts. I looked over the work underway here at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors just before. It was a major nuclear energy innovation cluster that was developed here in Dimitrovgrad back in the Soviet period. Indeed, it is probably one of the biggest in the world, at least in terms of reactor density and personnel numbers. It is good that new orders have started coming in again, and that work is underway on the projects selected and approved by the Commission for Modernisation [and Technological Development of Russia’s Economy]. I want to say too that this work really is of a very high standard. What I saw just now looks impressive indeed. What’s more, this cluster’s future development is directly related to the subject on our agenda today.

We are coming back today - from a slightly different angle it is true - to the issue of training highly skilled professional specialists. I remind you that we examined training for engineers and workers at a joint meeting of the Commission and the State Council Presidium about a year ago now. The time has come to look at what has and has not been achieved since then. Furthermore, following my meetings with engineers, I issued quite a long list of instructions. Funding has been increased for training engineers to work in the priority economic sectors. But this is still not enough. We need to pay attention to training for other specialists needed for our economic modernisation and technological development. This is very important work.

Of course, to resolve our human resources problems we first have to have a clear picture of which specialists are in short supply in which particular economic sectors and in which regions of the country. Making this evaluation seems at first glance simple enough, but is actually rather complicated. On my instruction, a system for forecasting employment needs in the different economic sectors was established, and in 2012 it will produce its first evaluations, on the basis of which we will be able to put together state orders for training the needed specialists. This will enable us to avoid both a glut on the market and human resource shortages in this or that profession.

State Corporation Rosatom sets a good example in this respect. We expect to see Rosatom’s demand for highly skilled specialists increase approximately four-fold by 2015. Rosatom has already increased its demand with our universities to train more specialists in the relevant areas. This is good because it shows that the company is looking to the future. I draw the attention of other companies’ heads to this positive experience.

On another positive note, on Wednesday we will mark Nuclear Industry Worker’s Day. I congratulate everyone working in this sector that comes with big responsibility and is so important for our country. I thank you all for your work.

I have had several meetings with students recently. Finding a job is one of the biggest and most topical issues for them. The key question is how much demand will there be for their skills on the labour market, will they be able to put their knowledge to maximum effective use, and, of course, what kind of wages will they be able to earn. I have already issued an instruction for all state universities to set up job centres to help students and postgraduate students find work in their specialist areas, both as part of their in-study training, and after they complete their studies.

In addition, I want us to discuss today the matter of how to encourage companies to take part in this work too. Often when I meet with business representatives, mostly private sector, but from state-owned companies too, they note the poor quality of training. They are not happy with the quality of training our universities provide. I think that they are right on many points. We have decided to establish a system for certifying specialists, and perhaps also a rating system for evaluating the quality of their training. We need to look at whether it is time to change the list of higher professional education teaching programmes, otherwise we end up spending time training specialists in fields that simply no longer exist, or, on the contrary, there is demand for specialists in particular fields, but no one providing the necessary training. This is a common enough situation, unfortunately, even though we are trying to take a market-oriented approach these days.