OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2013. A round-table discussion of the issues of the engineering personnel training for the gas and petrochemical complex enterprises with participation of Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, was held at the "Corston” Hotel and Shopping Center in the capital of the Republic.

The roundtable was held in the framework of the 42nd IGIP International Symposium on Engineering Education "Global Challenges in Engineering Education" organized by the International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP), Kazan National Research Technological University and CTI Technical Institute of Carinthia (Austria).

The event was attended by Michael Auer, national research universities’ rectors, heads of ministries and leading enterprises of Tatarstan, representatives of international and Russian NGOs. Rustam Mukhamadeev, Deputy General Director of JSC TATNEFT for Human Resources and Social Development, participated in the work of the round table from JSC TATNEFT.

Addressing the audience Rustam Minnikhanov, President of Tatarstan, pointed out the growing needs of the republican enterprises in highly skilled engineers. He reminded that in Tatarstan there are two large refineries, as well as large petrochemical complexes, tire production operating and developing, the "Ammonium" plant is under construction with all of them requiring professionals of the up-to-date level.

Today we need to consolidate all the possibilities, based on the real sector of the economy, and in cooperation with foreign partners otherwise further development of the enterprises is impossible, Rustam Minnikhanov said.

Michael Auer, President of the International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP) welcomed the participants. He thanked the leadership of Tatarstan for the forum organization and presented a membership certificate of the society to Rustam Minnikhanov.

Rustam Mukhamadeev, Deputy General Director of JSC TATNEFT for Human Resources and Social Development, spoke on pressing issues of the engineering training in the Company.

The fuel and energy complex and specifically the oil industry is one of the high-tech, knowledge-intensive sectors of the world economy. Therefore, the fuel and energy companies staffing issue is given the highest priority today.

Given the shortage of professionals in the engineering sector TATNEFT Company has created its own system of training the required personnel and has acquired a wide experience in selecting experts in different areas of the activities. The Company has developed and successfully operates an integrated system of continuous professional education. This system created with the support of the Government of Tatarstan and in close cooperation with relevant educational institutions allows maintaining a sufficient level of the Company’s intellectual potential and its competitiveness in the oil industry of the country.

A cluster system of continuous professional education involving the Almetyevsk State Petroleum Institute, Almetyevsk Polytechnic, Leninogorsk Oil and Bugulma Engineering colleges that successfully interact with the Company has been successfully implemented in the south-eastern part of Tatarstan for many years now.

At present, TATNEFT Company and the oil and gas industry as a whole face serious challenges for innovative breakthrough, introduction of advanced techniques in exploration, oil fields development, oil refining, petrochemicals production and marketing. In addition, new lines of business are developing such as hard-to-recover oil reserves and natural bitumen fields’ development. The technologies of dual operation of two or more layers through one well are widely applied. Application of the method of the large-volume hydraulic fracturing is gaining momentum. All of these business areas require highly skilled professionals: engineers, technologists, possessing a qualitatively new level of knowledge.

Rustam Mukhamadeev expressed concerns about some of the trends in the engineering education. Thus, the transition to a two-tier "bachelor - master" system of the university training has led to a reduction in hours of training in special disciplines of the oil and gas industry financed from the budget. Such major industry areas as the "Oil and Gas Business", "Mining Engineering" and "Applied Geology" were not included in the list of occupations representing priority areas for modernization and development of the Russian economy. As a result funding of professionals training in these areas was reduced by 1.6 times.

The participants discussed global trends in the development of education and research in the higher technical school and shared practical experience in engineering education, shared their experiences in the implementation of engineering personnel training programs for the oil and gas complex enterprises.