OREANDA-NEWS. A round table devoted to the launch of Student support programme for talented youth was held under the aegis of Nika-Tera sea terminal (Nika Tera Specialized Seaport LLC is a part of Group DF), which initiated the programme. Representatives of the Department of education, science and youth of the Mykolayiv State Region Administration, Mykolayiv regional employment centre, Mykolayiv institutions of higher education participated in development and discussion of the Student programme.

Support for education is one of the priority areas in corporate social responsibility of Group DF's businesses. The programme initiated by Nika-Tera is aimed to support and prepare specialists required by the economy.

The programme consists of a few stages. The first stage is testing participants. It includes receiving references from the educational institution regarding the most promising students and conducting interviews. The second stage opens absolutely new opportunities for the participants. The company undertakes a commitment to provide them with training places, conditions and basis for writing research papers and diploma thesis. It will allow students to investigate deeply the subject on the practical side. At the third stage the company is ready to offer the best students to employ in one of its business units or assign them in the candidate pool.

Representatives of the universities - Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Vasyl Sukhomlynsky National University of Mykolayiv, Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University - shared their experience in cooperation with other companies and problems in training specialists. The Student programme will include not only internships and pre-graduation internships but also various workshops, meetings with the company's experts, lectures and seminars.

Earlier Group DF announced an implementation of the new programme for training specialists with higher and vocational secondary education for fertilizer and titanium businesses. New approach implies that educational institutions will train specialists exceptionally according to previously agreed professions profiles. Profession Profile describes in detail competence, skills and knowledge of the professional who is trained by the educational institution for the company.

Overall, Group DF`s businesses have already signed agreements for specialists training with 21 Ukrainian higher educational institutions. Universities, which implement new system of personnel training according to professional standards, include National Technical University 'Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute', National Technical University of Ukraine 'Kyiv Polytechnic Institute', Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (Luhansk), National University 'Lviv Polytechnic', Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology (Dnipropetrovsk).

Agreements for specialists training provide different kinds of cooperation between an enterprise, a student and an educational institution. The cooperation involves carrying out common scientific investigations, conducting practical trainings for students, managing thesis, teaching specialty disciplines by leading experts of the enterprise.

OSTCHEM, which includes Nika-Tera terminal, became one of the partners in STEM: Professions of the Future, a pilot European project. The project aims to promote engineering and technical specialties and involve talented youth in chemical industry enterprises.