As you know, the pilot project to improve the higher education system, which is currently being implemented within the walls of the first technical university of Russia, is based on a sharp increase in the time allowed to master fundamental knowledge and gain practical work experience in production. The upgraded curricula, in particular, assume that the first internship is mandatory at the end of the second semester.
That is, all students who have successfully passed the spring session, at the end of June, go to existing enterprises in order to see with their own eyes all the stages of real technological chains. So far, only to get to know them, they will have to get the skills of independent work a little later.
This approach, of course, requires closer integration with business, that is, the availability of effective feedback, which is impossible without the interest of employers themselves in training young professionals. In the person of BelAZ, the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University has found a partner who is maximally motivated to create a reliable personnel reserve capable of ensuring the process of generational succession in all structural divisions of the holding in the future.
«The history of our cooperation with the Belarusian auto giant goes back many years. For example, two years ago, the Competence Center of this company was opened at our university, which absorbed the best technological solutions in the field of mechanical engineering and equipped with the most modern simulators. The mutual and sincere desire to achieve a common goal, namely, to reduce the shortage of engineers, which is now observed all over the world, including in Russia and Belarus, allows us to successfully implement a variety of projects. First of all, those that are being implemented as part of our work to modernize the higher education system, that is, aimed at improving educational training programs for the real sector of the economy. One of our joint tasks is to create conditions for students to master all the necessary knowledge, and most importantly, to gain practical experience in their specialty», - The rector of the Mining University, Vladimir Litvinenko, told.
This year, representatives of the world's largest manufacturer of dump trucks organized an educational internship for almost 200 first-year students of St. Petersburg university (consisting of 3 groups). Within its framework, boys and girls studied the best practices of various Belarusian enterprises, got acquainted with samples of mining and transport equipment that they produce, including machines unique in their characteristics. Among them, of course, is the largest truck on the planet, capable of transporting 450 tons of rock in working mode.
«We fully support the efforts of St. Petersburg Mining University, which is now implementing a new concept of engineering education. We are especially interested in increasing the terms of production practices, since we consider this to be the most important condition for the successful adaptation of young engineers at any enterprise, including ours. For our part, we are ready to provide maximum assistance in conducting internships, ranging from introductory ones for first-year students to pre-graduate ones. We have all the conditions for this», - BelAZ CEO Sergey Lesin emphasized, commenting on the participation in the pilot project.
All the students who were asked by the "FarPost" to share their emotions following the visit to the neighboring state, without collusion, noted the hospitality of the host country and, importantly, its openness. There are no prohibitions on visiting certain structural units, including photography, everything is as transparent and visual as possible. Mikhail Lavrovsky, who came to St. Petersburg from Cherepovets a year ago, and is now studying in the field of Technology, equipment and automation of machine-building industries, also spoke about this.
«I have nothing to compare it with yet, but the number of enterprises that we visited during the week of practice, I was personally very impressed. Among them were BELAZ, MAZ, the Eton plant, which produces various energy-saving equipment, the Belarusian-Chinese joint venture Belgee for the assembly of Geely passenger cars, MoAZ, which manufactures, among other things, equipment for road construction and parts for railway transport. In the first semester, we listened to lectures on the nuances of the organization of machine-building industries, depending on the number of products they produce. So, we visited sites of various scales: from relatively small to gigantic, and saw with our own eyes what the teachers told us about. Moreover, we were able not only to get acquainted with all the stages of the real technological chain, but also to ask questions to specialists, including chief technologists and designers», - Mikhail said.
He believes that it is largely thanks to such trips that students begin to form a substantive understanding of their future profession. In addition, they get an idea of the possible vector of development of various technological processes, that is, they begin to think about improving their efficiency, and this has always been a distinctive feature of a real engineer.
Ivan Skachkov came to study in the city on the Neva River from Arkhangelsk. He enrolled in the specialty "Technology, equipment and automation of machine-building processes". He says that during his internship in Belarus, especially when he found himself next to the legendary giant dump trucks, the meaning of the saying "It's better to see once than hear a hundred times" became much clearer to him.
«Of course, I was amazed at how confidently and calmly tiny people control it in comparison with this huge technique. And the whole trip as a whole left the most pleasant memories, allowed you to plunge into the atmosphere of your future profession, strengthened your desire to become a professional engineer. It was not by chance that I entered the Mining University, I knew that there was a process of modernization of higher education here, which also affects the practical component, and I wanted to take part in it. So far, all my expectations have been fully met, I really hope that internships at the end of the second or third year, when we begin to gain independent work skills, will be even more memorable and interesting», - he said.
There were also foreigners among the students sent to BELAZ. One of them, Rajabu Adinani Mrisali, came to our country from Tanzania. For him, traveling to Belarus was, first of all, "a great opportunity to form a real idea of the profession" that he is mastering. It is no secret that the ideal image that develops in the imagination of young people sometimes does not fully correspond to the real state of affairs, and with subsequent employment this can become a demotivating factor for graduates.
«The staff and managers of the enterprises we visited were very welcoming, they told us a lot about their factories and the essence of their job responsibilities. Maybe in the future I will be able to work with some of them, it would be great. I really hope that after graduation I will turn out to be a good engineer and I will be able to become a part of one of these grandiose productions», - says the Tanzanian.
Ekaterina Shabunina is from Nakhodka. She recalls that she decided to link her fate with mechanical engineering in high school, when she finally realized that this was her vocation. The girl did not expect to be among the participants of the internship at BelAZ, so the visit to Belarus was a "pleasant surprise" for her.
«The Mining University helped us to see how graduates of the engineering field build their career path and what kind of work they do at these enterprises. This is very important, because when applying to a particular faculty in the first year, students may doubt the correctness of their choice. And such introductory practices make it possible to dispel these doubts or, conversely, to make sure that this is not yours and transfer to another field of training. The new educational standards that have been introduced in our university allow this», - Ekaterina said.
She also noted that the trip was extremely eventful and exciting, and the program of the stay included not only visits to factories, but also various excursions. The visit to the Republic was designed for exactly one week, but the duration of the entire academic internship as a whole is three times longer for each student. Now the guys who returned from BELAZ are getting acquainted with the technological chains of the largest excavator manufacturer in Russia, IZ-Kartex, the Obukhov plant, and a number of other enterprises. Such a variety of facilities is a strategic initiative of the university management. After all, one of the tasks of the pilot project is to ensure that the graduate can be versatile, and not a narrow-profile specialist. Today, this is one of the urgent needs of the real sector of the economy.
