Personnel problems of the industry enterprises, opportunities to develop new competencies for employees, as well as tools for their searching were discussed at the meeting of the Chemical Industry Committee of Delovaya Rossiya on the topic: “Personnel support for industrial enterprises: expectations and requests”.

“Industry enterprises, chemical complex, particularly medium-sized and small enterprises lack skilled personnel. Vocational training system graduates yearly thousands of young specialists, but we as industrialists have issues with quality of training. This includes both theoretical knowledge and specific engineering and IT competences, as well as skills in project activities”, Coordination Council Member, Head of Delovaya Rossiya Chemical Industry Committee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AO GC Titan, Mikhail Sutyaginsky informed.  

Major chemical companies have already established contacts with profession-oriented universities and colleges, Mikhail Sutyaginsky noted. They provide training places and host companies, arrange their own academic departments, prepare grant programs for talented young people and even train groups of specialists. 

The situation is different for representatives of small and medium-sized chemical businesses. According to the studies of Delovaya Rossiya in 2021, 75% of survey participants stated that they had no contacts with universities. 8% have agreements with universities for the assignment of their enterprises to students' internships, and another 5% cooperate directly with university departments. Only 4% of respondents guarantee employment for their graduates. The same number cooperates with universities in conducting scientific studies, and even fewer cooperate in examinations and graduate qualification works presentation.

However, in the case of medium- and low-tonnage chemical companies, especially when it comes to innovative areas, the experience of large companies is not appropriate for them. First and foremost, as they need not mass training, but “customized” one, the most advanced development of competence. 

At the same time, experts are open about the fact that it is small and medium-sized enterprises that become suppliers of personnel to major companies. Gaining experience the employees leave for larger businesses, for different working conditions. The meeting participants noted that it is extremely important to develop cooperation in this regard. Thus, it will be possible to keep unique personnel in the industry.

National Qualifications Development Agency proposes to start solving HR problems by specifying a request for certain professionals and competences that companies need. 

"We have prepared a questionnaire together with our colleagues, the results of which will make it possible to assess the scope of personnel training required by companies. Whether there is already a conscious need for personnel - how many people, what specialties. Perhaps there is a need for some additional competences and skills that are most in demand within the existing specialties. Having received this data, we can prepare appropriate programs supported by the federal budget," General Director of the National Qualifications Development Agency, Artyom Shadrin said.

Experts build forecasts of great changes in the labour market and significant labour flows between industries and companies, in fact between professions. Online learning platforms can help to acquire new skills. The national qualifications system has already a number of such services.

“Online education platforms are close to the needs of B2B sector, responding as dynamically as possible to the demands of the labour market and to the demands of certain companies. We have already such examples. It is an online platform for comprehensive training of employees based on their skills analysis," General Council Member, Head of the Expert Center for Labour Relations and Occupational Safety of Delovaya Rossiya, Vitaly Fedin said. 

Among others, the National Qualifications Development Agency has developed a base of qualifications descriptions that will help employers to generate the right personnel request. 

“It is very important for us to keep the human resource potential that we currently have at our manufacturing sites and impart their knowledge to the younger generation in good time. As new specialists coming to work, start in fact to learn the technology from scratch at their workplace. To avoid losing precious time, it is necessary to introduce internships and trainings on probation in a more targeted way, so it is very important for us here as well the request of enterprises,” First Vice President of the Russian Union of Chemists, Maria Ivanova added.

The study made by Delovaya Rossiya has already resulted in recommendations on the provision of highly qualified personnel for the small and medium-capacity chemicals industry. Working together with the National Qualifications Development Agency will make it possible to gather more accurate data and propose joint solutions to develop the industry and support it with qualified personnel.

Source: Delovaya Rossiya , 30.03.2022

Back