Representatives of business community and authorities discussed personnel issues

On September 28, a business meeting between members of Business Russia, Russian Union of Chemists, Expert Council for Chemical Industry Development, students and young entrepreneurs was held. The main topic of the discussion was personnel policy and the creation of personnel pool for the domestic chemical industry.

The participants agreed upon the point that the predicted large-scale shortage of personnel is a major threat today. Taking into account that chemistry is a basic industry, without which other industries cannot develop, addressing personnel issues becomes a top priority.

“Increasing technological development rates and launching import substitution programs are followed by the creation of new jobs. The specialists that will be needed by the industry in the next five years should already study and undergo practical training. However there is a very small number of students. We’ll need a lot more specialists. And that means only one thing –it is necessary to increase the influx of high school graduates to universities and secondary specialized college in two years, and step up the work of corporate universities and promote the industry to attract new people from related industries,” Mikhail Sutyaginsky said.

President of the Russian Union of Chemists Victor Ivanov spoke about the formation of a systemic approach in personnel policy:

“Large chemical companies are already addressing the issues of attracting and training specialists through corporate universities. Such experience should certainly be adopted. Moreover, individual corporate educational centers could become industry-specific institutes, implementing a system of continuous professional education, which could significantly shorten the path of training a specialist.”

Daria Shevyakina, Deputy Director of the Department of Chemical Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, reported in her speech on the readiness to support young entrepreneurs and stimulate the development of scientific projects in chemistry.

Among other things, she spoke about the current government support measures and how to become a participant in such programs.

The topic of raising the status of the chemical industry and its maximum popularisation among schoolchildren and university entrants was touched upon by the moderator of the meeting, State Duma deputy Maria Vasilkova:

“It is chemistry that is the basic industry and the driver of technological sovereignty. Without chemical technologies it is impossible to create an advanced high-tech sector of the Russian economy. One of the tools for developing competences and human resources potential could be the creation of a network of technological co-working centers with modern equipment for student research groups and young startups. On the basis of such platforms, budding techno-entrepreneurs will be able to create innovative products and technologies from prototype to mass production. We also came up with an initiative to create a "chemical" track within the framework of the all-Russian management competition "Leaders of Russia", organized annually by the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "Russia - Land of Opportunities". The industry track will strengthen the talent pool and partially eliminate the "personnel" hunger in the chemical industry, as well as make it possible to attract talented managers from related industries, including from abroad. It is also important to continue work on transforming the continuing education model.”

Almost all experts spoke about the necessity for the continuing education. At the same time, representatives of the country's largest universities confirmed their readiness to actively cooperate with business and train students to meet the objectives of enterprises. Alla Faktorovich suggested to introduce an obligatory exam to check an applicant’s competencies. Thus, companies will be confident in the quality of the graduate's education. It is important that they not only come, but stay and work in the industry.

The Youth Council under the Low-and Medium Tonnage Chemicals Development Commission of the Russian Union of Chemists became one the tools to attract future specialists to the industry. The Council’s establishment was initiated by the General Director of Chimreactiv Association Irina Vendilo. According to Vendilo, if young specialists know and understand critical issues of the modern chemical industry and are involved in the process of solving these issues, they will faster adapt to the market and accelerate their career growth.

Young entrepreneurs of Delovaya Rossiya were represented at the meeting by Nikolay Myshyakov, a member of the organization’s Youth Chamber and founder of the AutoHem project, who made his comments and suggestions during the discussion.

According to Mikhail Sutyaginsky, the outcome of the experts' work should be a list of solutions and recommendations for the organization of human resources work for chemical enterprises, which will be presented at the end of October as part of the business program of the Chemistry 2023 industry exhibition.

Back