240,000 people constitute a personnel shortage in the Russian manufacturing industry alone for the next three years. How to systematically address the solution to this problem was discussed at SPIEF 2024 during the “Staff Decide!” session.
“One third of this deficit is made up of engineering personnel and two thirds are representatives of manual professions,” said First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, opening the debate. – Recently, we have observed a powerful flow of personnel from the civil industry to the defense industry. We managed to attract 520 thousand people to the defense industry in a year and a half. But 160,000 people are still needed.
At the same time, the first deputy prime minister noted that the industry needs trained and high-level specialists. The “Professionalism” program helps to train young specialists, in which both vocational training institutes and large companies participate.
– It is important not only how many people will study, but also who will teach. You can build a modern building, buy vocational education. But the question of mentors will arise. That is why today specialists from the client companies themselves actively participate in training,” said Manturov.
In the future, people currently performing contract military service may become sources of personnel for the industry. As Manturov said, according to the results of his communication with the participants of the “Time of Heroes” program, more than three quarters of the respondents expressed their intention to return to the real sector in the future.
Today, vocational education can be obtained not only in state technical schools or colleges, but also in educational institutions organized by large companies. Thus, Mikhail Karisalov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sibur LLC, spoke about the experience of building Sibur-intechs in different regions of the country, as well as the opening of more than 100 chemical classes. He also highlighted the importance of “accelerating learning” in the current environment.
In turn, Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Severstal PJSC, considers it a priority to attract and retain the best personnel, for which it is necessary to create comfortable conditions not only within the production itself, but also outside it.
– Today we pay great attention to the employee welfare policy. This is an emphasis on medical care for employees, assistance in providing accommodation and primary education: the opportunity to go to a gym, take the child to preparatory courses,” Mordashov said.
Commenting on this speech, Denis Manturov noted that if in the 90s companies tended to abandon any social burden, today “everything is returning to normal.” The first deputy prime minister added that it is necessary to foster team spirit in companies, as was the case in Soviet times.
Director of the ASI Center for Youth Initiatives, Alexander Vaino, mentioned three main reasons that aggravate the shortage of personnel in engineering specialties. These are stereotypes about the lack of prestige of this profession, a lack of information about opportunities in this industry and the lack of systematic work on career guidance.
– Of the 300 thousand engineering graduates, today only one sixth will work in their profession. Others choose office work or entrepreneurship,” Vaino said.
Participants in the discussion also noted the importance of robotization and the introduction of other means of increasing labor productivity in production, but noted that this will not help significantly reduce labor shortages.
