Industry seeks skilled personnel

The demand for qualified personnel in the maritime and river transport sector exceeds supply, but there is no need to worry about an exodus of experienced, qualified seafarers to foreign flagged ships. The level of training in the industry universities is growing, the businesses still rely on their own training programs.

Universities and Businesses: safe convergence

The demand for skilled personnel on sea and river transport exceeds supply, especially in the case of seafarers. For example, the survey conducted during the 13th International Forum & Expo "Transport of Russia" in Moscow, and heads of leading Russian universities agreed on its results, showed that 80-90% of graduates of educational institutions are employed in the industry.

The Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping Rector Sergei Baryshnikov said that 98% of all graduates of the university find jobs in the industry. According to Sergei Ogai, the Rector of the Maritime State University named after Admiral Nevelskoy, the demand for skilled personnel in shipping sector exceeds supply by 20-25%. It's true for logistics specialists who can easily find jobs, 70% of whom are employed in the segment of maritime logistics.

Although an exodus of Russian seafarers to foreign flagged ships and to foreign shipowners is one of the problems, the head of training center of SCF Group Igor Pankov assures it is not a crucial issue. He says it creates competition between employers, which in itself is positive, and besides, these seafarers would spend a large part of their income in Russia.

Alexander Davydenko, the head of Rosmorrechflot named the gap between science, education and practice as one of the main problems in the field of professional education. The federal agency head believes there is a need for greater integration of education and businesses. At the same time, much in this direction has already been done. Palmali Group's Rauf Aliyev said that his company is working with a number of universities and has its own training classes that allow Palmali to provide students with the necessary training on board the company's ships. Rauf Aliyev says, over the past five years, the quality of training in the industry institutions of Russia has increased significantly.

Sovcomflot is also engaged in recruiting students to its own target learning groups within which they are trained in line with standards of Sovcomflot. After graduating from the university they are quite skilled to start working for the company. Sovcomflot's Igor Pankov is sure that it is reasonable for shipping companies to have their own training programs along with the universities educational courses. For example, students at SCF Group's training center undergo training on the newest equipment, which is not common for universities and which the universities tutors are not familiar with.

Mikhail Nenashev, Deputy Chairman of the Public Council of Rosmorrechflot, believes that it is urgent for the sector's universities to address two major problems: lack of sufficient material and technical base and outdated teaching materials.

In this case the business seeking qualified personnel can give a helping hand and there are examples of such help, when the companies supply class rooms with state-of-the-art equipment and provide modern software.

Presidential adviser and former Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin expressed his belief that education, including practical training at labs must be concentrated in universities and the interested companies should hand over to the universities appropriate equipment. He mentioned the cooperation of Russian Railways with universities as a successful example of such approach. Also, the adviser said, in the future the industry will especially need seafarers capable of working on icebreakers. "The future transit route, the Northern Sea Route, will be developed the guys working on icebreakers," Levitin said.

Anyway, the successful training of specialists for the industry is only possible in the interaction of universities and businesses of the industry. For now, the discussion is focused only on the forms of such cooperation. And further development of this cooperation is a key to future success of the industry. As for the "brain drain" problem, it should only stimulate domestic shipowners to be competitive in the labor market. The very same fact that professionals are employed by foreign shipowners proves itself the high quality of the industry education in the country.

Vitaly Chernov.