Best Young Professionals Selected in Expoforum
On November 28, the 4th Young Professionals (WorldSkills Russia) Open Regional Championship and Step into Your Profession 2018, a city-wide contest for professional skill, started in Expoforum.
The Municipal Committee for Education and the St. Petersburg Palace of Student Youth organized these projects to enhance the prestige of working professions, attract young people to the production sector, improve the quality of training in blue-collar professions and vocational education, with consideration for the national and international requirements for professional skills.
This year, competitions take place in pavilions G and H for 92 competencies in field of construction, information and communications technologies, creative work and design, industrial production, service industry and civil transport maintenance that are the top requested in the labor market and in the economy of St. Petersburg.
Alexander Beglov, Provisional Governor of St. Petersburg, congratulated the contestants at the beginning of the competitions. He noted that the regional championship for professional skill is becoming an event of international scale. Its participants are young people from 17 Russian regions and other countries.
“Today, the prestige of blue-collar professions is being revived. This is good news. True masters have always been held in great respect in our country and our city. Currently, competitions for 92 competencies are held at one venue. And all these professions are highly sought. I’m glad that you’ve found your mission and chosen your future profession,” Alexander Beglov said.
He recalled that at the recent meeting of the Presidential Council for Science and Education, V.V. Putin told about the need to take care of our youth and to create highly-efficient workplaces. “And here we want to show what workplaces they are,” the incumbent head of the city emphasized.
During the city-wide contest for professional skill, competitions are held in accordance with WorldSkills standards by competencies: “IT Solutions for Business on the Platform 1C: Enterprise 8”, “Makeup Design and Stylistics”, “Life Protection Aboard”, “Physical Education, Sports and Fitness”, “Body Repair” and “Handicraft Ceramics”. Additionally, a new competency – “Renovator of Decorative Coloring – is demonstrated for the first time”.
Winners in every category of the Championship will represent the Northern Capital at qualifying Young Professionals (WorldSkills Russia) championships and the WorldSkills Russia National Competition 2019.
Also, the Ticket to the Future Festival of Professions aimed at senior high school students took place for the first time during the Championship. The Federal project is implemented by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. It’s a modern educational venue that operated in the format of professional tryouts and brings together key participants of the labor market: students of grades 8-11, representatives of employers, experts of industry fields and educational organizations. Professional tryouts in St. Petersburg will be held in eight thematic areas: IT and communications, transport, new materials, health, energy, space, tourism and smart city.
On November 28-30, real professional battles will be fought in the Expoforum pavilions: some competitors will build brick walls, others – pour wine into glasses, still others – do electrical work, paint, build, treat patients and do programming work. For example, in the Dry Construction and Plasterwork section participants will be tasked with building a structure of plasterboard in one day. On the second day, they will paint and seal, set up doorways and install plaster moldings. On the third day, they will create a freestyle project in two hours.
Joiners, carpenters and furniture makers are working nearby. The young joiners must make a window frame in 15 hours, furniture makers must make a small table, and carpenters will have 22 hours to build a section of the kissing gazebo.
High-school students who will come to Expoforum will have an opportunity to learn more about different professions, take part in workshops, get information about professional educational establishments, and complete a free guidance counseling session. More than 30,000 people are expected to participate.
The Young Professionals (WorldSkills Russia) movement annually provides in-service training to some 5,000 foremen and lets a total of 14,000 graduates pass the demonstration exam – a tool for final evaluation of their practical skills that meets the latest standards. The international WorldSkills movement in Russia is considered not only a tool for promoting blue-collar and engineering professions, but a mechanism of improving the quality of professional education as well.