The City 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 sectors, improve the quality of training in working professions and vocational education, with consideration for the national and international requirements for professional skills.

Young people from St. Petersburg, as well as from the Leningrad Region, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Veliky Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kazan, Moscow and other cities, and foreign participants from Belarus, Estonia and Finland came to EXPOFORUM to attend the event.

G and H pavilions will host competitions in 86 professions in high demand on the St. Petersburg market, including 40 junior areas of expertise. The championship program includes competitions in 42 areas of expertise, from hotel management to landscape design, and in 24 professions: that of restorer, photographer, rescuer and many others. Juniors compete in 19 areas of expertise: prototyping, graphic design, mechatronics, and more.

More than 500 people aged 16-22 and less than 16 years of age take part in the championship, and the competition includes more than 200 participants.

The opening ceremony of the Young Professionals Contest was attended by Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Sergey Movchan. “EXPOFORUM introduces us to a major event which is very popular,” Mr. Movchan said.

“I am happy that we have the WorldSkills Championship coming to St. Petersburg. This is the event not only for those interested in their future profession or have already selected it; this is also an event for employers, experts and teachers who are looking for employees. Your life is ahead of you; you will be working in production. Let me wish you to choose a profession that you will enjoy for your whole life!” Mr. Movchan noted.

Robert Urazov, General Director of WorldSkills Russia Union, praised the development of the movement in Russia’s Northern Capital.

“We have almost 600 people taking part in the championship. Employers are looking for their employees here. We have submitted an application to host the WorldSkills European Championship in St. Petersburg in 2022. This championship is very important for us,” he stressed.

Anatoly Turchak, President of the St. Petersburg Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, declared that the country needed “intelligent and well-trained professionals.” These competitions, in his opinion, must help create excellent professionals, keeping St. Petersburg a leader in Russia’s economy.

This is a festival of work, intellect, resourcefulness, a true celebration of professionals. Everyone who participates in these competitions has already achieved excellent results, and can compete with experienced workers and skilled professionals,” stressed Zhanna Vorobieva, Chair of the St. Petersburg City Committee for Education. She wished every participant enjoyment in their work and achievement of excellent results.

WorldSkills and Step into Your Career events have been held at the main venue of EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Center for three years already, recalled Elena Ublieva, Deputy General Director of ExpoForum-International for Commerce.

“These young people have a goal and they know where they are headed,” she noted and wished the participants professional growth.

The young participants were also greeted by the best welder in the world, Dmitry Arkhipov, World Champion in Manual Argon-Arc Welding, and specialist from StroyGazConsulting Company from Rybinsk.

Real professional battles will be fought in EXPOFORUM pavilions for all three days of the event. Some competitors will build brick walls, others – pour wine into glasses, still others - do electrical work, paint, build, treat patients, and do programming work.

At the Preschool Education booth, future teachers will have three hours to watch a film, come up with a new storyline and prepare a tour for children based on the material studied; and this will be just one module, a part of the professional task.

In the Dry Construction and Plasterwork section, the participants will be tasked with building a structure of plasterboard in one day. On the second day, they will do the painting and sealing, set up doorways and install plaster moldings. On the third day, they will create a freestyle project on the topic of their choice. Eduard Simonyan, senior foreman at Metrostroy College, noted that taking part in the competition are the students from Metrostroy College and PetroStroyService College.

“We’ll see what they can do,” Mr. Simonyan remarked.

Joiners, carpenters and furniture makers are working nearby. 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. The work projects were organized by Krasnoderevets College of Industry Technologies.

Representatives of Festool, the company manufacturing electrical tools, came to St. Petersburg beforehand to train the contestants. At EXPOFORUM, young professionals will have daily briefings, and will adhere to every safety standard under the watchful eye of the judges.

“Joiners, carpenters and furniture makers are three very different professions. We have just one thing in common, and it is wood,” noted Evgeny Petrov, Chief Foreman of the College.

There are several educational institutions in St. Petersburg that offer training in Restaurant Service. Many visitors found the exhibit dedicated to this major and arranged by the College for Tourism and Hotel Service quite engaging. Visitors can take their place at one of the tables to be served by restaurant service managers. They must know the server’s job, be able to arrange banquet receptions, set tables, and serve dishes. The visitors will be treated to first course, the main course and dessert. Another special skill that they should be able to demonstrate is wine decantation.

On day 2, the venue will host competitors among bartenders (making cocktails), and on day 3 - baristas (making coffee). Alexandra Matveeva, who won first place in the Restaurant Service area of expertise in 2015, now teaches her skill at the College.

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 institutions, and complete a free guidance counseling session with a psychologist. More than 30,000 people are expected to participate.

The WorldSkills Russia movement annually provides in-service training to some 5,000 foremen; annually, a total of 14,000 graduates also complete the state-of-the-art demonstration exam that tests their practical skills. The international WorldSkills movement in Russia is considered to be not only a tool for promoting worker and engineer professions; it is also viewed as a mechanism for improving the quality of professional education.

The events will be held in EXPOFORUM on November 15-17.