CASE-IN fills the personnel gap: a new season of the prestigious engineering championship has been launched

The new XIII season of the International Engineering CASE-IN Championship, which is supported by the presidential platform "Russia — the land of opportunities", starts on February 04, 2025. Schoolchildren, students and young professionals will once again create unique developments for key areas of Russia and will have great opportunities for personal and professional growth. The authors of the best ideas traditionally receive valuable prizes — additional USE points, paid internships, and prospects for starting and continuing a career.

The aim of the project is to popularize engineering and technical education and train specialists for companies in the fuel and energy and mineral resource complexes, the nuclear industry and related industries. The main theme of this year's championship will be "Technological Innovations".

Commenting on the start of the new season, Gennady Guryanov, Deputy General Director of ANO "Russia — the Land of Opportunities" He emphasized the demand for engineering specialists.

"In three years, the demand for engineers has increased 2.5 times. The CASE-IN championship has become an effective tool for forming the personnel reserve of companies in the fuel and energy complex and related industries. Thus, according to the project, 90% of school-age participants enrolled in specialized universities, and a third of them used the additional USE points provided by the championship. Among the students, 30% of the participants received invitations to practice. 42% of young professionals have been promoted at work during the year", — said the Deputy General Director of ANO "Russia — the land of opportunities" Gennady Guryanov.

State Secretary — Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia Anastasia Bondarenko She noted that the championship is aimed at increasing the attractiveness of energy and the entire fuel and energy complex in the eyes of young people.

«The Ministry has consistently supported the CASE-IN championship because it sees it as an effective tool for popularizing fuel and energy industries and training future industry leaders.. Since its foundation, it has become an important platform for supporting talented youth in the fuel and energy sector. Its value lies in the fact that it has a "cross–cutting" character - it unites schoolchildren, students and young professionals and provides them with a unique opportunity to solve real production tasks. Participation in the championship helps young people to go beyond everyday life and immerse themselves in a competitive environment, to look at the industry not only with their own eyes, but also with the eyes of their rivals, and also opens up new perspectives, allowing participants to express themselves and attract the attention of the employer.", — stressed Anastasia Bondarenko.

Since 2013, the championship has brought together more than 120,000 schoolchildren, students and young professionals in Russia and neighboring countries. He is included in the Science to Win initiative and the plan The Decade of Science and Technology, which takes place in Russia in 2022-2031. 

Artyom Korolev, founder and Co-chairman of the organizing committee of the CASE-IN Championship I drew attention to the practice-oriented tasks that the partners of the championship had prepared for the participants.

"The industries in which our participants compete are not only the basis of the country's economic security, but also the areas where innovations are created and developed. That is why the next season of the CASE-IN will be dedicated to the theme "Technological Innovation". It is important that all the tasks that the participants solve are not theory, but real practical engineering cases of Russian industry leaders.", " He told me Artem Korolev.

Competitions are held in three age categories: among schoolchildren, students and young professionals.

Students in grades 9-11 will be united by a School league. Students in grades 9-11 will receive tasks on engineering and technical creativity: the result of their work will be layouts, digital drawings, digital projects in the format of modeling, 3D printing, IT solutions, etc.  High school teams (grades 9-11) cases from the SIBUR partner company will be solved.

The Student League is traditionally distinguished by its scale — in the new season, in-person qualifying stages will be held in 83 specialized universities, and students from more than 200 universities will take part in them. There are 11 industry areas in this league: architecture, design, construction, and housing and communal services; biotechnology; geological exploration; mining; mining machinery and equipment; metallurgy; petrochemistry; oil and gas; electric power; design engineering; thermal power engineering.

The participants of the League of Young Professionals, without interrupting their direct duties, will try to develop solutions on topics relevant to the Russian industry. It is planned that their initiatives will help employers improve their production performance.

The victorious students will receive additional points for the Unified State Exam upon admission to 108 specialized partner universities of the project. The winners in student areas will receive preferential conditions for admission to master's and postgraduate programs at 30 partner universities of the championship and paid internships in companies with the possibility of further employment. Champions and prize-winners of the League of Young Professionals receive opportunities for career growth and the implementation of their project in production. In addition, the authors of the best ideas will be able to go to industry youth educational forums and shifts.

CASE-IN is supported by 170 major partners, from federal agencies to companies in the fuel and energy and mineral resources complexes, the nuclear industry, construction and other industries: the Ministry of Energy of Russia, the Ministry of Construction of Russia, the Ministry of Labor of Russia, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, the Ministry of Education of Russia, JSC United Energy System System Operator, Metropolis Company, PJSC ROSSETI, SIBUR, ALROSA, PJSC RusHydro, JSC UC RUSAL, OMK, LLC Gazprom Energoholding, SEZ Alabuga, PJSC Yakutsk Fuel and Energy Company, LLC NPO TN-Biotech, LLC Siberian Generating Company, PJSC T Plus", EVRAZ and others. The partners of the championship prepare assignments for the participants based on real production situations, and their key specialists act as experts and evaluate the decisions of the teams at the qualifying stages and in the finals.

Pavel Ivanov, Director of Projects at Metropolis counts: "The young specialists who have passed through the CASE-IN championship and become our colleagues are distinguished by their professionalism, high learning ability and a good understanding of the specifics of working in projects. We are always ready to support talented students, and this year we are preparing a case study that meets current market demands, in particular for the design of tourist infrastructure facilities. This season's case involves the development of a concept for a tourist complex in a natural area."

Anna Kosurina, Head of the HR Management Project at JSC "Alabuga Special Economic Zone She noted that the purpose of the season is not only to create and implement high—tech solutions, but also to develop the competencies of the participants, their professional growth and the training of qualified specialists for companies and the industry as a whole. "In turn, the Alabuga SEZ provides unique opportunities to realize the potential of its participants, including internships, internships and a Leadership program aimed at developing managerial skills, as well as training at Alabuga Polytech to train specialists in advanced areas."

Danil Rasskazov, Director of Human Resources at SIBUR comments on: "Thanks to the development of technological innovations, the working professions have undergone a significant transformation, which last year we reflected in the new term "turquoise collars". Due to the penetration of technology, project management, entrepreneurship and innovation into these professions, the tasks of a worker in an enterprise go beyond the usual functions: he understands IT, product economics, and all analytics, and he has interesting ideas. Therefore, modern workers are innovators engaged in intellectual work. An engineer of the future is a technologically savvy, highly qualified specialist capable of managing complex modern equipment. To ensure that young employees fit this image, this year at the CASE-IN championship we focused tasks on technological modeling, a skill that allows us to design and improve production processes with an emphasis on business cost—effectiveness. It is innovations that become the basis of such efficiency, and without them it is impossible to achieve high margins."

Andrey Glazkov, Head of the HR Department of PJSC Tatneft He spoke about the importance of biotechnologies, which the new direction of the Student League is dedicated to.: "Biotechnologies give an impetus to the development of new technologies in leading areas: geological exploration, petrochemistry, oil production and refining, etc. Biotechnology today is a super—technological industry that solves the challenges of the future. These are the tasks that interdisciplinary teams will work on at the championship. During the work on our case, future biotechnologists will learn how to collect and burn carbon dioxide on experimental developments and learn what products can be produced using biotechnology. We will give them the opportunity to come up with new technologies and put their ideas into practice. We hope that our direction will develop and be supplemented with new cases, and the decisions of the contestants will become a springboard for the development of key industries in Russia."

Photo by TASS