The global recruitment of the conquerors of the north has begun

The CASE-IN International Engineering Championship, a competition for solving engineering problems, united this year by the theme of Arctic development, is marching through universities in Russia and the CIS countries. It is supported by the Ministries of Energy and Education of the Russian Federation. The final will be held in Moscow. The winners will not only receive valuable prizes, but will also enter the international stage of the championship.

One of the qualifying stages of the student league took place within the walls of St. Petersburg University of Economics: using the initial data of a fictional Arctic oil field, the participants of the competition had to plan its development, ensure the activities and accommodation of staff, as well as transportation of extracted raw materials.

The choice of the Arctic theme is explained simply:

"There is an instruction from the president on advanced training for the development of the Arctic and northern territories, and the championship is organized within its framework., – explains Artem Korolev, Director of the Foundation for educational Projects "Reliable Shift", representative of the Federal Committee of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN", – We show the guys that there are prospects, that there are real projects that companies have already started implementing. 5,000 students from all over Russia and the CIS countries will take part in the championship. Surely someone will be interested and decide to realize themselves in this direction.".

What do the guys get from participating in the project? Since it takes place in close cooperation with industry experts, internships, internships, and employment are possible in the future.

"Our capabilities have allowed us to link our fate with any company since we were students, – tells Artem, - you remember very well that recently it was extremely difficult for university graduates to find a job. Now we come to visit the students, with all our infrastructure and government support, they just have to prove themselves. The result is quite decent prospects: 80 percent of the participants left with interesting offers after the final.".

Even the qualifying round of the championship is of great interest to the mining industry: Gazprom Neft specialists were among the jury members.

"The Arctic is one of the most complex but incredibly promising areas of development, and naturally Gazprom Neft has plans to develop it.: These are both scientific research and geological surveys. In particular, the Prirazlomnaya platform is working well – we are confidently moving forward, and at a fairly high pace., – tells Andrey Izmailov, Head of Energy Department at Gazprom Neft, – the cases that the guys analyzed are one of the options for the development of the situation."

Why is the Ministry of Energy so attentive to such projects? From Andrey Izmailov's point of view, this is a kind of multi-stage selection of personnel for the near future. Moreover, he is confident that the solutions offered by young people during the competitions should not be "thrown away".:

"The ideas of the contestants may be somewhat naive due to lack of experience, but sometimes they are much more free and original than those of experienced specialists.", – notes Head of the Energy Department.

The important point is that industry representatives are really interested in new personnel.

"We are carefully looking at the students, we are interested in them., – highlights Andrey Mikhailovich, – in fact, these programs, supported by the Ministry of Energy, are aimed at updating the industry".

It turns out that the oil industry is experiencing a shortage of personnel? It looks like it is. In any case, human resources are not getting younger, and industry experts are clearly focusing on young people in the development of the North.

"As practice shows, in our industry, a ready-made specialist who moves from one oil company to another is already "sharpened" for a certain type of work.- explains our interlocutor, - accordingly, he needs to adapt first, partly retrain. It is much more effective to prepare specialists for yourself in advance. Large companies that think about their development select staff for themselves both at school and at the university. This approach is the future".

Evening St. Petersburg