General gathering of future engineers: The first day of the Final of the All-Russian Fuel and Energy Case Solving Championship

On May 28, 2015, the Final started in Moscow at the ZIL Cultural Center The All-Russian Championship for solving fuel and energy cases.

The Final brought together almost 170 future energy engineers, miners and geologists from different parts of the country, from Yakutsk to Karaganda, from St. Petersburg to Magadan.

The first day of the Final was a day of meetings between future colleagues and employers, friends, and the day the participants got to know each other.

An inspiring start to the Final was given by the communication of the youth of the fuel and energy complex with industry veterans – a mining engineer, a former minister of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR By Nikolai Grinko and Honored Power Engineer of the CIS, Chairman of the Coordinating Council of Veterans of the Distribution grid Complex NP "Council of Energy Veterans" By Yuri Zhukov. The guests told the children about the highlights of their life and professional career and answered numerous questions.

The Career Day work program for the finalists continued: Russia's leading mining and energy companies presented their HR policies to future young professionals from 30 regions of Russia and Kazakhstan. A logical continuation of the employers' presentation was the face–to-face communication: in the format of an interview session, the finalists got acquainted with representatives of fuel and energy companies and the mineral resource complex, talked about their professional and personal achievements and found out the prospects for professional and career growth from potential employers.

The conclusion and main intrigue of this day was the issuance of an additional task, which the participants will have only one night to solve before the Final.

The first day of the Final is in the comments of the participants and experts:

Olga Alekseenko, Head of Staff Recruitment and Development
JSC "MHC "EuroChem": "We are participating in the Championship for the second year in a row. We are sure that we will see good results and interesting case solutions today. Employers' demands on university graduates are increasing every year. We expect from the participants of the Finals not only professional knowledge in specialized disciplines, but also proficiency in English, knowledge of various software products, pay attention to the horizons and erudition of the guys, the sparkle in their eyes, and the desire to grow and develop professionally. We expect increased interest from students in JSC MHC Eurochem and hope that the winners of the Championship will be nominated for internships in our company."

Anatoly Fomin, Advisor to the Director of Personnel, Siberian Coal Energy Company: "The Championship is based on a wonderful case study method. On the one hand, this is a game method that really "catches" young people, on the other hand, it is a subject method that focuses on the industry and specific enterprises. In fact, the guys in the framework of the Championship are "playing" in the field in which they want to become professionals. Today we expect to see young people, energetic, willing to influence their fate, who will join the mining industry in the near future. Our task at the Championship is to see the potential of these guys and invite them to join us."

Ivan Belanov, coordinator of the All-Russian Fuel and Energy Case Management Championship at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives: "The Championship for the Agency for Strategic Initiatives − This is one of the landmark projects in the field of engineering personnel training. The championship provides students with the opportunity to solve real production problems at the training stage, meet with employers and gain knowledge by graduation from the university that they would not have previously received. Thanks to this knowledge and experience, young professionals become full-fledged employees without additional training or a long period of adaptation. The main thing in the Championship is a team solution to an educational problem, the ability to assign roles, and the ability to present their ideas to experts. In the process of solving the case, the level of presentation skills increases, students learn to convey and argue their point of view to experts. The ability to perform analytical work intensively, in a very short time, and the ability to identify the latest and most up-to-date information are honed. It is very important that the Championship puts the participants in a competitive environment: working in race mode helps the guys to develop intensively in order to become qualified specialists."

Evgenia Galushkina, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Geology at the Mining and Geological Faculty of the North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Vladikavkaz): "The Championship is a wonderful project that gives participants the opportunity to expand their knowledge, meet colleagues, and reach a new level of communication. It gives them the ability to analyze, extract the right arguments, and find new information. When solving cases, the guys form teams, which unites them and develops them. And a huge incentive for them is the opportunity to win the qualifying stage, come to the Finals in Moscow and see their comrades and colleagues from different regions of Russia."

Alexander Egorov, Associate Professor of the Department of Automated Electrical Systems, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ural Power Engineering Institute, Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg): "The championship allows us to develop the business skills necessary for students, teachers and employers. This is a very progressive platform, unique in that it allows you to make friends with everyone.: universities, teachers, students, enterprises, authorities, allows you to find out the current needs of all these parties and at the same time fill them. The great advantage of the Championship is that students not only present their decisions to the jury, but also compare them with others; this is a competition in all respects: for the quality of the solution, for the depth of study, for the best strategic plan and the most competent economic justification of the project. I expect to see a lot of colorful and contrasting solutions tomorrow. I expect to see feelings, emotions of happiness, maybe disappointment or satisfaction from the well-deserved award. The main thing: I want to see, first of all, the satisfied faces of the students who have already achieved a serious goal by getting to the Finals of the Championship."

Legion team, Northeastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov (Yakutsk): "We are participating in the Championship for the second year. Participation in the Championship gave us the opportunity to put our knowledge into practice, taught us analytical work, the ability to convey our point of view to experts and argue it. The desire to reach the Finals allowed us to unite and become a real team."

RUDN_BT Team, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (Moscow): "The championship is an invaluable experience of communicating with the people we will work with in the future, an opportunity to show our leadership skills. This experience will not pass unnoticed in our lives."

Team: Geologists 05, Sergo Ordzhonikidze Russian State Geological Exploration University (Moscow): «By solving cases, we learn to interact with each other, develop personal skills and abilities, and learn how to work with literature. The companies that I would like to work for participate in the Championship, and it is very valuable that your results are evaluated by people who work directly in production."

The championship is supported by the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

General Partners: JSC "System Operator of the Unified Energy System", JSC "Siberian Coal Energy Company", Micromine company, JSC "MHC "EuroChem", JSC "Siberian Generating Company", EVRAZ company and JSC "Raspadskaya Coal Company", RUSDRAGMET Management Company, LLC "Dasso System Geovia RUS".

Organizers Reliable Change Foundation, the Non-Profit Partnership Youth Forum of Mining Leaders, and the Non-Profit Partnership Russian National Committee of the International Council for Large High Voltage Electrical Systems (RNC CIGRE).

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