Personnel training, in all likelihood, becomes «the work of the drowning people themselves,» that is, the construction business. On the one hand, this is, of course, understandable. Construction companies today are almost 100% private and the tasks related to the training of specialists, the development of requirements, training programs of professional standards are able to solve independently, investing money in the production base and in the organization of the educational process.
The state of the personnel problem in construction can be described not as a «shortage», but as a «personnel shortage».
Builders are sounding the alarm: professional institutions do not have either the material base or a strong teaching staff to train specialists that meet modern requirements. What remains is the mentoring system. However, there are a number of problems here too..
“Due to the specifics of construction, there is often no time to teach specialties in the course of work,” says Lidia Barminova, director of the personnel and organizational development department of the St. Petersburg Real Estate Corporation. — On the other hand, there is nowhere to take specialists. And not only workers, but also engineers. Universities provide theoretical, often very outdated training «.
A vicious circle arises.
According to Boris Budanov, a member of the Presidium of the National Federation of Vocational Education, head of the KNAUF training center, the existing legislation does not give any privileges at least in taxation for enterprises that provide places for industrial practice. So the trainees are mainly busy with garbage collection and other uninteresting things, which indirectly discourages their desire not only to study a specialty, but also to work in general on a construction site..
“The association of brick factories Pobeda LSR has been helping those few vocational schools of the city that have retained (or resumed) the training of construction workers over the past few years,” says Sergey Solovyov, Advisor to the manager of the Pobeda LSR brick association. — And we face great difficulties. Here are just a few of them..
Firstly, despite our support in vocational guidance of school graduates, it is very difficult for schools to recruit at least one study group, for example, in the specialty “bricklayer”. Unfortunately, our working professions are not prestigious in general, and construction in particular. Even despite the fact that a skilled builder earns much (sometimes three to four times) more than the average salary. This is the case in all developed countries. But which of our youth knows about it ‘Who told them about it’
Secondly, the unwillingness of builders to help vocational schools should be noted. And they can be understood. The main argument: “Who needs children at the construction site?” Indeed, most of the teachers are not yet 18 years old. This means that numerous restrictions come into force, and, goodbye, full-fledged practice. Another argument: anyway, they will go to the army, and then…. Experience shows that the majority of those who quit the ranks of the Armed Forces do not work in their previously acquired specialty. It would seem that it is necessary to transfer the center of gravity of vocational guidance work to the military registration and enlistment offices and to involve “demobels” in obtaining construction professions. But there is another problem here. Most of those who have served already have primary vocational education. Second, they are not supposed to be trained at the expense of the state. And the majority of job seekers are not yet ready to pay for obtaining blue-collar jobs. «.
The way out, according to Sergei Solovyov, is in the adoption of a state program for training personnel for the construction industry of St. Petersburg, following the example of a similar program adopted for shipbuilding. Of course, it is easier for three shipyards to unite to lobby their interests than dozens of relatively small construction companies. But the construction industry is also considered one of the priorities. And if the construction community manages to achieve the adoption of such a program, there will be funds for mass vocational guidance and promotion of blue-collar occupations, the possibility of retraining adults at the expense of the budget, solving other, no less painful problems of primary vocational education..
So, we see the desire of the construction business community to take the solution of personnel problems into their own hands. There is no need to count on government support; large companies will be forced to create their own training base, «growing» specialists for themselves.
And yet, in our opinion, an economically sound vector should be set for these processes. And here it is hardly possible to do without the «leading and guiding» role of the state..
Comments (1)
General Director of OJSC «Educational Plant» Natalia Troitskaya
Purchasing modern construction equipment is not cheap. Therefore, we decided to find partners, those with whom it would be possible to provide training for operators, taking into account all modern requirements. Such a partner was the AKROS company, which provided almost all types of equipment for organizing training: excavators and loaders, bulldozers, and rollers, asphalt pavers, and road milling machines from leading manufacturers.
Our educational complex takes part in the international program «Adaptation of vocational education systems to modern conditions», according to which we have been working for the second year. We try to adhere to the requirements that involve not only the participation of production in the provision of equipment, but also in the involvement of enterprise specialists as teachers, consultants in the preparation of programs and their changes. We are restructuring the methodology for conducting theoretical and practical exams. With an emphasis on practice, we would like to invite representatives of the AKROS company to participate in the examination committee..
General Director of LLC «Akros-Ecology» Leonid Glovatsky
Requirements for a specialist are dynamically changing today. This is due to the rapid pace of technology improvement, the need to process large volumes of operational information, in a rapidly changing economic and industrial situation. Often the reason for unsatisfactory results is precisely the lack of related knowledge, which is extremely valuable for the well-coordinated work of various departments..
Vasiliev Sergey