Rostov-on-Don, May 17. The Aluminium Association plans to implement a set of projects to support and promote engineering education for the aluminium industry. Extending the cooperation with leading universities of the country was the key topic at the past working meeting of Valentin Trishchenko, Chairman of the organisation, with representatives of the South Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI) and Don State Technical University (DGTU).
In recent 15 years, Russia implemented a number of major projects to construct advanced factories and production facilities, in particular, for metal processing and production of new finished products. Therefore, the industry has a stable deficit of skilled personnel that cannot be covered through own programmes of companies to train young specialists. Today, production facilities of the industry employ 200,000 people, while by 2025 the headcount may increase by additional 150,000 people due to implementing the programme to double the production of high value added aluminium products. To enable Russian students to learn a profession that will be demanded even in several years, domestic universities are to pay higher attention to requests of employers and develop, among other things, deeper skills-raising and additional education programmes.
With support of the Aluminium Association, students will be able to see at early stages of their studies a high potential of aluminium productions, advanced equipment, innovative technologies and materials applied in most sectors of the industry, including construction, automotive, aircraft engineering and other industries. Such opportunities will be presented, in particular, at relevant forums, workshops and thematic contests.
'Opportunities of aluminium and new emerging alloys on its basis allows using the metal more actively in various industries. Today, aluminium is applied in power, construction, agriculture and water treatment – its application area is regularly expanding. The deficit of highly skilled staff for the industry is a priority task that we intend to accomplish together with our partners from engineering universities of the country,' said Valentin Trishchenko.