A round table devoted to the launch of Student support programme for talented youth was held under the aegis of Nika-Tera sea terminal (Nika Tera Specialized Seaport LLC is a part of Group DF), which initiated the programme. Representatives of the Department of education, science and youth of the Mykolayiv State Region Administration, Mykolayiv regional employment centre, Mykolayiv institutions of higher education participated in development and discussion of the Student programme.
Support for education is one of the priority areas in corporate social responsibility of Group DF’s businesses. The programme initiated by Nika-Tera is aimed to support and prepare specialists required by the economy.
Anna Kaskova, acting director of the Department of education, science and youth, emphasized that Nika-Tera and the department cooperate for a long time. Over past few years the terminal aids boarding school #2, Shipbuilding vocational high school and others. Besides, Nika-Tera engages educational institutions of Korabelny district and Mykolayiv in Clean city-district-microdistrict social ecological project.
“This means that the business is socially responsible. Management of some organizations and companies due to lack of staff often propose something which is interesting at first sight. But when the situation gets better, our cooperation comes to the end. Nevertheless, here we see that the company is highly socially responsible. We understand that graduates who will work at Nika-Tera will have social protection. Indeed, there is a need in our cooperation, and we have a basis for it,” Anna Kaskova said.
Oleksandr Gaidu, Chairman of SSP Nika Tera LLC, mentioned that only synergy between educational institutions, businesses and the government can solve the problem of training required specialists. To accomplish this task, an employer needs conditions for recruiting needed specialists. On the other hand, an educational institution should have a field for students’ practical training and estimation of their skills and competences. Oleksandr Gaidu introduced his own real life example. When he was a student, he underwent internship in the bank and according to its results obtained his first job there.
Olena Dymchyshyna, director of Mykolayiv regional employment centre, said that there is imbalance between demand and supply on the labour market. “Even if we have an order for workers with technical education, it is difficult to find and select them. Today almost none of them are registered in the centre. Youth chooses specialties mainly in humanities. However, market’s demands are constantly changing. Youth should approach career choice a little bit differently. The enterprises and businesses should contribute to this process,” Olena Dymchyshyna said.
Anatoly Petrov, deputy director of the seaport, mentioned that senior students of technical specialties and future specialists of engineering and technical staff can participate in the Student programme supported by Department of education, science and youth of the Mykolayiv State Region Administration. To take part in the programme, a student should fill out a form on the company’s website www.nikatera.com [1].
The programme consists of a few stages. The first stage is testing participants. It includes receiving references from the educational institution regarding the most promising students and conducting interviews. The second stage opens absolutely new opportunities for the participants. The company undertakes a commitment to provide them with training places, conditions and basis for writing research papers and diploma thesis. It will allow students to investigate deeply the subject on the practical side. At the third stage the company is ready to offer the best students to employ in one of its business units or assign them in the candidate pool.
Representatives of the universities – Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Vasyl Sukhomlynsky National University of Mykolayiv, Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University – shared their experience in cooperation with other companies and problems in training specialists. The Student programme will include not only internships and pre-graduation internships but also various workshops, meetings with the company’s experts, lectures and seminars.
“Human resources is a basis and companies can’t implement fully the most ambitious plans without it. The new generation of specialists should have up-to-date knowledge, know foreign languages and establish the world-class port infrastructure. This is the aim of Nika-Tera’s educational programme,” Oleksandr Gaidu summed up.
Earlier Group DF announced an implementation of the new programme for training specialists with higher and vocational secondary education for fertilizer and titanium businesses. New approach implies that educational institutions will train specialists exceptionally according to previously agreed professions profiles. Profession Profile describes in detail competence, skills and knowledge of the professional who is trained by the educational institution for the company.
Overall, Group DF`s businesses have already signed agreements for specialists training with 21 Ukrainian higher educational institutions. Universities, which implement new system of personnel training according to professional standards, include National Technical University ‘Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute’, National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (Luhansk), National University ‘Lviv Polytechnic’, Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology (Dnipropetrovsk).
Agreements for specialists training provide different kinds of cooperation between an enterprise, a student and an educational institution. The cooperation involves carrying out common scientific investigations, conducting practical trainings for students, managing thesis, teaching specialty disciplines by leading experts of the enterprise.
OSTCHEM, which includes Nika-Tera terminal, became one of the partners in STEM: Professions of the Future, a pilot European project. The project aims to promote engineering and technical specialties and involve talented youth in chemical industry enterprises.