President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the creation of the National Center for Personnel and Scientific Support of the Mineral Resources Complex. The new structure was called the “Corps of Mining Engineers”. It will be located on the basis of the St. Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II.
The main task of the center is train specialists at an accelerated pace to close the growing labor shortage in the mining industry. Here they will develop modern educational programs, create educational materials and organize internships for students. A separate area is improving the qualifications of teachers so that they can transfer current knowledge to students.
There are also plans to create a network of technology platforms. These are training grounds, practice bases and demonstration centers where future mining engineers will be able to practice applied skills in conditions close to real ones. In addition, the Corps of Mining Engineers will engage in analytics: it will monitor the industry’s need for specialists, assess the demand for graduates and propose measures to improve the training system.
The need for such a center is confirmed by figures. According to Rosstat, about 1.2 million people worked in the Russian mining industry in 2022. Of these, exactly half – 600 thousand – are blue-collar workers. However, professional associations and enterprises themselves talk about a serious staff shortage: there are approximately 250 thousand workers missing. The new center is designed to systematically solve this problem by uniting efforts of universities, business and government.
The creation of the “Corps of Mining Engineers” will be an important step in strengthening the country’s mineral resource base. The industry will receive a mechanism for the continuous training of qualified personnel capable of working on modern equipment and introducing advanced technologies. This will increase production efficiency and reduce dependence on foreign specialists.
Source: NEDRADV
Image: Outpost North-West
