Career in gold mining
About 86% of employers in Russia report a shortage of staff. Yulia Andronovskaya , Vice President for Human Resources and Organizational Development at the Polyus gold mining company, tells Plus-one.ru how to simplify access to specialized education and cope with the problem of staff shortages in the long term.
The reality of today is such that businesses have to form a personnel reserve for themselves, starting even before With universities, and since schools. On the faculties specialized in the mining industry, metallurgy, not so many students. Every year the industry faces exodus of youth. Cause – v low awareness of career opportunities in industry. For example, all children know household level, who are lawyers. V then the same time children usually do not imagine what the words “mine surveyor” mean (mining engineer. — Note. Plus-one.ru) or “floater” (specialist in enrichment of natural resources. — Note. Plus-one.ru).
STAGE 1. School
For this reason, together with SibFU (Siberian Federal University), Polyus is conducting a career guidance project in the schools of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: we talk about professions in gold mining in an understandable language. At a career guidance lesson that we held at School No. 21 in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the fall of 2021, schoolchildren saw what ore looks like, learned how many grams of gold are in their smartphone, and learned new interesting facts about the noble metal. It is important that we tell you what qualities you need to have in order to become a real gold miner, get a good salary after graduation from the university and build your career.
The main thing we strive for is for children to expand their horizons and have thoughts about building a career in our industry. We want to show that not only specialists in the humanitarian, IT or creative fields become successful: developers, lawyers, bloggers, musicians. We create our own information environment regarding where and how you can make a career.
Polyus starts working with schoolchildren from the seventh grade. Today, the education system in Russia is built in such a way that the final grades in secondary school determine which direction a child chooses: humanitarian or mathematical. Thus, in the seventh grade, it is necessary to direct the student’s attention towards technical subjects, to show the attractiveness of the mining industry. Then in high school (grades 10-11), the child, having determined the desired direction for himself and knowing what subjects are needed for admission, will study mathematics, chemistry and prepare for admission to a specialized university.
We have the first positive results of career guidance work: Polyus received applications from 867 tenth-graders, 47% of whom are girls, which we are very pleased about. It is usually more difficult for young girls to imagine how to build a career in the extractive industry. This is socially conditioned: first they are read fairy tales about princesses, then they are told how great it is to be a teacher or a doctor. Naturally, girls do not think about professions related to chemistry or physics.
Based on the results of the pilot project in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, we will decide whether we will continue the career guidance project in other regions of our presence: in the Irkutsk Region, Yakutia and the Magadan Territory.
From the Polyus archive
Stage 2. Universities and colleges
The mining industry is challenging in terms of building a career. You can not become a chief engineer immediately after the student’s bench.
At the moment, we are increasing the number of corporate programs and internships for students in our company. We not only support students with a scholarship, but also provide additional knowledge. Already in the fourth year of the university, a student can be employed in a company for an internship. The internship program is designed in such a way that the student can successfully continue his studies at the university and at the same time perform real production tasks: in this way, he consolidates and applies the theoretical knowledge gained at the university. Successful completion of an internship allows you to count on employment upon graduation from the university.
And let’s not forget about internships, which help lay the foundation for a career for students from the extractive industry. About 400 people from all over the country visit it in our company every year. We fully cover the following expenses: flight, meals, accommodation, wages. In the context of the pandemic, we were forced to slow down, but students continue to come to us. We hope that in 2022 there will be even more of them.
From the Polyus archive
Stage 3. Career
At Polyus, all employees have the opportunity for both professional and career development.
For blue-collar employees, we have built a training system for a wide range of professions, based on professional standards matrices, which spell out everything from job functions to employee knowledge and skills. Based on the matrices, we have developed educational and methodological programs consisting of theory and practice. Beginners pass the theory remotely or with the help of teachers of our training and course complexes. The practical, that is, the production part, is already worked out with a mentor directly at the workplace. Mentors at Polyus are our highly qualified workers who have undergone specialized training, who know how to properly adapt a new employee in production and in a team, and effectively prepare a newcomer for work.
Having gained work experience in the profession and showing high results, employees can continue their development in the successor pool training program.
The program helps employees acquire the necessary skills and build a career from the starting position of a foreman to the head of a quarry or gold processing plant. Participants develop managerial and professional competencies, as well as study the specifics of internal processes and procedures.
For managers and specialists with high potential, the company has a talent pool development program. Employees undergo assessment activities, which allows them to build an individual development trajectory and determine focus training programs. The program assumes that line managers are actively involved in the development of the talent pool. As the next career goal, an employee can choose both a managerial and an expert position within the perimeter of the entire Polyus company.