The issue of preparing workers for modern employers has not lost its importance and relevance. The largest employers typically solve the issue of graduates’ under-preparedness for the business’ real needs by creating corporate universities, the goal of which is to teach the missing knowledge, and sometimes re-teach university graduates.
Today, the law has presented employers a chance to evaluate graduates’ preparedness using a mechanism of professional accreditation.
The state corporation Roscosmos has developed and tested a method of professional accreditation for academic programs in the area of rocket technology and cosmic activities in 2016.
One of the most important academic organizations for training staff for companies affiliated with the Roscosmos state corporation is the branch of South Ural State University in Miass, at which the expert team from Profaccredagentsvo completed an accreditation visit.
The expert team include experts from the academic society – the head of the SM-12 Department “Technologies of Space Rocket Mechanical Engineering” from Bauman Moscow State Technological University, doctor of technical science and doctor of pedagogical science Andrey Galinovskiy; from employers – engineer and constructor of the first category from the design and construction division of V.P. Makeev State Rocket Center AO, Anton Kozikov.
The goal of the accreditation evaluation of the academic program “Design, construction, and operation of rockets in space rocket centers” was to receive information allowing them to verify how well the quality and level of training of the program’s graduates match the requirements of the professional standards “Rocket engineer and constructor,” “Engineer and constructor in the dynamics and strength of machines in the aerospace industry”, and more.
“Completing the professional accreditation procedure is quite difficult, throughout the visit, experts hold a series of interviews with various participants of the academic process, including employers,” notes the secretary of the Accreditation Council of Roscosmos Inna Kuzmina.
In completing the evaluation of the program at SUSU’s Miass branch, the leadership Makeev SRC AO were invited to interviews and gave their objective evaluation of the training level of graduates of the program under consideration.
During the accreditation visit, the experts noted the high level of the branch’s modern equipment, the coordinated work among teaching staff, and good reviews of graduates of the program.
The current system of organizing the academic process for the program “Design, construction, and operation of rockets in space rocket centers” deserves special attention – all of the practical lessons, and a large part of specialized courses, are held by specialists working at Makeev SRC AO, which allows them to form the professional skills needed for successful work in companies of the space rocket industry among students. In addition, the experts note that the program’s modern contents, in which the convergence of the employer and academic organization’s requirements was noted, allows for the prediction of higher quality education in the future.
According to the program’s head, head of the department of Applied Mathematics and Rocket Dynamics Vladimir Kiselev, the key to successful work is the close ties between the educational organization and Makeev SRC AO, which is shown in the multiple joint participation in contest of the Russian Ministry of Science, Training Staff for R&D. Victory in the competition of infrastructural projects in 2015 with a prize of 67 million rubles allowed for the foundation of quality training of practically-oriented specialists to be created.
The head of the SUSU Miass Branch, doctor of technical sciences, professor Igor Voynov expressed his appreciation to the members of the expert team for their high level of professionalism and competence in completing the evaluation.
“It’s very important that we looked at ourselves from the side and now we know what we still need to work on. After all, Miass is the city of rocket scientists!” noted the branch director.