On April 10th the Praise to Men of Labour! contest on engineering competences wrapped up at South Ural State University. This year, the participants of the final stage included representatives of five regions of the Ural Federal District: the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk Regions, and Khanty-Mansijsk Autonomous District, 21 people in total.
The project is fulfilled at the support from the envoy of the President of the Russian Federation in the Ural Federal District Igor Kholmanskikh. Every year this contest of professional mastery gathers a large number of young people and determines their quality of knowledge, skills, and abilities in technical specialties.
On the final day, while waiting for the contest results, the participants went on an excursion to the Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant. They were shown the Vysota 239 white metallurgy workshop. 239 meters is the height of the geographical point where the workshop is located. It matches the height of the southern part of the Urals mountains range above the sea level. The area of the workshop is equal to 15 football fields. Here, they manufacture large-diameter pipes for oil and gas pipelines.
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Vysota 239 is the first Russian white metallurgy project – modern metallurgical manufacturing based first of all on production automation and high level of technology.
“The plant, of course, was great! I was most surprised by the automated production – human labor has been minimized. White metallurgy is impressive. I also liked the contest itself, of course. For me the most important part of this is communicating with colleagues and exchanging information. You can’t get this from reading books or downloading things off the internet. This experience cannot be replaced by anything,” says Mikhail Mikhailov, participant from Tyumen, sharing his feelings.
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After the Vysota 239 workshop, the participants of the Praise to Men of Labour! contest returned to South Ural State University for the awards ceremony held in the Activity Hall.
The SUSU Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Georgiy Anokhin, opened the special concert, after that the audience watched a video diary of the Praise to Men of Labour 2018 contest.
The Rector of South Ural State University Aleksandr Shestakov greeted the contest participants.
“Today the contest came to its end and showed the qualifications of both young and experienced design engineers. The level of work that they demonstrated is growing. Unfortunately, not all the participants can be given prizes and awards, but all of them are actual winners and successful engineers of the present and the future.”
The formal part of the ceremony included awarding the winners of the Praise to Men of Labour! contest. The winner in the Professional Engineers category was a lecturer from the SUSU Department of Theoretical Basics of Electrical Engineering Nikolay Neustroev. His project on Development of a High-powered Generator was created as an part of development work for PJSC KAMAZ.
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The winner in the Engineering Arts of the Young category was a staff member of the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin Vladimir Podgorbunskikh. He delivered a project on Development of a Finish Modular Hob Cutter with Replaceable Carbide Blades. This development is necessary for quick and accurate cutting of cogged wheels.
“This contest shows how technology is developing in our country and makes it possible for people from various regions of Russia to show the level of modern industry. The most important thing is that everything that we have done has given us, our parents, and our children a chance to be proud of us. This is my second time participating in the Praise to Men of Labour! contest, but last year I did not win any prizes. I worked very hard this year and I’m glad that I won.”
Creative groups from the SUSU Center of Creativity performed at the awards ceremony.
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At the end of the event, the prize winners took a group photo and congratulated one another on their victories.
In 2012, the Praise to Men of Labour! contest earned approval and support from the President of Russia. The Head of the State issued an instruction to use the experience of the Ural Federal District and consider a possibility of holding similar contests in other federal districts. In 2015, the contest gained the status a federal one.
The project includes a number of events aimed at changing the labour market situation in the context of a serious deficit of qualified skilled workers. It aims at changing public opinion on the role and status of a man of labour, raising the prestige of labor-based specialties and highly-qualified labor, and attracting young people with new mode of thinking into the production sphere.