South Ural State University has received a request from Mechel Group of Companies to create corporate training programs at the School of Economics and Management. Mechel is one of the world’s leading companies in mining and metallurgy, and it unites over 20 big production enterprises located in 11 regions of Russian and abroad.
According to the signed agreement, SUSU jointly with Mechel will create programs on training Bachelor’s students and students of other academic levels, oriented at working in a big industrial holding. Already while studying students will be acquiring practical skills, which will allow to immediately start working in a company specially created for centralized fulfillment of the accounting functions — Mechel Biznes Servis, LLC.
The request received from the company results from the fact that the region’s big companies came across the lack of qualified economists and accountants on the market who could do professional accounting for the enterprises of metallurgy, calculate the prime cost and perform other economic computations required for the enterprises. But the demand for specialists is not only limited to accountants and economists. Mechel needs managers to work in human resources, programmers, economic security specialists, and others.
The choice of the SUSU School of Economics and Management as a venue for training staff “customized” for the Mechel enterprises is explained by the fact that the most advanced trends in the development of economics are taken into account here in the process of training. In particular, the Department of Accounting, Analysis and Audit at the School of Economics and Management is the only one in our country that is directly involved in developing federal standards in accounting and takes part in the work of the major non-governmental accounting regulator – Accounting Methodological Center Foundation. In this context, corporate academic programs are being created at the SUSU School of Economics and Management to train specialists in:
- Accounting, Analysis and Audit;
- Information Technologies in Economics;
- Labour Economics and Human Resources Management;
- Industrial Economics and Project Management; and
- Economic Security.
Experience of Training Economics Specialists for Mechel
For a long time now South Ural State University has been collaborating with Mechel Group of Companies regarding the issues of internship and employment for students of engineering specialities; however, joint work in economics is pretty recent. In December of 2017, Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works (ChMK) — one of the region’s major enterprises being part of Mechel Group of Companies — signed an agreement with the SUSU School of Economics and Management on training economists, managers, and accountants capable of improving the production efficiency. Head of the ChMK Personnel Development Department Ramil Rakhmankulov shares on the necessity of such interaction:
“Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works holds a special place in our region and influences the economics of the Chelyabinsk Region, and that is what distinguishes ChMK from other enterprises. That is why our interaction with SUSU is required in order to develop not only our plant and the university, but our region on the whole.”
The agreement signed by Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Andrey Radionov and Head of the Human Resources Department of PJSC ChMK Aleksey Bakanov implied organizing internships at the plant’s economic services, consulting students on the issues of their research activity, in particular, helping them with determining relevant topics of scientific research, as well as participating in the work of state examination boards and defending graduation qualification works.
“Signing the agreement on collaboration with an enterprise is an important event both fort the School of Economics and Management, and for the plant itself. For students, it is a priceless experience which they can gain during educational practical training and internship, at master classes held by professionals, at conferences and round tables. In its turn, Mechel can choose from students those they wish to engage in their work,” notes Director of the SUSU School of Economics and Management, Professor Irina Savelyeva.
In the course of the past semester the students of the School of Economics and Management actively learned about the peculiarities of work of economists and accountants at the enterprise, participated in the excursions around the plant and meeting with its representatives, as well as were invited to work in the ChMK’s economic and accounting subdivisions.
New Level of Interaction between Mechel Group and SUSU
Based on the results of collaboration of Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works with SUSU, and considering the high level of training accountants and economists, agreements have been made for a closer collaboration during the next academic year.
“The new agreement with Mechel Group of Companies implies a deeper involvement of the employers in the educational process. We are happy that this interaction starts not with administrative decisions, but with voluntary and mutually beneficial principles of collaboration, what is always more efficient. This collaboration is based on the real demands of both the enterprise and the university, since the university also gains benefits here — we have an opportunity to practically guarantee job placement for our graduates who will be willing to work at the enterprise. We believe that will attract promising school graduates to us, who are willing to stay in our city and study here while being occupied at an interesting job and gaining professional experience very attractive for their future career,” stresses Irina Prosvirina, Head of the Department of Accounting, Analysis and Audit.
The agreement implies approving the academic disciplines programs with the company’s specialists, jointly developing training cases, business games and other events based on the company’s materials for increasing the level of practice orientation for the academic program. Moreover, the document implies the enterprise’s participation in scientific activity: research trends and topics of graduation qualification works will be determined jointly with the company’s representatives. Mechel’s specialists will be members of the state examination boards. Certain students will be engaged to participate in projects and solutions for the company’s professional tasks.
“We are ready to bring the content of the academic disciplines programs in compliance with the company’s needs, introduce a number of disciplines which will be reflecting the specifics of metal working. Also, we are ready to organize programs of supplementary education reflecting the specifics of metal working in the field of accounting, reporting, forming primary cost of products, and other managerial aspects, which are fulfilled through accounting functions,” shares Irina Igorevna. “The School of Economics and Management is also interested in the fact that our collaboration will be interdepartmental. Thus, to successfully fulfill accounting functions at the modern level, very good knowledge of information technologies and professional software is required. That is why we will be involving colleagues from other departments for the training process. Possibly, we will create other areas of collaboration, which will become innovations in the field of education.”
It is planned that the graduates who successfully master the Bachelor’s, Master’s programs and Supplementary Education programs will have a chance to undergo job-placement interviews by the company’s specialists, which will be held directly at the university. Already this June the experience has brought good results: students whose research studies made an impression were invited to work in the Mechel Group of Company’s new structure right after they passed their state exams and defended their graduation qualification works, and several people started working right after they were awarded their diplomas.