Round table at SPbGASU
As part of the Career Day, SPbGASU held a round table "Employers and universities. Trends and prospects" on 20 March. Its participants discussed what is needed to train specialists who best meet modern industry requirements.
Opening the meeting, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy Marina Malyutina said that holding a round table had become a tradition: it is important for the university to receive feedback from partners.
The proven partnership
Marina Viktorovna presented a letter of gratitude to Nanosoft LLC and personally to the director of programs for the development of interaction with educational organizations "Nanosoft Development" Oleg Egorychev. "We express our deep gratitude for your active participation in organizing the "SPbGASU Career Day" and training personnel for the construction industry. We greatly appreciate your contribution to the development of professional competencies of students," the letter says.
In his response, Oleg Egorychev emphasized that SPbGASU was a long-standing, kind and informative partner of Nanosoft. Together with the university, the company recently held two free educational courses on "Digital modeling in construction". The company plans to hold the next course, as well as organize retraining of teachers from other universities at SPbGASU.
Oleg Olegovich said that Nanosoft contributed to solving the tasks set by the head of state - to achieve technological sovereignty, to transfer all sectors of the economy, including engineering, to domestic software. The company provides its software free of charge to universities, colleges and comprehensive schools; systematically and massively conducts training of the universities staff, teachers and mentors of colleges, teachers of comprehensive schools in the use of software. "Because the entry point to any educational process is not licenses at all. These are the teachers, lecturers, mentors who lead this educational process," he noted.
Mutual benefit
Marina Malyutina spoke in detail about the cooperation of SPbGASU with partners. The university practices traditional, well-proven forms of interaction: open lectures, seminars, master classes from specialists, excursions to enterprises, career days and job fairs. This also includes the work of company specialists as external part-time workers and members of the State Examination Commission, industrial practice, providing topics for course projects and final qualification works, access to knowledge bases.
At the same time, innovative methods are being introduced: case championships, competitions with expert consultations. The most famous of them is the student TIM championship.
Later, the university began to extend this format to secondary vocational education institutions, colleges, and schools, motivating students to enroll in SPbGASU by selecting target applicants.
Another new form introduced last year is mini-courses from partners. The university sees a certain gap between the competencies of graduates and those competencies that are in demand on the labor market. In order to reduce this gap, the university offers partners to conduct small special courses from specialists of companies that "customize" students. The courses are voluntary, the topic is a product approach, project activities.
Marina Malyutina expressed confidence that technological sovereignty is achieved in various ways, including by cultivating innovative entrepreneurial thinking in young people. Since last year, the university has joined the Startup as a Diploma program and has become a participant in the TechnoPiter accelerator. Third place in this program was taken by an SPbGASU student, who received 200 thousand rubles as a reward.
SPbGASU expects mentors and experts from companies in the context of developing technological entrepreneurship. In addition, the university invites companies to place their symbols, information stands, and videos on how a future specialist can realize themselves in the university buildings.
Targeted training
The Vice-Rector for Youth Policy also focused on targeted training. The audience learned that targeted training comes in two forms: by quota - only for companies with state participation, and not by quota - for any company, including individual entrepreneurs.
Under the quota, the contract is concluded at the admission stage. There is a separate competition for such applicants. The training is conducted at the expense of the state budget. After admission, the company pays the students a scholarship. But there are risks and difficulties here: the company cannot choose a specific student. In the event of the student being expelled or the employer refusing to employ him, the party that has not fulfilled its obligations pays a fine in the amount of the cost of training.
A contract for non-quota training can be concluded at any stage of study. There are various options for paying for training - at the expense of the student, the company, at the expense of the state budget, if the contract is concluded with a student studying on a budget place. The positive effect for the company is that it is possible to choose a specific student: look at his academic performance, the topic of term papers and understand how suitable he is. The university is ready to help in this choice. There are fewer risks in this case: the student is already profiled, motivated, he is a target by definition, the probability of his expulsion is small. The company can provide him with support measures. Fines are paid in the same cases as with targeted training under a quota.
At SPbGASU, quota-based targeted training is coordinated by the Admissions Committee, while non-quota-based training is coordinated by the Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career.
Project-based training
First Vice-Rector Svetlana Golovina emphasized: SPbGASU stands for practical orientation, but this entails some difficulties. Students start working from the third year and miss classes. The university makes every effort to ensure that they receive knowledge, including through the Moodle e-learning and testing system, where lectures and assignment texts are available at any time.
Svetlana Gennadyevna reported on the development of curricula for project-based training. Project-based training is an approach in which students learn through independent planning and development of solutions to a problem or task. An expert council of employers has been created for this purpose under the SPbGASU Curriculum Development Council. The transition to project-based training is planned for 2027.
The First Vice-Rector reported that the university is interested in systemic cooperation and invited employers to join in the development of project activities and student technological entrepreneurship. Partner support can be advisory: in the form of feedback on the quality of graduate training, participation in the development of programs. Expert suppoty: participation in the assessment of student projects, support for teams in competitions, olympiads, training. Informational support: you can talk about projects on your resources. Organizational support: you can take on some of the tasks of preparing and holding certain events. Material support: you can provide software, equipment, premises. Financial support: student bonuses, investments in the implementation of projects, startups.
For partners, the value of cooperation lies in finding ideas for solving current problems, developing their scientific and technical base, and innovations. In addition, this supports the image of a socially responsible company and increases brand awareness, and forms a personnel reserve. The company gets the opportunity to form a demand for competencies and influence the content and results of education, which develops the potential of current employees through mentoring and tutoring, and reduces the time and resources for the adaptation of young specialists.
The roundtable participants completed a survey on new formats of interaction, discussed the importance of mentoring and acquiring fundamental knowledge, and expressed their willingness to join forces to ensure that graduates meet the requirements of the labor market.
The event was organized by the SPbGASU Center for Student Entrepreneurship and Career.
SPbGASU and Nanosoft company express their gratitude to the representatives of Severnaya Kompaniya, Region LLC, TITAN-2 holding, Glavstroy-Saint Petersburg Specialized Developer LLC, Samolet Group PJSC, StroyKraft LLC, Setl Group, Design Institute No. 2 LLC, ZVSK Invest LLC, Gipronickel Institute LLC, Alfa-Bank, Atomenergoproekt JSC, VDC, ENITA LLC, and LSR Group for their participation in the round table.
