From ''vacuum cleaner'' to EuroSkills silver medals
Participants of the European skills competition and functionaries told how to bring up winners within two years
Tatarstan team included in the Russian squad won two out of five medals at 2016 EuroSkills. In general, the national team of Russia scored the greatest amount of points but finished seventh in terms of the number of medals. Functionaries and participants of the skills competitions told about the success of the Tatarstan team, ambitions, tasks in the area and readiness for 2019 WorldSkills.
''We jumped over 14 positions''
Andrey Pominov, first deputy minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan, was entrusted with the report on EuroSkills that took place from 30 November to 4 December in Swedish city Göteborg where our guys performed great.
''28 EuroSkills member states participated in the championships. There were seven guest teams (for example, South Korea, China, Japan) who took part out of the competition. There were 500 participants, 35 competitions, 60,000 visitors (first of all, young people who choose professions) during the championships,'' Pominov tells about the numbers. ''This year the national team of Russia has been the greatest. It competed in 36 competitions, 43 people from 18 regions of Russia participated.''
As for results of the competitions, Russia won five medals in main competitions, the speaker says: ''A gold medal in Refrigeration & Air Conditioning (Vadim Polyakov), two silver – in Mobile Robotics (Oscar Arslanov, Emil Miftakhov). Tatarstan also won a medal for mastery in Medical and Social Service.'' Pominov emphasises that the representatives of Tatarstan won two medals of the five awards that the national team of the country got. In addition, Tatarstan and Sverdlovsk Oblast showed the best results despite being represented by a small number of participants.
Russians also won four medals in presentations that are not taken into account in the final results and 11 medals for professionalism in Restaurant Service, Hairdressing, Electrical Installation, Floristry, Welding, Mechatronics, Plastering & Dry Wall Systems, Applied Aesthetics, Wall & Floor Tailing. Russia was first in the final table and seventh in terms of the amount of medal it won.
Pominov could not help but note the growth of the team: ''In the previous championships, we did not have any medals. Russia took 21 st place. Here we jumped over 14 positions. It is very and very well.''
' 'Kazan won the right to host the championships in 2019. It gives us an opportunity to develop the skills and achieve our goal (to enable employers to create a single team, prepare for competitions). The most important thing is that the base will remain,'' deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Urban Engineering of Tatarstan Airat Gatiyatov who took the floor after Pominov noted. ''We are preparing for the 2019 championships to represent the greatest amount of competitions.''
''There are no doubts that everything will be done in time and well''
According to Gatiyatov, the construction of Kazan Expo by 2019 WorldSkills is keeping to the schedule.
''The first stage of the construction will finish in summer 2017. Everything is keeping to the schedule, which was prepared beforehand. There are no doubts that we will finish the first stage in summer,'' he says. ''In general, the complex of buildings needed for the events in 2019 will also have schedules. I think we need to switch to another topic – the preparation of very participants for the championships because here there are no doubts that everything will be done in time and well.''
Pominov added that it is planned to hold the Championships of Russia in 2018 to test the venue. ''The next WorldSkills commission will come in spring 2017 to see what we are doing. The last time the commission came and was satisfied with the level of preparation: there were not any questions on logistics and infrastructure. There were questions concerning the erection of the exhibition centre. Here everything is on schedule.''
Still no standards in robotics
Director of the Kazan IT and Communications College Yury Bagrov told about the preparation of the champions from Tatarstan.
''Two our third-year students Emil Miftakhov and Oscar Arslanov started to do it one year ago,'' Bagrov tells. According to him, head coach in Mobile Robotics, national expert Damira Ramazanova worked with them after lessons, until 11 p.m. at times. ''It is not the only team: today we have four teams who are preparing for different championships. The guys started to work on the robot they took to the championships only in September. We received money from the state. We purchased many robots. Now we can form 10-15 such teams, not 4.''
Damira Ramazanova says there was not any team in 2014: ''In the 2014 Championships of Russia that took place in Kazan, we were given a 'vacuum cleaner' and told to participate in Mobile Robotics in the Championships of Russia. Nevertheless, our team was not last but second to last. It is how our story of champions began. Our team has not lost any national championships since 2014: we have won them all.''
Speaking about Mobile Robotics in general, this speciality still doesn't exist in the secondary vocational education, Ramazanova complains: ''This question was discussed in Moscow. We offered to create this speciality and assured we were ready to create standards and form a programme.''