‘Before this excursion, I haven't thought about working at the enterprise, but after visiting TAIF-NK, I changed my mind’

“It's hard for companies to find good developers right now”

This is the first such excursion for students of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Nizhnekamsk Institute of Chemical Technology at the large industrial enterprise of the city. The employees of the company invited the students of the university to get acquainted with the activities of TAIF-NK JSC.

“Last year, our specialists themselves went to the institute to identify potential employees for TAIF-NK. Now it is difficult for companies to find good developers and programmers. The level of education does not meet the requirements, in some universities they still teach outdated programming languages, which are practically not used anywhere else. In 2022, we selected several candidates for ourselves, conducted a preliminary interview with them. If this year the guys successfully graduate from the university, defend their graduation projects, then we will hire them. The students who have come on the tour today also have every chance to get into our IT team," notes Ilnur Davletshin, the deputy director of the DIT of TAIF-NK JSC.

Before the start of the tour of the enterprise, the students of the Nizhnekamsk Institute of Chemical Technology, as expected, were instructed in safety. After that, the guys were waiting in the assembly hall of the head office of TAIF-NK JSC. Here the students were shown a presentation video about the company's activities. The guests learned that TAIF-NK JSC is one of the leading oil refineries in Russia. It includes the Gasoline Plant, Oil Refinery, and Heavy Residue Convertion Complex.

“The main goal of TAIF-NK is the development of truly advanced oil refining, the maximum increase in the output of light oil products. On average, the company has achieved a result of more than 85-90% over the year. In the period from 2015 to 2021, there was a big jump in the output of light fractions and the depth processing of hydrocarbon raw materials," said the engineer-technologist of the Department of Technical Re-equipment and Long-term Development of TAIF-NK JSC, Nursina Zalaltdinova.

It was possible to achieve such high indicators thanks to the commissioning of the unique HRCC, which has no analogues in the world.

“The history of the HRCC originates in 2008-2009, then there was a study of options for convertion heavy residues. As a result of considering a large number of technologies, it was decided to focus on VCC technology. The process of combined thermal and hydrocracking of tar can be safely called the pinnacle of technological development of ultra-deep oil refining processes in the world. Since it is this technology that makes it possible to process tar of high-sulphur oil into high-quality light oil products with a conversion rate of 90 to 95 percent. The technology, if we go into parallel in the IT sphere, can be compared with a quantum computer, 3D printing of bone implants," said Nursina Zalaltdinova

“Revolutionary transformation of the enterprise model”

However, as they noted in TAIF-NK JSC, no modern production can function successfully without the introduction of information technology.

“It is generally believed that the concept of digital transformation hides the introduction of new technologies in the organisation: website, applications, chatbots. But in fact, the concept of digital transformation hides not only investments and the introduction of fancy technologies (artificial intelligence, blockchain, data analysis and the Internet of Things), but also a profound transformation of both the structure of the enterprise and the development strategy of the company as a whole, the development of digital corporate culture. In other words, this is a revolutionary transformation of the enterprise model," says Ilnur Davletshin, the deputy director of the DIT of TAIF-NK JSC.

In his opinion, not only the IT service, but also the company's management is responsible for the development of the digital strategy.

“Only in such a symbiosis, one can think about the development of digitalisation in the enterprise. The business must be provided with the necessary infrastructure, that is, not only a set of technologies that will help in its further development, but also professionals in the field of programming, security, cloud technologies, industrial communications and analytics. It is also necessary to include work with the younger generation, schoolchildren, students of special and higher educational institutions in this concept. For this purpose, the company has a mentoring programme. It is also necessary to increase the level of digital development of other employees, adapt them to innovations, a new style of management and work, involve them in the process of transition to a new stage of the company's development," Ilnur Davletshin is sure.

During the excursion, the students learned about the challenges facing the digitalisation of production, got acquainted with the main directions of the current work of the DIT, with the pace of work, learned about the services involved in joint work to support and expand the current digitalisation processes, about the function of document automation systems in information systems, labour protection and much more.

Alexander Pronin, the head of the Information Security Department of TAIF-NK JSC, told what information security is and why its support systems are so important. According to him, ensuring information security should be aimed primarily at preventing risks, not at eliminating their consequences.

“Any information leak can lead to serious problems for the company. Our department faces the task of localising threats, taking organisational and technical measures to ensure information security, including countering the technical intelligence of foreign states and competing business structures. Our HRCC is a world-class knowhow. The Information Security Department stands guard over the interests of society, the preservation of confidential information and trade secrets," notes Alexander Pronin.

Future programmers saw with their own eyes the conditions in which employees of the Information Technology Department work. The guests looked into the Department of Economic Security, protection and regime, the Department of Information Technology, talked with managers. The students were interested in what programming languages they could start learning now so that it would be easier to join the labour process in the future, whether there is an opportunity to work remotely, what is the average salary at the enterprise and social guarantees. Employees of TAIF-NK JSC left no question without attention.

“TAIF-NK offers a stable, interesting, highly paid job in an innovative company with a wide basic social package. You will be able to influence the success of the enterprise, the industry, the development of the city of Nizhnekamsk and Tatarstan with your work. You will also receive comprehensive conditions for education, health preservation, and solving recreational tasks," said Anton Tukhvatullin, the head of the Technical Training Group of TAIF-NK JSC.

He added that the company does a lot of work to improve the level of qualification of employees, the formation of high professionalism, modern economic thinking. During the year, the company conducts more than 10 thousand trainings: training of new workers, retraining, training in related professions, advanced training, targeted courses. Moreover, they begin to select future specialists at the stage of training in a secondary school or university.

At the end of the tour, the NHTI students thanked the employees of TAIF-NK JSC for the interesting event. According to young people, such meetings help to study the essence of technological processes, to know the scale and significance of production activities.

“This year I am graduating from the NHTI, I am studying at the Department of Information Technology. Before this excursion, I had not thought about working at the enterprise, but after visiting TAIF-NK, I changed my mind. I really liked everything. They explained to us in an accessible form how the implementation of automated processes takes place, which programmes are developed and for what. The office is also very cozy and comfortable," said Valeria Chibatkova, a student of the NHTI.

“I had a different idea of the industrial enterprise and how the workflow is organised. I am pleased with what I have seen, I think it's worth trying my hand at TAIF-NK, I will try my best to be noticed," agrees her classmate Bulat Shakirov.

According to the specialists of the NHTI lecturers, such excursions help students choose an employer.

“I am delighted with how much new and useful information the students have learned about the production digitalisation. Today, they have heard from professionals why it is so important to ensure information security. Now they know that information technology specialists are in demand at the enterprise. The activity of production as a whole depends on IT specialists. Thank you very much for the opportunity to visit TAIF-NK, it's worth a lot," concluded Ilsiyar Zakharova, senior lecturer at the Department of Information Systems and Technologies of the NHTI.