At a joint meeting of the Club of Friends of two clusters, the space and telecommunication technologies cluster and nuclear technology cluster, it was not an accident that the first discussion topic touched on personnel as fundamental for ensuring non-oil economic growth in Russia.
Alexander Fertman, scientific director of the nuclear technology cluster, opened the meeting by noting that personnel is one of the most pressing problems, both for startups in the Skolkovo ecosystem and for the economy as a whole. The keynote speaker on the subject was the director of educational programs at the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, Professor Pavel Luksha.
He immediately dotted his "I’s," saying that the non-resource sector will be able to start the next stage of growth only on the condition that they will be provided with the appropriate level of staffing. At the same time, Luksha believes that the nuclear technology and space industries, thanks to their accumulated potential, can become engines of innovation development in our country. However, the deteriorating personnel situation in the nineties caused extensive damage to these sectors as well.
Up until about 2005, training systems in the country existed in isolation from the actual needs of employers: 70% of graduates of technical specialties were not working in these fields, and only in the mid-2000s did we begin to respond, there was an order for specialists, but this is still not always aligned with the logic of what employers needПавел Лукша.
In the hall there were quite a few young people, and it seems especially for them the professor outlined the sequence of tasks to begin orienting one’s career. First, the scientific and technical youth need to understand exactly what professions will be in demand. "New industries need personnel for future tasks," he explained. To illustrate this point, he cited the following example: of the ten occupations that are most in demand in 2010, six did not exist in 2000. Luksha said that in order to do something to help navigate this maelstrom of rapid scientific and technological changes in the nomenclature of professions, an “atlas of 100 new professions” is being prepared.
Moreover, scientific and technical progress will gradually lead to the complete replacement of the people by machines in a number of key industries, and young people must be prepared for this as well. To help them, a book called "Thirty Professions That Will Be Destroyed by Automation" will be released. In addition, the Skolkovo School of Management created so-called "roadmaps" (foresights) in eleven sectors of the economy. They will also help determine which specialists will be needed in the future. In the markets, especially foreign, graduates of technical universities will face hyper-competition in innovation that will lead to the rapid change of technology. The result of rampant competition will be ubiquitous, flexible, customized (customer-oriented) industries that can instantly adapt to new kinds of products. In keeping with this trend, the role of small, innovative teams and R & D teams that are able to flexibly respond to market needs will become more important.
On the other hand, the younger generation will have to work in an environment where the big players will continue efforts to ensure complete vertical control networks of supply and marketing. Another factor is the growth of international cooperation, both in R & D, as well as in production. Cross-industry professionals will be needed to grow the role of innovation with interdisciplinary cooperation. In the future, the role of managers well-versed in technology will also be important. "The ideal is an engineer with economic knowledge; otherwise, developments could fail when hitting the market," explained Luksha. In this context, it is difficult, of course, not to note the timeliness of such educational institutions as Skolkovo Tech, which will prepare precisely these technology entrepreneurs. Understanding of the global game, standards of work with international players, their technology environments, and international professional content is also important, Luksha said.
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