The government offered free training to work in the defense industry

Defense industry enterprises will provide Russian job seekers with the opportunity to receive free vocational training or receive additional education for further employment. The corresponding decree was signed on March 15 by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Those who wish to undergo training will need to contact employment centers and conclude a student agreement with the enterprise.

The decision will help defense industry enterprises to fill the need for specialists, and job seekers to find a job faster, the press service of the government said in a statement. The costs of enterprises will be reimbursed through transfers within the framework of the federal project “Employment Promotion”. More than 700 million rubles are planned in the budget for these purposes, which will allow training over 12,000 people. The list of enterprises that will take part in the program will be compiled by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The training will be organized within the framework of the current labor market support program, the government noted. It is planned that in 2023 such measures will allow more than 176,000 people to be temporarily employed. The budget for this provides more than 12.8 billion rubles.

On March 14, Vladimir Putin pointed out the shortage of personnel in the defense industry when visiting an aircraft factory in Ulan-Ude. This hinders the fulfillment of the state defense order, he noted. The President also said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared a list of priority professions for deferment from military service. “We need to decide what is the most critical, the most important in terms of maintaining and developing human resources,” Putin said. On March 15, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported on sending to the Ministry of Defense a list of in-demand defense industry workers fulfilling the state defense order.

The defense industry lacks both specialists with secondary vocational education and design engineers, said Vladimir Gutenev, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade. The needs for personnel, for example, Uralvagonzavod or the Ulyanovsk aircraft plant, are estimated at several thousand people, he told Vedomosti. Rostec enterprises may need up to 40,000 people. “It’s not about a shortage. [персонала] now, but about the fact that it is required to significantly increase production volumes, so it will be necessary to [человек] recruit,” said Gutenev.

According to him, in addition to the employment assistance program, various ways are being considered to accelerate the replenishment of the personnel of the defense industry – the allocation of additional budget places in educational institutions, the reorientation of young specialists, and their stimulation.

From January 1, 2023, the President increased state support for individual employees of defense industry organizations, in particular, for young employees increased to 500,000 rubles. scholarships that are awarded for outstanding achievements in the creation of breakthrough technologies and the development of modern weapons. 1,500 such scholarships are awarded per year. “We will ask the president to increase their number to 3,000 <…>in order to retain qualified personnel at defense industry enterprises,” Gutenev said.

The average age of employees of defense industry enterprises is now about 45-50 years old, says Alexander Kozlovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Industry and Trade. “This is a prohibitive age for such a high-tech industry. This factor is becoming critical for the industry. There is a growing need for young specialists in all areas of activity,” he told Vedomosti. Kozlovsky believes that the free vocational training program “will work effectively.” He noted that various measures are being taken in the country to attract and retain young personnel at defense industry enterprises.

Kozlovsky recalled that Vladimir Putin, in his address to the Federal Assembly on February 21, proposed launching a program of preferential rental housing for defense industry employees. The president said then that the rate for them “will be significantly lower than the market rate,” since the state will take over a significant part of the housing payment. “Rental housing will be built, first of all, in defense, industrial and research centers,” emphasizes Kozlovsky.

In addition, the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade has prepared a bill providing for a 10% increase in wages for employees of defense industry enterprises that manufacture products under the state defense order. The document has been submitted to parliament, Kozlovsky specified.

The effectiveness of vocational training for the unemployed is now generally quite low, at best, 50% find a job after training, says Alexander Safonov, professor at the Financial University. One of the reasons is that the level of such training is not very high, it does not provide the amount of knowledge and experience that is valued by the employer, he says. In addition, training for working professions requires a fairly long time. It is impossible to train, for example, a turner in three months, the expert notes.

Another factor that, oddly enough, can become a limitation for the free education program is low unemployment. “We will not find so many people who are ready to learn, they are simply not physically there. The defense industry needs working professions, which are now unpopular among citizens,” Safonov told Vedomosti. Technicians are in short supply everywhere and the demand for them is very high, he concluded.

In November 2022, the Ministry of Labor proposed subsidizing the wages of defense industry workers to the employer when moving from other regions, wrote “Vedomosti”. The proposed amount of compensation amounted to 262,188 rubles. per person per year. At that time, the need for defense industry enterprises in workers was 3814 people.