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EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL CENTRES, CORPORATIVE AND OTHER FORMS OF CONTINUOUS
EDUCATION
EXPERIENCE IN BUILDING A CORPORATE NETWORK OF LIFELONG PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
T.Y. Lomakina
In the today's world, the prospects of modernization of the economy are determined by three main factors: (a) the availability of developed human capital; (b) the availability of a special culture necessary for successful work (in particular, a habit of work and production discipline); and (c) a willingness to work in the context of certain leadership styles that facilitate continuous development, effective growth and internal self-organization. Corporate educational institutions are at the forefront of addressing issues of modernization, because they are in charge of staff training for specific companies in the real economy. According to the International Association of Corporate Education, Russia currently has almost 70 corporate universities. They continue to grow in number, which is line with the global trend. It should be noted that the entrepreneurial sector still fails to be a full-fledged partner to the state in the development of manpower in society. Private capital accounts for is as little as 2 percent of the finance of education. Just a little more than ten endowment funds have been established since the adoption of the respective law two and a half years ago.
In order to change the situation, it is necessary to find ways and forms of interaction between corporate training entities and the public system of professional education, because only corporate educational entities are capable of organizing the learning process so that an old skilled worker and young people seeking to become highly skilled in their profession are brought together in one class. For an organization, such career development programs contribute to improving the performance of employees in their professional duties, utilizing their talent and potentialities to a greater extent, decreasing staff turnover and increasing responsibility for carrying out official duties.
Russian Railways Open Joint Stock Company (hereinafter RZhD OJSC) is the owner of the infrastructure of Russian railways and one of the world's largest transportation companies. Throughout the history of construction, development and technical upgrade of railways, the needs of railway companies for highly skilled professionals were met by graduates from educational institutions of the communications lines agency. The system of professional education in railway transportation is currently balanced by type and category of learners and has a rather extensive network of linear structural subdivisions. The foundation of the system is nine university complexes, including 10 higher education institutions and 48 secondary vocational schools. Blue-collar workers are mainly trained in 52 technical schools and training centers, which are training subdivisions of the Railways (branches of RZhD OJSC). RZhD OJSC is the founder of 310 nongovernmental educational institutions (252 kindergartens, 30 boarding schools and 28 schools). One of them is boarding school No. 23 which has a mixed set of
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students and offers both day and boarding education for children. The school has 458 students coming from 38 stations and passing places that serve a 317 km long section of the East Siberian Railway, and the Krugobaikalskaya Railway. The school educates both gifted and regular children, and also those who need correctional and developmental training, including children from large (84), single parent (135) and disadvantaged families (102), as well as orphans and wards (18).
Industry-specific educational institutions — first of all, higher education institutions — have become interregional railway training and research centers for industry-specific education and have control over general education schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, technical schools and railway colleges. They serve as parent institutions for providing lifelong professional education.
Interactions between the public and corporate networks for railway staff training are based on documents such as the Concept of Creation and Operations Management of a Specialized Industry-Specific Center for Development and Implementation of Management Systems and Methods of RZhD OJSC, the Strategy of Human Resources Development for the Period until 2015, etc. These documents in particular, validate the need for the creation of a corporate system for training and advanced training of professional staff. Special importance is given to the professional development of young workers in the industry. The main goals of the program for young people include: (a) the development of a system for attracting young people and their becoming effectively adapted and permanent in the Holding Company; (b) the involvement of young people in solving corporate tasks (including innovation) and development of the international youth cooperation; (c) the improvement of conditions for the development of professional and business competencies and the career development of young people in the Holding Company; (d) spiritual, moral and patriotic education of young people; and (e) promotion of healthy lifestyles and sports among young people. Today, RZhD OJSC employs more than 264,000 young workers who account for 27.1 percent of the total headcount. More than 8,000 graduates from higher and secondary professional education institutions begin their career in branches and business units of RZhD OJSC on an annual basis.
System measures taken by RZhD OJSC to improve the quality of professional training and methodological support of educational processes are focused on the following areas:
1. development and implementation of uniform operational standards for regional training centers (hereinafter "RTCs") (uniform programs for professional training of workers; a standard for training management; a standard for methodological activities, record keeping and reporting; uniform regulations for outfitting resource centers);
2. development and implementation of a continuous system of training and development of staff at resource training centers (professional standards; a digital system for professional competencies assessment; module-based programs for the development of professional competencies; distance (web-based) seminars and workshops; the development of in-house coaches (mentors) from among the employees in order to transmit module-based programs; a task-oriented program for training of teachers at plants manufacturing new equipment and enterprises);
3. identification of best practices within the corporate training system and arrangement for their dissemination across the network (an annual proficiency competition for teachers and production officers; an annual benchmarking
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exercise; development of a knowledge management system for training blue-collar workers);
4. deployment of new educational techniques (development of e-learning courses and mixed training methods for blue-collar workers; incorporation of new learning services into the corporate distance learning system);
5. enhancement of the efficiency of the management system (development of a "professional training" module as part of the single corporate automated human resource management system, SAP R3; building the rating of the educational institution on an annual basis; conceptual development of pricing policy of the resource training center);
6. involvement of all stakeholders in the company in improving the quality of manpower training (establishment of a coordination and methodology council for manpower training - the company's board of chief engineers; annual corporate conferences to develop uniform approaches to improving the quality of professional training).
In order to streamline the activities of the Holding Company in education and ensure common understanding of activities in professional training, on December 31, 2009, RZhD OJSC adopted a Directive "On Introduction of Uniform Standard for HR Management, "Training and Advanced Training". The quality standard sets general requirements for the training and advanced training of staff in RZhD OJSC. The purpose of the standard is to improve the process of training and advanced training through the integrated management of competencies and implementation of continuous training and development of staff. The standard lists generally used and well-known concepts, such as advanced training, training, retraining and training in related professions, etc., and also defines lesser-known concepts, such as task-oriented training, staff development, summary qualification matrix, position profile, individual employee development plans, qualification passports, etc.
In order to develop traditions of philanthropy and support students of industry-specific and other higher and secondary professional education institutions who have demonstrated outstanding abilities in learning and research, RZhD OJSC awards scholarships of the President of RZhD OJSC. Youth affairs councils operate in all branches of RZhD OJSC. There are projects for young people, such as the New Link, the Corporate Leader, the Corporate Club Team 2030, and the 3D Network to name just few.
Training of a modern specialist is impossible without the large-scale deployment of computer and information technology, educational television and satellite communication systems in the training of students, and saturation of the educational process with software. This issue receives a lot of attention from the Moscow College of Railway Transport. The College has a computer center, specialized computer classes equipped with modern office equipment, and state-of-the art software. Classrooms of the College are provided with multimedia equipment and other technical training facilities. Employees of the Computer Center have developed an informational and educational portal with an e-library, and a distance learning portal based on Prometheus software. Railway colleges and technical schools in Russia use instant messaging systems. There is an automated workflow information system, Motiv, covering 15 railway technical schools and colleges. An automated system Irbis is being deployed to enable students and staff of the College to review the latest technical and other publications via the Internet. The center for training, retraining and advanced
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training of workers and specialists is an additional professional education subdivision of the Moscow College of Railway Transport. About 70 percent of training and advanced training of workers is currently provided for the Moscow Railways, and 30 percent for other divisions of Russian Railways OJSC (Kaliningrad and Gorky Railways, Federal Passenger Directorate, Federal Freight Directorate, etc.), the Moscow Metro and other organizations and companies.
References
1. Распоряжение №1819р «Об утверждении Стратегии развития кадрового потенциала ОАО «РЖД» на период до 2015года» от 31 августа 2009 г.
2. «Анализ реализации Стратегии развития кадрового потенциала ОАО «РЖД» на Свердловской железной дороге в 2009 году».
3. Протокол совещания у Президента ОАО «РЖД» В.И. Якунина от 21 февраля 2011г.
4. «Преодоление стратегией: системные меры ОАО «РЖД» по повышению качества профессионального обучения». Г. Тихонова - ООО HR Media 14.03.2011.
This article includes materials of a research carried out within a project of the Russian Foundation for Humanities.
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