UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 24, 2017. Some 10,500 workers from ChTPZ Group’s Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant went on continuous professional development programs last year; the Group allocated 27.5m RUR for the purpose, the company’s PR Department reports.

7,100 employees completed industrial and job safety courses and improved their qualifications both at the Group’s Training Center and in Russia’s leading vocational schools.

For most students on the program, these were their new, second blue-collar qualifications, mainly those of a pipe-cutter, repair mechanic, thermal treatment operator, welder, sling operator, and crane operator. Training was offered in 250 blue-collar jobs altogether.

Some 3,500 people in white-collar and managerial positions went on skills upgrade programs and took part in talent programs. For one, the Group has been running its Power of White Metallurgy Skill Pool Program for three years now, with 380 people in managerial positions completing it last year. As a result, the program alumni filled 71% of available positions in the managerial tier in 2016.