UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 6, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a Q&A session with the WorldSkills movement participants during a call-in show, the Kremlin’s website states.

Large companies’ representatives, college students, and government officials were all present for the show. ChelPipe Group was among the companies invited to take part in the session.

The Group’s Chair of the Board of Directors Andrei Komarov said ChelPipe Group was among Russia’s first enterprises to support WorldSkills.

‘We see putting funds in personnel training programs as fundamental investments into the company’s worth rather than as expenses. Time does fly, so our White-Coated Metallurgy Program will turn ten in 2020. During this decade, we have both developed and implemented the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program and became pioneers in supporting WorldSkills by signing an agreement back in 2012,’ Komarov said.

According to Komarov, the company has won 136 WorldSkills medals within the last seven years.

‘I talked to Head of Iron Ozone 32 Department Anton Loskutov today. What does a WorldSkills champion mean for the company? Our winner Sasha Litvinenko managed to make the steel-smelting routine a minute shorter. This saves the company billions of rubles every year. What does the WorldSkills movement mean for our personnel training programs? It means twenty highly skilled professionals who both take part in the WorldSkills Championship preparations every year and in the regular personnel training courses (including demonstration exams),’ Andrei Komarov said.

Ignat Yevdokimov, who studies Metal Treatment under Pressure on the Future of White-Coated Metallurgy Corporate Training Program, also spoke about his experience as a WorldSkills Championship contestant during the call-in show.