3.8. Future Professionals: Training of Schoolchildren and Students

By collaborating with schools and universities, the Gazprom Group helps train young talents for a professional career in the oil and gas industry, promotes engineering professions, and provides hands-on training for school pupils and university students. This way PJSC Gazprom ensures the supply of adequately qualified staff to its facilities, while also giving young people a confidence in their future career growth and welfare.

Gazprom Classes seek to train a future talent pool for PJSC Gazprom’s subsidiaries and entities from among the most talented school students motivated for a successful professional career. The classes provide a better-quality education, targeted vocational guidance, and support throughout the learning cycle at schools and universities.

At Gazprom Classes, pupils learn about the importance of engineering professions and get an insight into the history, industry specifics and growth prospects of PJSC Gazprom and its subsidiaries. The classes provide additional educational programs and create opportunities for personal growth and self-fulfilment.

Gazprom Classes have been set up by 20 entities of the Group and are now active in 24 schools located in five federal districts of Russia.

PJSC Gazprom’s subsidiaries and entities which actively contributed to the creation of Gazprom Classes arrange various team building and career guidance training sessions along with sports and cultural events for schoolchildren.

PJSC Gazprom annually assesses the need of its subsidiaries for graduates of secondary vocational educational institutions and higher educational institutions based on 10-year headcount planning, and arranges for proactive targeted training of future talents.

PJSC Gazprom maintains its collaboration with the anchor universities. The fundamental principles of the collaboration are continuity, systemic approach, and innovations. They are included in the approved University Collaboration Concept and the Regulation on Collaboration with Anchor Universities.

In 2019, PJSC Gazprom had 13 collaboration agreements with anchor universities, including Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

In order to share hands-on knowledge and build additional competencies in students, specialized departments are established at the anchor universities. The Group’s executives and employees are involved in teaching, supervise graduation papers and internships, and engage students in project and research activities.

As of the end of 2019, 13 higher educational institutions had the status of anchor universities:

• Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (national research university) (4 specialized departments (SD));
• St. Petersburg State University of Economics (1 SD);
• National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University;
• Ukhta State Technical University (5 SDs);
• Kazan National Research Technological University (1 SD);
• St. Petersburg Mining University;
• Bauman Moscow State Technical University;
• National Research University Higher School of Economics;
• Industrial University of Tyumen;
• Ufa State Petroleum Technological University (4 SDs);
• St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University;
• Lomonosov Moscow State University;
• Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (1 SD).

As of the end of 2019, there were 16 specialized departments at the anchor universities and 8 additional specialized departments at universities that do not have the anchor university status. On top of that, the following organizations had 4 specialized departments: SevKavNIPIgaz JSC, Bank GPB (JSC), Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Saratovskaya Oblast JSC, and NIIgazeconomica LLC.

In 2019, PJSC Gazprom was in special partnership with the following four universities:

• Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University;
• Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping;
• St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”;
• Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University.

Each year, PJSC Gazprom provides charity support to the anchor universities in order to enable them to improve teaching quality, give better career advice to students, refine the approaches to educating the students who study under targeted education programs, and develop the material, technical, laboratory, and training resources of the universities.

In 2019, 10,081 students of higher educational institutions took an internship at PJSC Gazprom’s subsidiaries and entities, including 4,150 students from the anchor universities.

As of the end of 2019, the Group’s companies were sponsoring the targeted education of 2,051 students of higher educational institutions.

The partner universities of PJSC Gazprom traditionally host Job Fairs of PJSC Gazprom’s subsidiaries — the Gazprom Days. These events give students extensive information about the Group’s companies, as well as the internship and employment opportunities available.

Each year, PJSC Gazprom holds a competition for personal scholarships among the students of secondary vocational and higher education institutions. Thus, the Company-sponsored students are given an incentive for remarkable academic achievements.

PJSC Gazprom collaborates with the anchor universities in the sphere of research and development (R&D) to solve the current technological challenges faced by the Company. The R&D projects include a lithofacies model of reservoir rocks in the Vendian—Riphean sediments within the PJSC Gazprom’s license blocks in the Lower Angara Region developed by Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas based on a set of lithological and geophysical data, as well as technologies to identify and assess geological risks associated with offshore drilling and construction of offshore oil and gas facilities which are being developed by Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Gazprom Neft Group, in 2019, signed 42 agreements with universities. There are 4 specialized departments, and 182 company-sponsored students. Internships at Gazprom Neft were arranged for 1,948 students.

Gazprom Energoholding prepares specialists with the necessary qualifications by interacting with educational institutions across the entire country. It arranges training programs and practice-oriented training groups, offers company-sponsored education to students, and organizes pre-graduation and industrial work placements for students of secondary vocational and higher education institutions. In 2019, 1,350 students took an internship at the facilities of Gazprom Energoholding.

Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat has been in cooperation with Ufa State Petroleum Technological University for over 70 years. The cooperation is maintained in a number of areas, from procurement activities and maintenance of equipment and technical infrastructure of the University to training of qualified specialists and upgrading the knowledge of the company’s technical staff. In 2019, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat provided financial support for the repairs in the rooms of the laboratory building, as well as the purchase of laboratory furniture and equipment for a total of RUB 5.9 million.