The problem of personnel shortages is familiar to many enterprises in small towns. Attracting specialists from other regions is difficult — people are not always ready to relocate. Therefore, raising our own professional personnel, starting from school, becomes a strategically important task.
This is exactly why, since 2016 in Vorkuta, the Vorkuta Linear Production Management of Main Gas Pipelines (LPUMG) of Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta LLC, together with the Education Department of the Vorkuta Administration and the Vorkuta Branch of the Ukhta State Technical University, has been holding the "Decent Work Means Safe Labor" competition for high school students.
The goals of the competition are to introduce students to professions in the gas transportation industry, provide knowledge on health and safety, demonstrate how school subjects are connected to real work tasks, increase the prestige of blue-collar professions, and foster an interest in working in their hometown.
The competition is held in three stages, namely:
School stage: Each school in Vorkuta identifies its three best students based on the results of testing in the subject "Fundamentals of Life Safety" (OBZh).
City stage: After completing a training session, 25 winners of the first stage take a more complex test that includes questions related to the gas industry.
Final team stage: Five teams are formed from the 25 finalists by drawing lots. Each team is assigned mentors from the Vorkuta LPUMG, the university, and the schools.
Over the years, the competition has undergone some changes, transitioning from theory to real-world cases. Until 2023, teams developed HSE projects for various management departments, proposing measures to prevent injuries. To do this, students attended additional theoretical classes and excursions to actual production facilities. However, over time, the format required an update, as permanent mentors and similar topics exhausted the flow of new ideas. In 2023, the approach was radically changed. Teams were asked to analyze five real accidents that occurred in subsidiaries of PJSC Gazprom. The students were not provided with information about the victims, specific enterprises, or incident prevention measures, leaving only the circumstances and causes. The students' task was to independently analyze the situation, develop, and present their own measures to prevent similar incidents.
The final of the competition traditionally takes place at the Vorkuta Palace of Children and Youth Creativity on the eve of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. To objectively evaluate the presentations, an authoritative jury is formed, which includes: the Chief Engineer of the Vorkuta LPUMG (Chairman of the Commission), a representative of the primary trade union organization of the Vorkuta LPUMG, the Head of the General Education Department of the Education Administration, the Director of the Vorkuta Branch of USTU, and an actor from the Vorkuta Drama Theater. Such a composition allows for a comprehensive assessment of the projects based on four criteria: informativeness, creativity, presentation quality, and practical applicability.
For reference:
In 2018, the "Decent Work Means Safe Labor" competition was awarded the Grand Prix of Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta LLC at the "Torch of Goodness" corporate social projects competition of Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta LLC.
In 2021, the "Decent Work Means Safe Labor" competition was awarded a silver medal and a prize-winner diploma in the nomination "Development and Implementation of Systems and Methods for Training Specialists in the Field of HSE" at the "Health and Safety" competition for the best solution in ensuring safe working conditions.
In 2022, the "Decent Work Means Safe Labor" competition was included in a thematic collection on the best HSE practices of organizations, prepared by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Komi Republic.