Kirishi Polytechnic College was the first institution of secondary vocational education included in the Leningrad region renovation program "Modern Education of the Leningrad Region".

We can safely say that the large-scale modernization of the College is obliged to Vadim Evseevich Somov, LLC"KINEF" General Director. It was he who focused the attention of Alexander Drozdenko, the Governor of the Leningrad region, on the deplorable state of the educational institution and the need for its revival. Today, the College has found a new life.

In Kirishi Polytechnic College, the working visit of A. Yu. Drozdenko, the Governor of the Leningrad region, 2016. In the photo - I. V. Romanova, Director of the Kirishi Polytechnic College, V. E. Somov, LLC"KINEF" General Director, A. Yu. Drozdenko, the Governor of the Leningrad region.

– It is important that our children remain to live and work in Kirishi, - Vadim Somov noted more than once. – It is necessary to create all conditions in order to restore the high name and prestige of the working profession, so that the Kirishi youth can receive quality professional education in demand.

– Together with the refinery management, the activities plan was developed for the College' innovative development program, - says Irina Romanova, Director of the Kirishi Polytechnic College. – As a result, regional funding for repairs was received from the General and Vocational Education Committee of the Leningrad region. LLC"KINEF" took over the material and technical support of laboratories for the specialty "oil and gas processing", including the laboratory of information technologies, process equipment and process automation. After a comprehensive modernization of the training laboratory and material and technical base, the training system of the College will meet the education standards, and the educational institution itself will have educational resources that meet the requirements of the new Federal state educational standards under TOP 50 and WorldSkills Russia competencies in terms of quantity and quality.

During the renovation, the College building built in the 60s was transformed beyond recognition. Now it is a modern educational center. It seems that the College  has increased in size and finally acquired a single design appearance. The changes made during the three years of renovation have pleased both teachers and students and their parents.

The educational institution carried out a comprehensive replacement of utilities networks, carried out repairs of offices and workshops. The canteen which has become the most comfortable place for students and teachers has been completely updated.

The gymnasium has also undergone changes, and now it meets all modern requirements. The corridors and recreation areas have got their content. Anna Severgina, an artist of LLC "KINEF" advertising and publishing center, added a creative note in the transformation of the educational institution. Her refinery landscape became a real beautification of the College entrance hall.

The company also took care of the appearance of students: students will polish up their professional skills in new overalls, and perform at competitions in new sports uniforms.

The main goal of the Kirishi College' modernization project is to improve the quality of training of qualified workers and middle-level specialists. KINEF is a reliable strategic partner of the College in this matter. The refinery management initiated the opening of a new specialty for the College: "Oil and Gas Processing".

Refinery landscape by A. I. Severgina, the artist of LLC"KINEF" advertising and publishing center adorns the College entrance hall.

Training session in the process equipment laboratory of the Kirishi Polytechnic College.

– "Oil and gas processing" is our main specialty, – says Elena Samuylovskaya, head of personnel training department at LLC"KINEF". The Kirishi oil refinery is a dynamically developing enterprise. Modernization of production is carried out continuously, maintenance of modern equipment every year requires a higher level of personnel training. And this is an urgent issue for us. With a new specialty, the company will get qualified specialists, and future graduates will get a profession in demand and a stable job.

Today, we addressed to the College management in order to open another specialty that is currently important for KINEF – "automation of technological processes and production" - in the future, already on the basis of a modern educational institution.

Interaction between the city-forming enterprise and the College has existed for a long time. A big plus is that this educational institution is located directly in Kirishi. Teachers know the refinery well, do an internship here, study new equipment and adjust the practice program based on their experience. For example, in the occupational safety and health department at LLC "KINEF", a training complex was installed that fully simulates the technological processes of the refinery units. Now part of the production practice of future oil refiners is connected with the study of control systems for process facilities under the guidance of specialists of the automated process control system.

Every year, about 400 College students undergo practical training at the refinery. During this period, their mentors are highly qualified refinery' employees. The refinery managers and specialists act as chairmen of the state certification commission, and more recently they are also experts of the demonstration exam (as part of the modernization, an accredited center for the demonstration exam was organized on the basis of the Kirishi Polytechnic College).

– As the chairman of the state attestation commission, I have the opportunity to assess the level of knowledge of the future employee, his interest in the profession, - says Sergey Rasskazov, the head of the primary distillation shop,  – At the same time, in recent years, both as the head of the shop and as the chairman of the commission, I have learned from personal experience the importance of modernizing the College and the need to improve the training process for future operators of process units.

- Various types of equipment and materials used in our refinery were transferred to the Kirishi Polytechnic College, - said Andrey Kuden, a chief mechanical engineer. – New training facilities have been installed in the College laboratories that meet modern requirements for training specialists in the oil refining industry. All this will allow future operators, machinists and metalworkers to support their theoretical knowledge gained during training with practical skills.

– Ensuring high product quality and safe operation of explosive refinery facilities requires the implementation of complex distributed control systems with a large number of measured process parameters, – said Nikolai Durdinov, head of workshops for instruments repair of the Chief Instrumentation Engineer Department. – There is a control and measuring device behind each measured parameter. And first of all, it is important that future refiners learn how to work with modern instruments on their own. A training program based only on theory will not allow mastering of the material in full. Each instrument must be, as they say, held in hands. Realizing the importance of this aspect, the company's management decided to equip the instrumentation and automation laboratory of the Kirishi Polytechnic College with modern stands for measuring process parameters: temperature, pressure, flow rate, level, as well as a stand for setting control valves. Leading engineers Yevgeny Ivanov, Konstantin Rotchev and engineer Alexander Artemyev were directly involved in completing and setting up the stands. Our specialists not only set up new training devices, but also helped teachers understand such complex modern equipment. Carrying out laboratory work using new instrumentation stands will bring the training process in the College to a new level which will increase the depth of knowledge obtained.

Multiple divisions of the refinery were involved in the process of the College modernization. In the office of Lyudmila Peslya, the Deputy General Director for human resources, we are discussing the schedule of work on the repair of classrooms.

- The Chief Power Engineer Department was engaged in the development of the technical re-equipment project for the College' power supply system, – says Alexei Vasiliev, the Deputy Chief Power Engineer. – To connect equipment and stands, classrooms had to be equipped with a new electrical network conforming the modern regulatory requirements for electrical and fire safety. As of today, all the planned works have been completed including the replacement of morally and physically outdated equipment of the electrical switchboard in the College.

– In February 2019 the third regional championship of the Leningrad region on the competence "Laboratory analysis" was held at the College on the specialized site WorldSkills Russia developed within the scope of the College modernization to hold regional championships on the competence "Laboratory chemical analysis". Specialists of the KINEF analytical center have provided a great technical support in its organization and taken on the role of experts –  Deputy Head of the analytical center of LLC "KINEF" Tatyana Kudakova said – Two third-year students of the Kirishi Polytechnic College entered the top three - Marina Vysotskaya (I place) and Maria Muravyeva (II place). Now they are working as laboratory assistants of chemical analysis in the analytical center of LLC "KINEF".

- Along with the capabilities modification we are planning to perform an extensive work in training and developing the expertise of the College job training instructors and teachers,  being annually certified, - Irina Romanova said. - Priority projects for the academic year of 2019-2020 are as follows: development of the system of inclusive vocational education and training, participation in professional skill competitions according to WorldSkills Russia standards and implementation of state final certification program of the graduates in the form of a demonstration exam.

Currently College provides training in eight integrated courses of vocational education. More than 600 students have started this academic year in the College and 220 first-year students have entered the renewed building for the first time. I believe that the words said by Vadim Somov, the General Director of LLC "KINEF", that children should study in modern, comfortable conditions are fully implemented. Today, the Kirishi Polytechnic College is a dynamically developing educational institution that confidently keeps up with the times.

The chemical analysis laboratory of the College has become a platform for hosting the regional WorldSkills Russia championships.

Alyona TIKHONENKO

Photo by Vladimir LYASHENKO,

Natalia PETROVA,

press service of the Governor of the
Leningrad region