Dream and budget

"Why do you need to get a higher education in order to operate the equipment that is dying with you?!"

Every tenth university applicant, according to a survey of the Superjob recruiting portal, is going to master the engineering specialty. The choice of a future profession, most likely, was affected by the presence of budget places, since engineering is among the priority areas of training, which are supported at the state level.

Most Russian graduates still prefer programming and medical care, in fourth place-pedagogy and jurisprudence. The demand for engineering specialties, on the one hand, is provoked by wide popularization, on the other hand, the attitude of Russian citizens to higher education, as a necessary stage for career advancement, regardless of the field of activity. The starting salary of 15 thousand rubles is unlikely to attract even enthusiasts. The fact that the profession of an engineer, which in Soviet times was one of the most common, has undergone significant changes, is poorly understood by both parents and future students themselves.

In Moscow, this academic year has started the project “Engineering Class”, in which leading technological universities took part. As it turned out from a conversation with students of the 10th grade of one of the schools, the guys more in depth studied the discipline related to engineering, but the future of this profession is mainly associated with information technologies, and they are not considered at work at all. Some said that engineering education is a good basis for any type of activity, someone frankly admitted that he would prefer to be a humanist, but in this capacity it is difficult to earn a living.

After asking to leave pragmatic considerations aside, I asked students of the engineering class of school No. 1375, which they dream of.

- Personally, I want to become the director of some large corporation or company, oil or gas. Initially, I generally wanted to become president, and then I realized that it was very difficult. A more real dream and closer is precisely the director and it is a large company or corporation.

- Probably, first of all, so that there is peace around the world. Because on TV they show about wars, about how people are starving, how bad they are. And for myself personally, I would like to find just application in life.

- My dream to become aircraft manufacturer. I think it will be pleasant to tell my children about the fact that I once built a plane. You sit somewhere on the seashore, and the plane flies, and you say - this is what I built.

- I plan to do strategic planning of something. The dream is to capture as many areas of various problems as possible. Somewhere in Anapa, arrange a winery and build planes somewhere in Chelyabinsk.

Let me remind you that these guys studied in the engineering class, as part of the project "Engineering Class in the Moscow School", in which 16 Moscow universities took part. Representatives of two of them are the head of the Department of Technical Operation of the Air Transport of the Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation Eduard Bolov and the director of the Center for working with talented schoolchildren of the Moscow Polytechnic University Andrei Andryushkov told what the future awaits schoolchildren who have chosen this profession today.

Andrey Andryushkov , Director of the Center for Work with Talented Schoolchildren of the Moscow Polytechnic University:

- We must understand that the idea of engineering, given that almost everything is automated, has changed dramatically. And this is one of the lines of the development of new technologies, when robotization compared to the world in which our parents lived increased many times. That is, a huge number of specialists who worked as exploiters are now not needed, such jobs simply do not exist. And they, obviously, will continue to die out, although, of course, there is still a space where without a person, from the point of view of service, can not do. This may be the entry into engineering in the tasks of modernizing the existing equipment or its repair, or the construction and creation of a new one. Therefore, our engineer is a person who is able to transform the existing machine system, technological line, a node or more complex whole designs, or the one who constructs, creates new things, new functions that require the highest level of qualifications and knowledge.

If you call a spade a spade, you should immediately say that there is no itself in the receipt of higher education. There is nothing more ridiculous than forcing a child who has a desire and desire to become an inventor, to scroll at that educational program at a university, the meaning of which is only in a diploma. And it’s more not even about what motivation and why children go to engineers, but whether the university can provide training for new technological leaders.

For most guys, the engineering world is amorphous and incomprehensible

Today, for most children, the engineering world is amorphous and incomprehensible. Few people are convinced that this profession will transfer him to the infinitely beautiful world of the future. Therefore, you just need to create an engineering space where engineering teams would develop. And already studying at the university, the guys could, creating something with their own hands, feel. And then the question of whether they will go to work in their specialty will change to the question of whether they gained experience in doing engineering project during training. If they received it, for example, they were able to collect a drone, then the person who knows how to do such projects can apply his professionalism in any other field. By the way, we have fresh -year -olds collect an electric bike in a year and win international competitions on it. By the way, 70% of the team are girls who really create all this.

We have already passed with a dozen away schools, and I can’t imagine that there are children who, completely immersed in a environment where the knowledge that they receive, are closely attached to the workshop, where they do something with their own hands, are not carried away, and did not plunge into the process. Children are infinitely sensitive, they only dream about it. Just school education and often higher education kills all this, destroys. After all, here it is necessary not to increase the number of physics and mathematics, this is a meaningless path from the point of view of the preparation of an engineer. It is necessary to create a space of their involvement in such projects where they understand why they need mathematics. They will study it themselves if they need it. Here the question is not a load, but the creation of normal conditions for the meaningful existence of a child in the educational space. I don’t see anything better than the project and I don't understand. Just come up with a program so that they bother with iron from morning to evening, study. For them, it will be happiness - the day of happiness in children.

The schoolboy must understand well that, I want to create new things, new technical systems, change them, modernize, etc. If he has this desire, then he can then be rebuilt in the process, if we give him the right engineering education. In general, the creation of a new type of people who can retrain and get the opportunity to move in any engineering sphere, it seems to me, is our main task.

I am absolutely sure that a person who can create, say, an information system of infrastructure security of a hydroelectric power station, just under certain conditions to rebuild to protect the airport and his maintenance. IT is a universal platform that permeates all industries. And any complex technical systems suggest the presence of such a specialist in a certain profile.

Of course, the lion's share of Russian industries, factories - the technological structure of the previous generation. This is, in fact, the horror and fear of God. Moreover, the structure of the university graduate is terrible. The starting salary of 15 thousand rubles, on which you must sit for another 3 years. In general, it is strange - why do you need to get a higher education in order to operate the equipment that is dying with you?!

The lion's share of Russian industries is the technological structure of the previous generation

But look at the technological chains at large mining enterprises, at how the technological process at the airport works. Logistically, the control system is supercomplicated equipment, supercompassing competence. Today, technological automated assembly systems at automobile enterprises suggest a unique type of employment, where a person runs a certain robot and can modernize this production. What is a modern plant? This is a unique thing, but Russian schoolchildren do not know about it.

We do not know about a huge number of successful Russian technological startups, when the company created in Russia, young, promising, suddenly began to really change the world. There are now a lot of new IT products, but in real production sectors you can count on the fingers. And those who have won international recognition, I do not know at all. Therefore, the skepticism of schoolchildren and parents is understandable. And it is quite difficult to hope for the fact that, having immediately released from an engineering university, a change in the world. But this is a question that needs to be solved, so we need insanely passionate guys who want to create a technological startup. It seems to me that there is a double idea.

Eduard Bolov , head of the department of technical operation of electronic equipment of air transport of the Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation:

- Initially, the engineers called people who served military vehicles. Then the concept expanded, and today engineering is a fairly wide range of various specializations. Approximately they can be divided into three directions-an engineer-designer, a technologist, an operating engineer.

MGTUGA is the only university in Russia of the aviation operating profile, so about 80% of our graduates go to work in civil aviation. Therefore, there are no problems with employment as such, we are in a more advantageous situation in this regard.

Schoolchildren think more about it as a kind of construction

Of course, young men are acting more actively to some directions. For example, the operation of electronic air transport equipment, after all, this is not only on -board equipment, but also ground, all radio engineering flights of flights, an automated air management system. Basically, a male team works here. But if we take such a specialty as information security or the safety of communication systems, then there are probably a ratio of 50 to 50. There were even courses where there were much more girls than boys. Then they go to the airline, to the airport security services, the air traffic organization state corporation.

For engineering class students, we have developed a direction under the general name "Aircraft Engineer of the Future". Here are the basics of mathematics, physics, aerodynamics. They offered to study the electronics, electronics, information world of the 21st century, including engineering English, quite in demand by the guys. Of course, schoolchildren think more about it as a kind of construction. And then we say that one of the areas of these technologies is information security, very important for air transport. After all, a modern aircraft is essentially a flying computer, and on command from the ground it can become uncontrollable for the crew. And when we say that this is the work of an engineer related to information technologies, they have interest.

In addition, we bring them to the university and show them a powerful aerodrome base, operating aircraft, we bring them to educational centers, dispatching centers. That is, we show the specific part that will then have to be operated if someone chooses the profession of engineer-operating engineer. This specialty, by the way, will always be in demand, because everything that has been done breaks at times, and we must restore.

Honestly, when I am listening to the guys now, I understand that everything new is well forgotten old. In the Soviet period, there were stations of young technicians, and your humble servant was at first in a shipwalking mug, and then in a aircraft model, plus another radiox, from the 7th grade to the very release practically. And I think that it is too late to do such things in the 11th grade, especially since the guys are preparing for the exam. Perhaps the engineering class itself can start from the 9th grade, but prepare for specialization, integrate it into the educational process early.