Keyword: «continuity of professional education»

The issues of training a competitive specialist have always been relevant, but they have been especially critical recently in connection with technological and economic changes in the industry. Mining is one of the most difficult areas. Mining companies have faced a number of problems over the past decades that have to be solved immediately. One of the global issues for all the leading Russian mining companies is the so-called “personnel shortage”. The relevance of the article is due to the discrepancy between the level of training of specialists in the field of mining in professional educational institutions and the requirements of production. The purpose of this work is to identify the main problems in the implementation of continuity for the preparation of a competitive specialist in the field of mining. In this article, the author shares her personal experience in the training of technicians and mining engineers (specialists) at the Zheleznogorsk Mining and Metallurgical College, specializing in the areas of training 21. 02.18 “Mineral Processing” and 21. 05.04 “Mining” (South-West State University). Leading research methods are empirical (observation, questioning, conversation, etc.). The author presents the experience of forming a system of continuity between educational institutions of different levels and the employer in the process of training a specialist in the field of mining. As a result of the study, the author identified the main problems of continuity in the training of specialists in the field of mining. First of all, this is the lack of an integrated educational environment between graduates of secondary vocational education (SVE) - higher education institutions - and the employer; unpreparedness of educational institutions graduates to the requirements of employers, and a decrease in the motivational component of SVE system graduates to continue their studies at universities. The article emphasizes: in solving the above mentioned problems, we must remember that the training of mining specialists is a part of the training course at colleges and universities, and this determines the requirements for training specialists and providing continuity between educational institutions of different levels. It is worth mentioning about the results of employers’ questioning, which allowed the author to formulate the requirements for graduates of colleges and universities in the field of mining. This, in turn, will make it possible to continue research on this problem in future and most accurately formulate professional competences necessary for a specialist in the field of mining. The article may be interesting to teachers and heads of educational institutions that train specialists in the field of mining, as well as scientists conducting research work in the field of professional training continuity.