Gazprom Neft has selected the winners of its “Developing Talent” inter-regional schools’ tournament, held in those regions in which the company operates. More than 1,800 students registered to take part in the competition this year, a 1.5-fold increase on last year.
Teams from Moscow, Khanty-Mansiysk and Tomsk made up the winners in the 10th and 11th grade group, with winners in the Year 8th and 9th grade group including teams from Moscow, Noyabrsk, and Tomsk. More information on the results of this year’s tournament can be found on the “Developing Talent” competition website.
The tournament is held as part of Gazprom Neft’s “Home Towns” corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, which brings together the company’s various CSR initiatives throughout those regions in which the company has a presence, directed at improving quality of life and improving residents’ access to a good urban environment, education, culture and sport. The tournament has become unique in its size and scope, this year including teams from six cities — St Petersburg, Tyumen, Noyabrsk, Muravlenko, Khanty-Mansiysk, Tomsk, as well as several districts of Moscow and villages in the Yamal Peninsula (Cape Kamenny and Novy Port). Statistics of the externally conducted elimination round show the highest average scores in the 10th and 11th group being awarded for exercises submitted from Muravlenko and Tomsk, and in the 8th and 9th grade group, from teams in Tomsk and Moscow. The “Developing Talent” competition will next year be extended to include the cities of Omsk and Orenburg.
A key feature of the “Developing Talents” competition is its format. Tournament participants are invited to undertake scientific research in an issue of immediate current interest to the oil and gas industry. Following a review of work submitted, specialists from Gazprom Neft’s Joint Scientific and Research Centre selected three or four teams from each region to take part in the final. The authors of the most detailed and interesting projects were invited to St Petersburg to present their solutions to specialists and take part in a quest competition.
Alexander Dybal, member of the Gazprom Neft Management Board, commented: “The ‘Developing Talent’ intellectual competition is one of the projects of our Home Towns programme directed at identifying and developing gifted young people. In contrast to typical ‘Olympiad’ competitions, we offer young people the opportunity to have a go at addressing real-world tasks. This helps them understand how to apply their knowledge in practice, and how to find answers to non-standard questions. Another important aspect: we offer an opportunity for students to demonstrate their intellectual potential, from highly diverse regions — from Moscow and St Petersburg to remote villages in Yamal.”
Mars Khasanov, Head of the Gazprom Neft Technology Directorate and Head of the company’s Joint Scientific and Research Centre, added: “New technologies are changing our lives at break-neck speed. Today’s oil and gas industry is a high-technology industry, making use of the latest scientific developments. But only highly qualified colleagues, unafraid of complex tasks and able to take a fresh look at familiar things, can implement this sort of innovation. I am delighted that our country is reviving interest in engineering education, and hope that our tournament will help talented young people decide on their future profession. I am certain that in a few years’ time we will see gifted physicists, mathematicians and geologists — making significant discoveries — emerging from today’s students.”
Gazprom Neft is committed to using high technology in all its activities; for which reason its Home Towns corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme has a particular focus on collaboration with secondary and higher general and professional educational establishments, as well as supporting the establishment of specialist classes, scientific laboratories and workshops (and supporting grant programmes) in schools and universities throughout those regions in which the company has a presence. In 2015 the company initiated two new educational projects, directed at attracting students to engineering and technical sciences, and to supporting gifted and talented young people — the Developing Talent programme, an oil and gas themed competition for middle- and senior-class high school students, and a major project for developing essential maths skills, “Progress in Mathematics”. These programmes — in what is a unique format in Russia’s regions — have engendered considerable interest among young people in their first year of implementation.
