IrGTU Rector Ivan Golovnykh said that even in the crisis demand for technical specialists remains steadily high, and the shortage of personnel in the real economy is only growing. He said 82 percent of university graduates find jobs, but the aviation and mining geology faculties already do not have enough specialists for all vacancies. The article also says that school students more often choose humanities subjects for the Unified State Exam, although technical professions are especially in demand today.

Even during a crisis, when many people are losing their jobs, there are professions for which demand remains consistently high. The shortage of specialists in the real sector of the economy is already a serious problem. These figures were announced by Ivan Golovnykh, rector of Irkutsk State Technical University, at the public hearings “Youth Policy of the Irkutsk Region: Current Situation and Prospects.”
According to Ivan Golovnykh, today 82% of IrSTU graduates are guaranteed employment, and there are not enough young specialists who have graduated from the aviation and mining-geological faculties to fill all available vacancies. For example, Irkutsk Aviation Plant is experiencing a personnel shortage, and almost all employees of OAO Verkhnechonskneftegaz are from elsewhere.
In Ivan Golovnykh’s opinion, the shortage of technical specialists will only grow further. And this is not due to IrSTU’s capabilities, but to the preferences of yesterday’s school graduates — 73.7% of future applicants will take the Unified State Exam in history, geography, and social studies, that is, subjects that universities use to admit students to humanities and economics programs. Only 18.8% of schoolchildren expressed a desire to take computer science and chemistry.
At the hearings, it was noted that it is necessary to actively promote the prestige of professions in the real sector of the economy. Often, yesterday’s school graduates, swayed by fashion trends, dream of a career as a lawyer or manager. Teenagers need to be explained that there is an oversupply of such specialists on the labor market.