Personnel training for the mining and geological sector of Russia

Mineral resource base development objectively requires high-quality human resources for mining and geological sector. A brief analysis of the geological sector development tendencies and ongoing projects demonstrates the scale of technological challenges facing the sector. Over the past decades, Russia has been facing serious problems that can become constraining factors in economic development, regional development, and the implementation of national projects. Training of specialists for the sector is one of the challenges. In order to solve such a complex problem, Federal State Educational Standards for training of specialists in the specialties “Applied Geology”, “Geological Exploration Technique” were developed. The Educational Standards provide for the formation of future geologists’ professional competencies relevant to the industry. Comparison of the competence models of the Standards with the main priority lines of the development of science and technologies in framework of the implementation of the state scientific and technological policy of Russia shows that they allow universities to form programs for geologist training that respond to modern challenges. Internship (field training) programs play a special role in ensuring the quality of training for geologists. They play a decisive role in the formation of universal and professional competencies and open the world of a subculture of professionals in this field to the future specialists that is very important for a young person who devotes his future to geology. The paper highlights a significant role of the government, the academic and professional community - universities, companies, research and public organizations - in the formation of human resources for the mining and geological sector. An urgent need was identified for the creation of a domestic system of professional qualifications (mining engineer, mining engineer-geologist, mining engineer-hydrogeologist, mining engineer for drilling wells, mining engineer-geochemist, mining engineer-geophysicist, etc.), which should ensure harmonization of the requirements for the level of specialist competence for the industry.