In-house School of Masters is through the first stage of training
— 2008-07-12 —

On July 12 Produkty Pitania Plant’s School of Masters had its final class.

Corporate training certificates were awarded to trainees who are now alumni of the School.

Natalia Mukhametova, Senior HR Department Manager, Project Manager:
 - Our project was launched in November 2007. I am happy to see that all of its participants have taken a responsible attitude towards the project. Masters diligently attended all classes while working at the plant, did their homework; in-house trainers who also work at the plant prepared for their classes diligently and demonstrated their interest in doing this. The final exams have shown that the majority of trainees are highly responsible and they obtained good knowledge during training.

The curriculum covered a broad range of disciplines, each of which was directly related to the work of masters at the plant and to their role and position as managers in production. Managers and specialists of our plant were involved as trainers for the project.

Stefano Vlahovic, President of the Company, made a visit to the School, informed those present about the development plans of the company and provided detailed answers to questions.

Thirty-six masters successfully passed final examinations. Tatiana Luneva, General Director of Produkty Pitania Combine LLC awarded certificates to alumni at the awards ceremony. The final event continued with a corporate team building effort and recreation on the shore of the Baltic Sea (see next news about this part of the corporate event!).

Ludmila Afonina, Shift Master of the Raw Material Processing Shop:
- The new knowledge has been very handy. Personnel motivation approaches are clearer to me now and I better understand new employee adaptation issues and labor legislation provisions. It has been a great opportunity to learn all of this in production.

Tamara Drobysheva, Shift Master of Lasagna Production Shop:
- I became more self-confident, learned more and my questions about my role of line manager as well as bout production in general have been answered by School of Masters trainers.

Alexander Shliakhovoy, acting Production Manager.
- I came to the plant to work as Master in November 2007 and the School of Masters was there just in time. The classes facilitated me during my adaptation period at the new workplace and environment. During training I had a chance to communicate with my colleagues from other production areas and different departments of the plant, I asked the questions that were of interest to me and the questions related to production aspects were answered by skilled professionals. I am sure that the School helped me one step up in my career.

Tatiana Sinchenkova, HR Director:
-This was our first full-scale in-house training project.
The curriculum was developed in close cooperation with heads of our production and support divisions and was focused on teaching the essential knowledge of production and economy fundamentals, process technology and human resources management. The School of Masters achieved its key focus in training, and the lectures, seminars, business games and training sessions also helped build a team of line managers and streamline in-house communications. After graduation all alumni of the School of Masters highly appraised the quality of training, brought forward their proposals as to the future of this project and specific issues they would like to explore. For instance, they mentioned such topics as marketing (market for our products, competitors, new products), economic planning and management in production, psychology…

The following employees have been recognized by the in-house order for organizing and taking part in this training effort: Mukhametova N.A., Senior Manager of HR Department; Koshelnik N.G., Senior Staff Training Specialist; and Novikov A.S., Staff Training Engineer.  Best students of the School of Masters have also been recognized for their responsible attitude towards class attendance, homework, and preparation for the final examinations.

The Human Resources Department proposed the following motto for the School of Masters: Training Never Gets to Saturation Point, which turned out to be highly precise because 88% of project participants, when answering the question regarding their desire to continue their studies, reported their understanding of the need to receive fundamental specialized training and to maintain their professional level through continuous professional development. We are certain that the project is destined to continue and develop.