At the roundtable “Will Generation Z Start Catching Fish? Problems of Education and Science” held on the first day of the IV Global Fishery Forum, experts discussed industry staffing in the coming decades.

Vasily Sokolov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, outlined the role of the fisheries industry in the socio-economic development of the regions and its interaction with other sectors of the economy. “Expert estimate that each fisherman automatically creates at least 6–8 extra jobs, and the ratio will rise even more once the investment quota programme is implemented”, Sokolov stressed. In this respect, training of personnel capable of providing for rational use of raw material resources of Russian fisheries, operation of fishing vessels, the work of coastal enterprises and the industry's organisations is a strategic priority for the Federal Agency for Fisheries educational complex.

The average wage of those working in the Russian fishing industry is 70% higher than the national average. At the same time, the demand for some blue-collar and engineering services in the fisheries sector has increased 10–20-fold in recent years. So, there is both high demand in the industry and a decent offer for specialists, he emphasised.

Even so, the current average age of those employed in the fishing industry is between 44 and 50. This means that, in the next 5–10 years, the fishing industry will face a shortage of qualified personnel on production and processing vessels.

To address this issue, the Federal Agency for Fisheries is promoting cooperation between universities and employers in provision of internships and internship sites, organisation of basic academic departments, tailored training and job fairs, as well as new educational programmes needed as a result of the rapid scientific and technological progress in the industry, its computerisation and new knowledge requirements for specialists.

Vladimir Volkogon, Rector of Kaliningrad State Technical University, talked about how modern vocational education was coping with these challenges. He said the main idea behind current innovations in the education process was to respond to changing market conditions and meet the demands of the fishing industry. For this and other purposes, a national fisheries research and education consortium was set up in 2020 to bring together higher educational institutions, research and fisheries sector organisations across the country, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. Its key objective is to consolidate efforts to improve education, introducing new programmes for providing students with practical skills. Volkogon said the consortium had become a platform for dialogue between the industry and educational institutions, enabling employers to integrate into the educational process in order to produce the best possible trained workforce in the future. He also emphasised that, thanks to the joint efforts, the prestige of the profession has been growing in recent years, as is evidenced by the increasing number of applicants to work at sea on fishing vessels. There are currently more than 23,000 students enrolled in the higher educational institutions of the Federal Agency for Fisheries.

As fisheries are a very knowledge-intensive industry, it is important for science also to be involved in staff training. According to Kirill Kivva, Vice-Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists at the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), given the psychological characteristics of Generation Z young people, it is people aged 30 to 40 who are better able to find common ground with such young people, becoming their mentors in a professional environment. Research conferences for young specialists are also an effective tool prompting them to become involved in the creative process. His colleague Svetlana Orlova, a leading researcher at VNIRO, focused on a specific tool for developing young people’s scientific potential – the School for Young Scientists. This project, organised by VNIRO in conjunction with the Federal Agency for Fisheries and with support from a number of fishing industry organisations, aims to bring together young professionals, provide interdisciplinary training and create a suitable environment for their professional development. It is held in the combined format of general education lectures with sport and intellectual play, thereby creating the most appealing environment for Generation Z.

Among other things, the roundtable participants discussed the experience of integrating and engaging not only university students but also secondary school pupils in agricultural and fishery professions, the methods used by big companies to attract young professionals, development of communication channels using social media and adaptation of working conditions to the needs of young people, as well as creation of new government structures to promote interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of digitalisation and robotics in agriculture.

Summing up, the deputy head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries stated that, despite the large-scale automation and digitalisation of technological processes in the sector, there were no signs of workers being completely replaced by machine labour in the near future. The need for personnel will remain, though the requirements on their qualification skills will change. So, the issue of consolidating the efforts of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, science, education and business to attract young personnel into the industry will remain relevant in the coming years.

Source: Press Office of the Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo Russia 2021.