Edik OMAROV: I am happy when my students become successful

One can hardly argue with the fact that a good mentor starts with good teachers. It is like a relay race, like the duty of a specialist, trained by the wisdom, experience, and cordiality of others, to lead his young and unskilled colleagues into the profession.

AlES believes that mentoring is a long-standing tradition supported by the management, trade union and, most importantly, by the workers themselves. And although many of the mentors at AlES are relatively young themselves, but their professional reputation and experience of mentoring have earned respect in the team.

Edik Zharkhymbekovich Omarov is one of the young mentors. Speaking about the beginning of his professional path, he first of all and with great warmth recalls his teachers in the profession.

“I started working in PRP “Energoremont” in 2013 as a 3rd category electric welder. And the following year I was trained as a certified electric welder”, recalls Edik Zharkhymbekovich. – My first mentor was Tatyana Konstantinovna Mikhno. She taught me how to weld. I was also taught welding by Kanat Amangazinovich Musakhanov. And as early as in 2014, thanks to their training school, I got the 4th category.

But I refused to stop at this point. And in the following years I gained experience from a more experienced electric welder and my new mentor at the production site – Akkadyr Joldybayev. We all simply called him “Uncle Alik”. He taught me a lot of things. So, having gained experience and participating in competitions in electric welding, I became 6-th category welder. From the very beginning I enjoyed handling metal, and I think I reached a high level in my specialty thanks to my persistence and of course thanks to my competent mentors.

Nowadays Edik Omarov teaches his young colleagues himself. But he says with some shyness that he takes the place of his mentor, Tatiana Konstantinovna.

“I could never imagine myself in her place, that is, I never thought that I would teach and pass on practical skills to young welders”, says Edik Zharkhymbekovich. – But it is a conscious choice: at the moment there is a shortage of competent and good electric welders in our industry. For me, training young specialists in my specialty means helping them to develop their professional skills and grow in their profession.

It is not always easy. The most difficult thing in the work of a mentor is when a person does not want to learn. And in this case a lot depends on the mentor and his ability to motivate the student. I try to explain things to the guys in an accessible, friendly way… But, to be honest, not everyone succeeds. That’s why I have to teach some of them more strictly and ask them more frequently and more rigidly.

I often see that a person has a desire to learn, but… laziness overrides his desire. In this case, I realize that the person needs strict discipline. That is, it is very important for a mentor to be able to find an approach to each trainee. I often give my trainees an argument that is equally suitable for all trainees – both good and not so good: “you need to study well, thoughtfully, because if you become a competent specialist, you will be in demand in any field and will be able to achieve great successes. But for this, in particular for welders, you need more practice”.

In 2020, Edik Omarov was promoted to the position of master of industrial training. And during this time he has trained more than 50 employees, both from scratch and certified electric welders. Among his students there were some who entered the profession without fully understanding its specifics. For example, there were those who, when they started training, were very afraid of… electric current. And the first thing he taught his trainees was: “if you follow safety precautions, nothing terrible will happen to you”. As a result, many overcame this fear, after a few classes, became good specialists, winners or prize-winners of various competitions.

“When a student wins a competition, when he surpasses more experienced specialists, it makes me happy”, says Edik Omarov about the achievements of his students. – For example, one of my first students won second place, and I was very happy, because I thought it was a good achievement in such a short time – both the student’s and mine. After all, the value of mentoring is to pass on experience, to make specialists more competent. And for me, as a mentor, it is very important that the trainees get as much knowledge as possible and become good specialists.

Edik Zharkhymbekovich continues to work and train young people, looking into the future, believing that such personnel policy, such mentoring practice, as in AlES JSC, allows not only today to fill the company and the industry with highly qualified workers, but also make a good foundation for the future. Power engineering is a modern industry that requires a large number of technical personnel, renewal, and the company, supporting the traditions of practical mentoring, makes the process of training in-demand specialists of different specializations systematic and continuous.