No matter how good the basic education is, the “cutting” of a student and his or her gradual transformation into a specialist takes place only at the production site, in the work process. And if an experienced, friendly and responsible mentor is around, the process of “forging” a young specialist is successful and efficient. To this end, AlES JSC has preserved a unique school of mentoring and routinely applies the long-term experience of its best specialists to preserve and transfer professional experience at almost all production sites.

– Mentoring is not only about helping newcomers adapt to the workplace and putting theory into practice. There is also a serious socio-psychological aspect, when an experienced mentor helps young employees to get used to the working environment, adapt to processes and standards, and achieve success in their professional activities”, – says Araylym Aidabolova, Head of the Personnel Training Department at AlES JSC. – The company has indeed established a full-fledged mentoring school with its own traditions, rules, and performance criteria developed over the years. At present we have more than 174 specialists working with apprentices. They pass on their skills and experience, share their knowledge of the specifics of working with equipment and tools in their areas, and learn safety rules and protocols for working in production. There are mentors in all of the company’s production structures. Many of them have trained dozens of apprentices.

One of such mentors – Nurlybek Derbisaly, Deputy Head of the electric shop for operation of CHPP-2 n.a. A.Zhakutov. He has been working in the energy sector for more than 8 years and has been training young specialists for the last four years. Ten young employees have already passed his school.

– The most important aspects of working at any site in the power industry are the safety of employees and the smooth functioning of the plant”, – says Nurlybek. – Safety is where you start to enter the profession. Now my responsibilities include managing the operational activities of the shop, planning and administration of resources, personnel management, maintenance of technical equipment, participation in projects and modernisation of the plant, as well as ensuring safety. All this knowledge, skills and experience must be passed on to my young colleagues.

Nurlybek does not hide the fact that being a mentor is not easy. Yes, this job is very important and responsible… Yes, the success of a student is a reward for the teacher. But at the same time it can be difficult, requires a lot of time, patience, responsibility, effort, observance of ethical norms, and sometimes it is stressful. At the same time, a mentor must possess a number of qualities, without which he or she will have little success. It is important to be competent in your field, you need good professional knowledge and experience, openness, communication skills, ability to adapt to the situation, organisation, honesty, ability to analyse and evaluate.

– I can expect a good result if I, as a mentor, can find a personalised approach to each student and show patience in the training process”, – Nurlybek continues. – A lot, of course, depends on the students’ efforts. I remember all my students, follow their progress, and rejoice at their successes. I am especially proud of those who show maximum interest and are ready to surpass their teachers. One of my mentees is Yerzhigit Turapbekov, who immediately showed that he is capable of generating new ideas and solving complex problems. He has shown himself to be an extremely efficient and responsible person. Yerzhigit always achieves his goals and fulfils his duties with the highest precision. Today he is a highly efficient and responsible specialist. His intelligence and efficiency make him an incredibly impressive personality. I am confident that he will achieve outstanding results.

For Nurlybek, mentoring is also a kind of relay race: Bagdat Sailaukhanovich Moldabayev, his mentor, once supported and taught him a lot of things as a young power engineer. Nurlybek remembered one incident that happened at the beginning of his career for the rest of his life.

– We often discussed various emergency situations and methods of their elimination with our mentor during a shift. There were times when the shift supervisor would scold us and advise us not to “get involved” in emergencies – many people consider it superstition. Once it happened like this: we had just discussed a specific scenario, and just 10 minutes later, the exact same emergency situation occurred. The shift supervisor just grinned and said: “You asked for it, now eliminate this accident”. And we were quickly able to deal with the emergency thanks to the knowledge we had gained from our mentor.

Nurlybek is convinced that mentoring pumps up not only the student, but also the teacher, helps create a strong professional team, and reduces staff turnover. He is convinced of this in practice.

Aleksandr Fresher, shift supervisor of the Fuel and Transport Shop of CHPP-3, has been working as a mentor for more than 20 years out of 30 years. During this time he has already trained more than 30 people. And at the beginning of his career he was also trained as a mentor. Today, decades later, Alexander Vladimirovich remembers him with gratitude.

– My first mentor is Rais Khasanovich Sirozidinov, was a professional in his field. All his knowledge, which he generously shared with me, is very valuable to me. Now I also teach young workers the profession. After all, mentoring is the transfer of experience, accumulated knowledge about the specifics of work, bringing skills to perfection. I consider individual approach to each employee to be the main thing in mentoring. The profession of a power engineer is very prestigious, discipline and professionalism are important here. And I am pleased when young specialists take a responsible approach to their work and are proud of their profession.

This is another peculiarity of power engineers – along with professional knowledge, they share with their students pride in their business, love and dedication in their work. All this cannot be attributed to professional skills, but it creates a corporate spirit in the team, a sense of elbow and faith in the reliability of those who work alongside you.

This is also evidenced by the stories of mentors. For ten years, Sergei Borozentsev, a shift supervisor of the turbine shop of CHPP-1 n.a. B.Orazbayev, has been sharing his knowledge with his students. Over these years, he has trained more than 30 people.

– Mentoring is an opportunity to pass on my experience and knowledge to the young. The most memorable of my students is Yernat Bekenov. I will never forget his burning eyes and desire to learn. At such moments I really feel needed for this sphere and for our company”, he says. – For me, the value of mentoring is that I can pass on not only my experience in work, but also form relationships in the team, contribute to the personal growth of young employees, their self-realisation in work and in life. The most important qualities of a mentor are patience, restraint, ability to find an approach to each trainee. Mentoring is valuable for young employees because they have the opportunity to apply all the theories learnt in books in practice under the close supervision of a mentor.

Sergey Borozentsev has been in the power industry for 27 years, but even many years later he is grateful to his first and best mentor Mikhail Konstantinovich Mitrofanov, who taught and even, one could say, programmed his students to fulfil their tasks on their conscience. Aidos Terlikbay, shift supervisor of the turbine shop of CHPP-2, remembers his first mentor – senior machinist of Group 8 Aidarbek Tansykovich Kystaubaev with the same sincere gratitude. Now he is a mentor himself, and he sees his task in teaching young guys to understand what their job is.

– I have already trained many guys. And my most responsible student is Fayzyrahman Sagyndykov, who now works as a machinist at the central thermal control panel for steam turbines”, says the mentor. – I try to convey to young people the important principles of our profession: the value of labour of power engineers, responsible attitude to work, accident-free operation. I also try to share life values with them: to be an example for my children in life and for my students in work. My motto is: to achieve a goal, one must persistently pursue it!

– I believe that the most important thing is to instil in a person a love for the chosen profession in a short period of time”, Yuryi Sviridov, a mechanic for operation and repair of gas equipment, 6th grade, turbine shop of CHPP-3, continues this theme. – My experience at the enterprise is 30 years. And I have been a mentor for about 20 years. During these years I have trained a dozen of specialists. Yermek Bayakhmet is remembered. When he came, he was afraid of everything, but now he can teach anyone he wants. But not everyone can do everything at once. The task of a mentor is to introduce a person into the production process so that he feels his importance and responsibility for the work he does and respect for the team. As my mentor taught me, we are all cogs in a single mechanism, so everyone must contribute to the common cause.

– Everything I know now was taught to me by my mentor Alexandra Devyatova”, Valentina Usmankina, an electrician for repair and maintenance of electrical equipment at the electrical shop of CHPP-3, recalls with gratitude. – I have been working at the station for 20 years. The work is interesting. Now new equipment is brought to the station, I think it will be very interesting for me to understand it and teach it to young people. I have a narrow speciality, so I have trained only two workers in it so far. Each of them was interesting in their own way. My first apprentice tried to move to another position three times, but in the end he learnt to wind stators and was very happy about it. The value of mentoring is that the profession continues to exist. And for this purpose it is necessary to interest young people. The profession of electrician on repair of windings and insulation of electrical equipment requires attention and diligence, ability to understand schemes. Thanks to a mentor, all these skills are developed in the trainee, experience and understanding of the profession comes. So it turns out that by training, we preserve the rare profession itself.

And this is a very important aspect: many professions are quietly disappearing from the field of public attention, they are practically never taught anywhere – due to their small sphere of application. But this does not mean that they are not needed. That is why we have to teach them in practice, as Valentina Usmankina does. Only such a living relay of practical knowledge preserves such rare professions.

Ruslan Atabayev, senior foreman of URKO-1, CREO-1, PRE Energoremont, has a similar task, though for a different reason. A welder is one of the most in-demand professions on the labour market. Entrepreneurs poach them from each other, so those companies that can train welders do not have such an acute staff shortage. But there is always a need.

– For seven years I have been mentoring electric welders and gas cutters”, says Ruslan Atabayev, who has already trained 11 workers. – For me, mentoring is one of the forms of interaction with novice workers. In the process of training, the trainee acquires new knowledge and experience, and I consolidate and repeat for myself the theoretical knowledge and experience acquired. At the same time, each trainee is individual, and it is necessary to find the most suitable training method for each of them. I remember most of all electric welder AlmasAshirbayev. He joined us with no experience in welding pipelines, but showed a great desire to improve his welding skills. Today he has grown as a professional from 4 to 6 category with the admission to welding of pipelines of category 1.2. This is an admission with unlimited pressure and temperature up to 560 degrees Celsius. Now Almas is one of the leading electric welders at the site. With another electric welder I had trained earlier, we welded two test weld samples on a bet. In the end, after checking them, his samples were better than mine. This is a prime example of an apprentice outperforming his mentor. And I am proud of it, because the main value of mentoring is the opportunity for personal growth of both the trainee and the mentor.

In their turn, the Company’s veterans and specialists emphasise that it is largely thanks to the mentoring system that professional continuity and team cohesion are preserved, equipment is in working order and, in general, the regular operation mode of all the Company’s power plants has been maintained for decades.