Tatyana VLASOVA: A mentoring school is recreated at AlES JSC

In the late 90s of the last century, when there was an acute shortage of qualified personnel especially electric welders qualified to weld pipelines, Tatiana Vasilievna Vlasova, a leading engineer of the Metals and Welding Service (MWS) at Energoremont, stepped up to become a mentor. Nowadays she is a Level 2 metallurgist and Level 3 welding specialist with 30 years of experience and she keeps it up.

In 1998, when SMiS (Engineering Systems Monitoring) was transferred from the head office of the Almaty power complex to PRP “Energoremont” in order to optimize the service and make it closer to actual manufacturing, Tatyana Vlasova has already been a legendary person. Not just a high-level specialist, but also a scientist. At that time, she had the following under her belt: she had graduated from the Department of Solid State Physics (specializing in X-ray structure analysis) at Tomsk State University; successfully defended her diploma on semiconductors; had worked at the Novosibirsk Research Institute of NPO “Vostok”; and had published a thesis on “Ceramic platinum-ruthenium catalysts for internal combustion engines” at the Institute of Organic Catalysis and Electrochemistry at the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan. But in the 90s, due to known reasons, she changed the institute laboratories to production, where her knowledge came in handy.

– There was an immediate need for specialists of the first through fourth categories, as required by the Emergency Boiler Inspection Service. For this purpose, in March 1998, at SMiS we organized training courses for them”, recalls Tatiana Vlasova, a leading control engineer and head of the metal science and flaw detection group at SMiS. – It was like a job in addition to my primary work, and I was well aware of its importance for our company and for the entire energy sector in Almaty. When we organized training courses to improve the qualification of workers, I immediately began to develop a methodology of teaching metal science and programs. I started to teach following them. In addition to my major specialty, I had to study welding production. Besides, in 1998, when there was the most acute shortage of specialists, they added maintenance control to the service. This was a vital requirement due to the condition of the aging equipment at the electric stations.

Despite the fact that Tatyana Vlasova joined the company in 1995 with considerable professional achievements, she had to learn from more experienced colleagues, just like all newcomers to production. She recalls with gratitude her mentors who, figuratively speaking, handed her a working profession.

– February 20, 1995 is my date. That was the day I came to the metals and welding service of RSE “Almatyenergo”, – recalls Tatyana Vasilyevna. – I was appointed a laboratory technician of 6th grade to gain practical experience in power engineering. I am very grateful to my first teachers in the power industry for my knowledge. First of all – Mikhail Nikolaevich Lobanov, Head of SMiS at RSE Almaty Energo. He taught me everything that is necessary for an energy metallurgist. It was an excellent practice. The lessons of Artur Dmitrievich Brzhestovsky, head of metal shop “Kaznaladka”, Victor Ivanovich Karalkin, chief engineer of PRP were of much use. My best teachers in power engineering were Mikhail Nikolaevich Lobanov, Head of SM&S, Nikolay Mikhailovich Grebnev, Senior Master of Flaw Inspection, Vladimir Georgievich Shmelev, at that time Head of Repair Service of the Head Office. Since then I have never regretted that I tied my career with power engineering.

However, she had to learn the specialty of a metallurgical engineer on her own. In a short period of time Tatiana mastered the necessary additional skills, and in April 1996 she became a metallurgical engineer of the 2nd category. A metal scientist has always had a lot of work: she had to service three CHPPs, Cascade HPP, Kapshagay HPP. During one of the periods of work she had to service heat and distribution networks.

She took mentoring with great responsibility at once, considering it her duty to help young workers to master a new specialty, to teach them production discipline: compliance with the technology of assembly and welding joints, heat treatment technology, the ability to select electrodes in accordance with the operating parameters of the boiler or turbine, to know the marking of steels and much more.

– The work of a mentor is not as simple as it may seem to some people. After all, you have to be able to explain complex issues of welding production in simple words”, Tatyana Vasiliyevna shares her experience. – It is very important that the workers are not afraid to point out to the foremen where they are wrong according to the normative documentation in some narrow areas. Since we actually recreated the mentoring school from scratch – after the collapse of the country’s economy in the early 90s – there were many difficulties. For example, with the equipment of materials for welding and cutting – electrodes, metals… But all these issues are now being solved within departments.

There is another kind of challenge – the ability of a master-mentor to impart knowledge to people who practically did not study at secondary school or have many gaps. And there are some of these folks. But that’s what a mentor is for, not to be afraid to pass on his experience and knowledge to the growing generation, helping young workers to replenish their knowledge and learn new professions.

– Every job has its own little nuances and tricks, which are not written in books, but which are known to mentors, – adds the master. – The mentors are familiar with them, so it becomes easier to work and convey the fullness of knowledge to their students. And in general – the experience of the mentor, his ability to teach the material in an accessible format and work in a team, his friendliness, strictness, knowledge of his work – ensure good results and success of trainees.

It is difficult to count how many newcomers Tatiana Vlasova has brought to the professional level over the 26 years of her mentoring and how many she has trained. Especially considering that SMiS conducts annual re-certification of all electric welders and gas cutters of the company. Plus, there are regular trainings for thermists, operators… But in total, the number is close to 4,500 students over almost three decades. She remembers many of them well.

– Among the memorable ones are Rais Davlyatnurov, Andrey Belsky, Vladimir Gungalo, who a few years after training as a welder became a welding foreman at CHPP-2”, says Tatiana Vlasova. – Unfortunately, some of the specialists move on to other enterprises. But in general we can say that our school has trained many electric welders for the whole city of Almaty.

SMiS have become a kind of a forge of working personnel. AlES specialists are highly appreciated and take prizes at various professional contests. For example, Rais Davlyatnurov took the second place at the national contest “Electric Welder of the Millennium” in Karaganda. Andrey Belsky also showed a high level.

– Without a teacher, without a master, it is difficult to become a specialist in one’s field”, Tatiana Vlasova concludes confidently. – And we are proud that our company has not lost this tradition – the opportunity to pass on its knowledge and experience to young employees – and has maintained it for many decades. Despite the difficulties encountered in the past. But mentoring is not only good for newcomers: communication is a multilateral process, it enriches everyone, both students and mentors, because we also have a lot to learn from young people …