Moskovsky Komsomolets has been finding out whether it is easy to be retrained for another job at government expense
This year the government allocated money for retraining of 216,000 unemployed workers.
Yesterday's accountants, managers and bank clerks are being retrained to be welders, house painters, etc.
People in Komi are learning how to grow chinchillas, in the Tyumen Region how to artificially inseminate animals, and in the Nizhny Novgorod how to gather pine cones. In Moscow, unemployed people are given the opportunity to... climb walls. The Moscow Labour and Employment Department reports that people are lining up to learn how to be industrial climbers. Our correspondent joined the line.
I would like to be a plumber, can somebody train me?
After wrestling with the question "what do I want to be?", I decided to seek professional advice. "Spend two hours to answer test questions, and you can find out!" a cheerful clerk at a test centre at one of Moscow's universities told me. As it turned out, I also had to spend 2,000 roubles (other such centres charge the same sum). This did not conform to the claims that retraining was free.
However, after a few minutes of Internet browsing, I found a "free rider" option. After replying to the questions on the occupational guidance test site, I learned that I was capable of "working in conditions of total isolation" (for example, sitting at home and knitting socks for babies). The test designers offered a choice of trades: photographer, designer, biotechnician, cook or confectioner and also, oddly, house painter. Unfortunately, none of the options are very realistic: who would spend years in training if money is needed now?
I was told at the pastry plant training centre that you have to study for two years even to make pastries. And as for photographers, according to the Internet, there are 90 candidates for every job opening. "There is no demand for photographers, just like for press journalists", the employment centre confirmed. Lawyers, bankers, economists and PR managers have the hardest time getting re-employed. According to Oleg Neterebsky, head of the Moscow Labour and Employment Department, workers and experts in wholesale and retail trade have the best chances for quick re-employment. The trades most in demand include fitters, public transport drivers, stone-masons, carpenters, joiners, house painters, welders and sales attendants. There is a shortage of accountants, teachers, nurses, etc. So, I have to fall back on the house painter option. There is no harm in learning one more trade.
"Can I learn a trade for the future, so to speak?" I asked the employment centre official. Just in case I get fired."
Because the state can provide only so much support, it is not all that simple. "Wait until you get fired," the official snapped. This is how the system works: during the first two months after dismissal they will look for a job in your line of work. If no such job can be found, you are retrained at a study centre, where you will be paid a stipend in the form of a welfare benefit (up to 4,900 roubles). Twenty-seven education institutions offer retraining, including very prestigious ones (for example, the Bauman Technical University and the Moscow State Institute of Electronic Technology).
However, as always, alternatives exist. If an enterprise submits a list of employees slated for dismissal to the employment service, training may start even before they are dismissed. Of course, few enterprises had the time to show such consideration for their workers. Only 1,500 people in Moscow are in so-called pro-active training. For the sake of fairness, it must be said that unemployed Muscovites are not being retrained en masse. Retraining centres have about 5,000 trainees, according to the Labour and Employment Department. And so anyone who wants to learn a new trade in advance has to fall back on the surefire method: to pay. How much you pay depends on the trade you want to learn. For example, to become a lift operator (4 weeks) costs just 2,000 roubles, and being trained as an operator in a boiler room (29 days of studies plus 17 days on-the-job training) costs 9,000 roubles.
The free option (for the unemployed) is of course good for your personal budget, but it sometimes can let you down. "I waited since last August to be enrolled in a course," says Anna, a future designer. "I've been studying since March, and before that they tried to find me a job in my former line of work. Actually they were looking for a vacancy for two months, and then I was only on the waiting list to enroll in the course." Employment is not guaranteed. "We only get offers from the job fairs. Otherwise, you have to fend for yourself," Anna sighs.
Climbing walls is for the lucky ones
Muscovites line up to learn to be a driver or an industrial climber, according to the head of the Labour and Employment Department. "Many people with university degrees want to master these professions, because they are in demand and the salaries are higher than those of some CEOs," says Mr Neterebsky. Of course not all those who want to climb the wall will get their wish. But one can pay 14,000 roubles and jump the line to become an industrial climber within a month. If you think that employers are chasing retrained personnel you are mistaken. After finishing the course (and being issued a standard certificate) it usually takes between 2 months and a year to find a job.
In general, says Mr Neterebsky, one in every three applicants at the Moscow Employment Service finds a job. As the chances of remaining "office plankton" diminish, Muscovites do not think it beneath them to be retrained as bus drivers, power supply specialists, boiler room operators or lift operators. "Office plankton" also flock to the house painting course that refused to train me for free. It is external training, three months instead of a year. Each trainee costs the Government an average of 9,000-10,000 roubles.
"At first it gave me terrible backache," says Igor, a former PR specialist, who has been painting walls in a study centre for two weeks. "You apply stucco and you cannot leave until you have removed what you have done, in order to start everything from scratch the next day. As in life, you have to start from scratch." Igor does not despair and hopes to open his own interior decorating firm: "I heard Mr Putin say something about grants for those who want to start their own business." Nevertheless, Igor had not heard what the size of the grant would be. I happen to know: it will be between 14,000 and 70,000 roubles.
In early March, Prime Minister Putin and the Minister of Healthcare, Tatyana Golikova, visited an employment centre and gave employment to several jobless people. One got the job of a forklift truck driver and another of a rafter assembler. Unfortunately, officials of such rank do not make the rounds to employment centres every day. So, redundant workers have to be quick on their feet. According to a figure released by the Institute of Economic Forecasting, for unemployed people to find jobs, a staggering 5 million need to be retrained. That is 23 times more than the Government target.
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Background
The study of the SuperJob.ru portal has shown that 64% of Russians would be prepared to change their occupation if they were fired. Human resource managers see themselves as accountants, and the latter are ready to become economists and auditors. Teachers would settle for the job of psychologist, and journalists for that of PR manager. Programmers and sales managers are the most realistic of all, since they have chosen the "worker" option most often. However, in 2007, before the financial crisis, the percentage of retrained workers was less than 5% of the total workforce, compared with 45% in China and almost 53% in Brazil. It is time to change habits and styles.
Tatyana Zamakhina