Murmansk to Host Northern Professional Skills Championship in August

Murmansk will host the first professional skills championship in northern professions on 10–14 August as part of the main events of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023. The competition will feature 80 contestants aged 16 to 22, who represent nine regions of the Arctic zone. Their performance will be assessed by certified experts from the Agency for the Development of Skills and Professions.

The championship is being organized by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Arctic as well as the Murmansk Region government. The Roscongress Foundation is managing events as part of chairmanship.

The Arctic zone is a region with a unique climate and special socioeconomic features. Work in certain regions requires specific knowledge and skills, based on which a number of competitive competencies have been identified, including ‘Operation of water transport vessels’, ‘Geospatial technologies’, and ‘Cattle breeder (reindeer breeder)’. Due to steady growth in interest in Arctic tourism, as well as the culture and traditions of the Far North, the contestants will also demonstrate their skills in such areas as ‘Folk crafts of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic’, ‘National cuisine’, and ‘Wood and bone carving’. The championship also includes skills that are standard for all industries and regions – ‘Network and system administration’, ‘Welding’, and ‘Electrical installation’.

In addition, the events of the business programme will take place on 10 August and will be highlighted by a plenary session dedicated to the development of the human resources potential of the Arctic zone. Representatives of government and business will discuss opportunities for creating conditions for the rapid development of regions. The opening and closing ceremonies of the championship will be held on 10 and 14 August, respectively, at the Meridian Hotel in Murmansk.

The competition is expected to promote the development of interregional cooperation and make a significant contribution to the development of training standards for work in the Arctic zone and the process of determining the extent of the professional classification of specialists based on the use of best practices and available technologies in the context of import substitution.

A cross-cutting priority of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023 is to ensure responsible governance for the sustainable development of the Arctic, which is largely determined by the quality of human capital. Priority attention is being given to work to maintain the sustainability and viability of the peoples of the North, promote measures to adapt them to climate change, improve people’s well-being, health, education, and quality, and ensure sustainable socioeconomic development throughout the region.

A live broadcast of the championship’s business programme events will be available on the official website of Russia’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council: https://arctic-council-russia.ru/en/events/razvitie-chelovecheskogo-kapitala-v-arktike/mezhdunarodnyy-chempionat-professionalnogo-masterstva-po-severnym-professiyam/

Reference information:

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