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The Best Educational Project, a vocational skills contest launched by Nakhodka Mineral Fertilizer Plant (NFP), has entered a new stage, with participants presenting their own ideas and initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education in the city. Such projects are aimed at vocational guidance for schoolchildren, development of engineering way of thinking, and functional literacy. The contest is held with support of the Resource Center for Education Development and Nakhodka’s City administration.

NFP is convinced that education is a growth vector that is necessary for Nakhodka today. The quality of life in the city directly depends on the quality of education, and teachers play the main role in its improvement. Therefore, the company has been holding the Best Educational Project contest for the second year in a row. The authors of the top 10 projects receive cash prizes as well as opportunities for professional development.

This time more than 20 pedagogical teams, with around 50 teachers from schools and kindergartens, – submitted draft versions of their projects to the jury and received the recommendations on how to improve the shortcomings. The participants will then update the project materials and make final presentations during the spring stage of the contest.

“The most interesting projects are those related to vocational guidance. In this regard, school teachers have made progress, gaining a better understanding of their essence and the relative innovative processes. Moreover, this direction is backed by state educational policy, making it very relevant,” said Ludmila Putintseva, director of the Resource Center for Education Development.

Teachers of Vybor (eng. -Choice), Public School No. 19, presented two projects related to vocational guidance: Schoolchildren-University-Company interaction system and cookery classes for kids. The first project proposes a large long-term program high school students who will get to know the companies operating in Nakhodka, take professional tests, visit higher and secondary vocational educational institutions.  With this, upon graduation from high school, every one of them will have a better view of career opportunities in Nakhodka. On top of that they will understand what they want to be in future, where they want to work and how to achieve it.

The author of the second project is Anna Goltsova, a handicraft teacher. She organized extracurricular activities for children who are eager to learn the basics of cooking. Kids can learn how to bake pastries and understand the specifics of confectioner’s job – from working in bakeries to launching their own businesses.

“Vocational guidance programs are essentially aimed at what educational and vocational combination centers used to do before. This trend is reviving. New enterprises are being created in Nakhodka, and there was no relevant professional education for schoolchildren before – take, for example, chemical industry, stevedoring or even entrepreneurship. The goal of all the programs presented today is to familiarize schoolchildren with career opportunities in their hometown. With this, having completed their studies, children will stay in Nakhodka and help developing it. And to achieve this, we must support the teachers,” noted Valery Mishkin, a deputy of the city Duma.

The Best Educational Project is not the only educational initiative of the enterprise. Formula for Success, a school research project competition, is running in parallel with the contest of pedagogical initiatives. The participants are actively working on projects, which are already improving the quality of life in the city.