New Knowledge is Waiting for Us at One of the Largest Cultural Projects in Russia!

Third-year students of the Kaliningrad State Technical University are having an internship at the facilities of the cultural and educational complex on Oktyabrsky Island.

At the University, the students study in the specialties of Industrial and Civil Construction and Heat and Gas Supply and Gasification. It is the desire of the students themselves to have an internship at the facilities of the cultural and educational complex.

“Why are boys hired for construction, but girls are not? It was critical for me to get here, to be here officially, and to see all the processes with my own eyes. I declared my desire to our teacher Andrey Valerievich Kulishkin. It was important for me to understand all the processes. During lectures, we are told about the technological processes and it seems that everything is perfect at the construction site: the reinforcement is laid perfectly, the concreting process is perfect. I want to see everything with my own eyes and understand how everything really happens,” shared Anastasia Rau, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

Within a month, the young builders will get acquainted with the application of construction technologies, arrangement of the internal procedures at a large enterprise, and safety rules. There will also be more in-depth studies of construction and installation works.

“It is one thing to listen to lectures, and another thing to see construction works in progress with your own eyes. For example, the installation of formwork – it turned out that everything was not happening the way I imagined. Sometimes they explain something to us, and we recall it: “Oh! This is what we learned at the lecture.” But there is also a lot of new information, it’s even scary from the responsibility that lies on the builders’ shoulders,” shared her impressions Anastasia Taradanchik, a 3rd year student.

Everything is real at the construction site for students – an introductory briefing in safety and labour protection for starters. Every day, before the start of internship, they take part in the Safety Assembly and briefing by the curator.

“The advantage of this internship is that three facilities – the Higher School of Performing Arts (a branch of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts), branches of the Bolshoi Theater and the Tretyakov Gallery – are being built in one place, at one point. And all the three facilities are at different stages of completion. Thanks to this, the entire range of works performed is presented on the site. In the museum, for example, finishing work and installation of utility systems are currently underway. On the theatre site, one can clearly and conveniently see how the underground part of the building and vertical wall structures are being build and bored piles are being driven. As for the higher school, one can watch the construction of the building underground part, monolithic reinforced concrete slab, waterproofing, and so on. That is, according to the plan, this internship should help study all the technologies of the principal construction and installation works as much as possible,” said Andrey Kulishkin, a freelance teacher at the Department of Construction of the Kaliningrad State Technical University, integrated chief project engineer of PROJECT MEGANOM LLC.

The interns are to get into the content of the organisational and technological documentation to the maximum extent. For example, technological maps, job descriptions, calculations of the labour intensity standards.

“When you have an idea about these documents, you understand that a fitter has a certain category, and the job description states what an employee of this category can do, what they should be able to do, how the duties of the third category differ from those, for example, of the first category. The deeper we study this material, the easier it will be for us in the future when writing term papers and preparing a final qualifying work,” said Victor Dagilis, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

Theoretical knowledge will be supported by practice. For instance, the programme includes reinforcement knitting, construction of masonry walls, roofing, and other works.

“It is clear that there are no standard solutions here. They are highly customised. For example, super-strong reinforcement was used for the museum building to hold the unusual structure of the “floating” building. Of course, we will not see this in the construction of panel houses,” said Anastasia Taradanchik, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

“I am not afraid to work with my hands. I grew up with boys, so it’s not a problem for me to climb somewhere, get dirty. Even if it does not work for the first time, I won’t be upset, I will try and try again, otherwise I would regret later that I didn’t do something, that I was afraid to,” added Anastasia Rau, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

As a result of the internship, the students must prepare an internship diary and a report that they will present and defend in front of their supervisor. Well, in the future we hope to meet highly-qualified specialists at the projects of Stroytransgaz Group.

Stroytransgaz Group pays great attention to sharing expertise with the younger generation and popularisation of the honorary profession of a builder. The company has accumulated 30 years of experience in the construction and implementation of more than 200 projects in 20 countries during this time. We have something to share with young people, students who are thirsty for knowledge. Here, at the cultural and educational complex, all facilities are unlike each other and unlike other projects under construction in our region. They are technologically complex and individual in their own way. For example, bored piles of such a depth (45 m) are installed only here, this is a rarity. In general, Stroytransgaz is a leading construction company, so our very organisation, discipline, and quality of work are much higher than at other construction sites. This is the main advantage of the internship for the Kaliningrad State Technical University students here,” said Dmitry Rzhannikov, General Director of LLC Stroytransgaz – Zapad.

The internship for students is underway, but they are already full of impressions.

“Coming here, I realized that everything is much more complicated than I imagined. And there is a fear of responsibility, fear to do something wrong. I liked the work of construction control. It’s really interesting. I see how our teacher Andrey Valerievich Kulishkin is asked for advice, they clarify something with him. It would be great to have the same brain!” said Anastasia Rau, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

“Cool! Interesting! Shock! This is my first full-out time on a construction site, I have a lot of impressions. I hope we will figure out how things work by the end of our internship. Here we really get practical knowledge, real experience,” shared her emotions Anastasia Taradanchik, a 3rd year student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University.

It’s worth reminding that by the decision of the President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, major cultural, educational and museum clusters are created on Oktyabrsky Island in Kaliningrad and in three other cities of the Russian Federation on behalf of the National Cultural Heritage Foundation. The General Contractor is Stroytransgaz Group. The designer is GORKA Group.

For reference:

The Kaliningrad State Technical University is a dynamically developing multidisciplinary university complex focused on the needs of its region and the Russian fishery industry. At the moment, over 10 thousand students and cadets study within the walls of the Kaliningrad State Technical University under 69 educational programs for the training of bachelors, specialists, and masters.

This oldest industrial university in the country, which has turned into a modern university complex, annually trains over two and a half thousand highly-qualified specialists. This work is carried out by more than 750 representatives of the teaching staff. 65 doctors and more than 350 candidates of sciences share their knowledge.