Dorogobuzh (a member of Acron Group) awarded the winners of the grant competition for secondary school teachers in Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk region, ‘Future is Now: The Path to a Successful Career at Dorogobuzh’.
This year, the contestants had to develop and implement professional self-determination projects, encouraging schoolchildren to consider occupations in demand at Dorogobuzh. The grant will help local teachers scale up and replicate the best practices that successfully navigate teenagers through the career options in chemical production.
The jury has selected the best initiatives that promote an informed choice of professions needed at Dorogobuzh, enhance their occupational prestige and improve children’s academic progress in chemistry, physics and mathematics. The jury members believe that the competition entries will make targeted training in industry-specific vocational institutions of secondary and higher education more appealing.
Teachers from seven secondary schools of Dorogobuzh district took part in the competition. Elena Persianinova, a chemistry teacher at Verkhnedneprovsky School No. 2, was awarded for the best career guidance project for schoolchildren in grades 5 to 8. The entries of Lyudmila Grigorieva, a chemistry teacher at Aleksino secondary school, and Tatiana Pozdnyakova, a primary school teacher at Usvyatskoye, were also recognised.
Yulia Belyakova, a geography teacher at Dorogobuzh School No. 2, won an award for the best career guidance project for schoolchildren in grades 9 to 11. Tatyana Taranova, Deputy Head Teacher of Verkhnedneprovsky School No. 1, Kristina Afanasyeva, Deputy Head Teacher for extra-curriculum activity at Verkhnedneprovsky School No. 3, and Galina Emelyanova, Head of the Growth Point centre at Dorogobuzh School No. 1, were also recognised for their contribution. The winners have received grants of RUB 450,000 for their professional achievements. The other participants were presented with cash prizes of RUB 20,000.
Pavel Simakov, Dorogobuzh’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Engineer, said, ‘Dorogobuzh has been supporting local schools for many years. We see it as an investment in our future. Right now, we need to start thinking about who will work for us tomorrow. The competition helps identify effective teaching methods, improve the material and technical resources of secondary schools and give a fresh impetus to career guidance programmes for schoolchildren’.
The first grant competition was held in 2020, and since then, the best teachers in Dorogobuzh district have received a total of over RUB 5 million from the company.