Mamanqadam: First Steps Towards a Conscious Choice of a Profession. Stepnogorsk Higher Mining and Industrial College

Traditionally, career guidance for schoolchildren is limited to informing them about professions, holding class meetings, organizing excursions to enterprises, and career guidance events. Such formats are important, but they often do not allow a student to form their own understanding of a chosen field through practical activities, which is why they are not enough for a conscious choice of one’s future path. It is necessary to create conditions in which a student can perform professional actions, see the result of their work, and receive feedback from a specialist.

The «MamanQadam» project, first launched with the support of the gold-mining company JSC AK Altynalmas at the Higher Mining and Industrial College of Stepnogorsk, Akmola Region, in the 2025–2026 academic year, proposes moving from becoming familiar with a profession to actually mastering it.

The main idea of the «MamanQadam» project is to create conditions in which students in the final grades of school can simultaneously master a trade at the college, gain practical experience, and become familiar with the real requirements of modern industry. Thanks to this, project participants have an opportunity to work with modern equipment and production technologies, visit the company’s facilities, interact with experienced mentors, and build their own professional portfolio. Graduates gain an advantage when applying to a college or university later and when seeking employment at the enterprise that is the project’s partner.

In this project, the college provides its educational and material-technical base for developing initial professional competencies: training and production workshops, laboratories, simulators, and other equipment. It conducts professional trials, organizes theoretical and practical training, supports students, and assesses the results of their mastery of professional competencies.

Interactions with the production environment hold an important place. Getting to know the enterprise allows schoolchildren to see the connection between what they study at the college and real professional tasks.

A special role is played by the institution of mentoring. An experienced employee of the enterprise can both explain the specifics of the profession and pass on to the student a professional culture: responsibility, discipline, compliance with safety requirements, quality of work, and teamwork.

The direct participation of the employer in training future personnel is an important feature of «MamanQadam».

JSC AK Altynalmas acted as an active participant in the educational process: it defined the necessary training areas, took part in organizing practical training, and introduced students to the production environment. The enterprise also acted as an investor in training future personnel, providing funding for the students’ tuition and meals.

This made it possible to create opportunities for project participants to obtain vocational education without the full financial burden on their families.

Within the project, schoolchildren completed training in in-demand trade qualifications: «Mining Laborer for Mine Surveying Works», «Excavator Operator», and “Electrical Installer” (by industry).

The choice of professions for training was not accidental – it reflects the real personnel needs of JSC AK Altynalmas. These very qualifications are relevant in the mining industry and are linked to the key areas of the enterprise’s production activities.

Steps to a Profession

The implementation of the «MamanQadam» project was structured in stages, based on cooperation between the school, the Higher Mining and Industrial College of Stepnogorsk, and JSC AK Altynalmas.

At the first stage of the project, career guidance work was carried out with schoolchildren. Students received information about in-demand trades, the college’s training programs, the specifics of working in the mining industry, and opportunities for future employment. Particular attention was paid to career growth prospects and the advantages of acquiring practical competencies while still at school.

At the second stage, schoolchildren took part in professional trials. The practical sessions allowed students to become familiar with the content of their future professional activity, try out individual types of work, and assess their own interest in the chosen field.

At the third stage, project participants were selected. In forming the group, the professional interests and motivation of the schoolchildren, their readiness to combine general education with mastering a trade, and the interest of their parents were taken into account.

At the fourth stage, schoolchildren began vocational training at the college. Training was organized taking into account the need to combine school classes with vocational training. Theoretical knowledge was reinforced by practical sessions in the college’s workshops and laboratories.

The fifth stage involved the direct inclusion of the employer in the educational process. Employees of the enterprise gave students guest lectures, held professional meetings and talks, shared practical experience, and supported teachers and students. Commemorative branded merchandise of the enterprise was also prepared for project participants, which was a pleasant bonus and helped foster among the schoolchildren a sense of belonging to the professional community.

At the sixth stage, an assessment of learning outcomes was carried out, during which schoolchildren took exams that included theoretical and practical tasks.

Based on the exam results, each participant was awarded the corresponding trade qualification and issued a state-recognized certificate. The document confirms the mastery of professional competencies and makes official employment in the acquired qualification possible.

The final stage was the shaping of the participants’ further professional trajectory. The knowledge and practical experience gained became the basis for a conscious choice of further education and a future profession. For the employer, participation in the project created an opportunity to identify motivated schoolchildren and form the basis for a future talent pool.

First Results

The project has already borne its first fruit. Graduates who trained in the qualification «Mining Laborer for Mine Surveying Works» have linked their further education with fields close to the professional competencies they acquired:

• Kayyr Mansur enrolled in the «Mining» specialty at the Kazakh University of Technology and Business;

• Kairbek Beksultan continued his studies in the «Geodesy and Cartography» program at Karaganda Technical University;

• Berkembayeva Karina enrolled in the «Land Management» specialty at the Kazakh Agrotechnical University.

Project graduate Nesterov Platon, who trained in the qualification «Excavator Operator», continued his education in the «Logistics» specialty at the Kazakh Agrotechnical University.

This result can be considered one of the most important indicators of the project’s effectiveness. The trade qualification obtained at the college became for the young people a first step towards professional self-determination, and getting introduced with the profession helped them take the next step – choosing a field of higher education.

Prospects for the Project’s Development

The «MamanQadam» project has proven to be a promising model with the potential for further expansion. In the future, it may be possible to expand the list of trades, involve new schools and employers, create specialized groups, develop the mentoring system, and form long-term individual professional pathways for schoolchildren.

The key idea is a transition from separate career guidance events to a systematic model of early personnel training, in which an enterprise, together with a college, begins to build its future workforce potential while students are still at school,

which is consistent with the modern concept of continuing education and makes it possible to build a link between the educational needs of young people and the real demands of the economy.

Such projects, by providing direct acquaintance with trades, significantly increase young people’s interest in them. Students acquire solid initial competencies, and their period of adaptation at the workplace after being hired is shortened. Strengthening and expanding cooperation between colleges and employers creates conditions for active business participation in personnel training, makes it possible to build a long-term talent pool, and opens up employment opportunities.

A modern enterprise is interested in specialists who are already familiar with the production culture, safety requirements, equipment, and the specifics of the industry. Therefore, it is advisable to begin training personnel not after a vacancy appears, but much earlier.

As the project develops further, its effectiveness will be determined not only by the number of participants but also by specific indicators: the number of trades mastered, the share of those who successfully completed training, the number of participants included in the talent pool, the amount of employer funding, and the number of graduates who continued their education or were employed at the enterprise.

The project’s effect goes far beyond educational outcomes. Training young people in in-demand fields creates a talent pool for enterprises in the region. It is especially important that the schoolchild gets the chance to test their interest in a profession in practice. This reduces the risk of a mistaken career choice and helps foster conscious motivation for further study. For parents, this is a unique opportunity to provide their child with vocational training while reducing the financial burden, if the training is funded by the employer.

Thus, the «school – college – employer» partnership has become an effective tool for training personnel for the mining and technical industries, and early mastery of a trade has become an important component of the professional development of today’s youth.

Sofya STRIGUN,

Deputy Head for Educational and Methodological Work,

Yuliya DIK,

Deputy Head for Vocational Training,

Stepnogorsk Higher Mining and Industrial College

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ABSTRACT

Stepnogorsk Higher Mining and Industrial College, with the support of JSC AK Altynalmas, implemented the early career guidance project «MamanQadam». The article reveals the advantages of a model in which senior school students, alongside their school studies, master in-demand trades, gain practical experience on real equipment, and receive official qualification certificates.