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bout ten years ago among other professional specializations offered by the Moscow State Institute of Steel& Alloys a new profession appeared that was called "Standartization and Certification". Today it is one of the professions, which are in great demand in the system of training specialists for the metallurgy industry. This was a conclusion Yulia Stolbova, a correspondent of the Eurasian Metals, arrived at after an interview with Yury Karpov, a PhD in chemistry and a professor, who holds the chair at the institute` s department of certification and analytical control.
EM: How did the idea to establish a new profession line arise?
Y.K.: The story began 12 years ago when it became clear that the new environment of competition called for professionals in the field of quality control. Standartization and certification are an integral part of the general problem of product quality control. Our institute addressed a proposal to establish a new profession to the RF Ministry of Education. Several months later we received their approval. To say you the truth, we did not expect the Ministry to react so quickly.

EM: Who was involved in working out a new curriculum?
Y.K.: We received the Ministry` s approval in April. In July we were supposed to enroll the first group of students to be specialized in this profession. Within a short period of time a team of specialists from the institute` s department of "Metallurgy Technologies, Resource Saving and Ecology" including Viktor Soloviev, a pro-vice-chancellor of the institute, Tatiana Polkhovskaia, a deputy head of the department, professor Yulian Yusfin and some other specialists compiled and worked out curricula. Initially, only one group of students specialized in the new profession was enrolled and our department was assigned to lead the group. We compiled a new set of curricula and training programs with emphasis on two new specializations i.e. certification and product quality control. In this form this profession line exists up to now.

EM: What is the main specificity of this profession line? Is it still perspective?
YK: Specificity and perspective are two different things. As to the perspective for the future, I consider the problem of quality a key issue, which needs to be addressed. This problem encompasses not only the quality of products (including metallurgy ones) but also the quality of service (including education and labor). Moreover, the matter of quality is a philosophical, political and economic concept. If you take a look at commercials run on TV you will see that in each commercial the quality of the advertised product is always somehow guaranteed, though you never know how exactly these guarantees are going to be meet. It means that the future of this profession is ensured by the fact that quality sets a direction for further development of both economy and progress. Hence, quality calls for professionals who could provide for it.
As to specificity of the profession, the answer is very simple: time has come for it. Today it is important that the problem of quality is tackled not only by manufacturers of products, but also by professionals of broader outlook who would develop and sell systems of quality control and implement international standards.

EM: What is the scope of application for the new profession?
YK: Naturally, in the very beginning this profession was focused on metallurgy only. Therefore, our students studied issues relating to certification with regard to chemical composition, properties, structure and quality of metals, learned how to describe them in the form of special documents in accordance with international standards. On the other hand, over the recent years certification of production processes have been developed on an extensive scale. This is a higher level of certification at which a production process is organized according to certain rules. The production process certification ensures products of a very high quality. With such certification applied, the final product enters into the market in the condition required by the customer. It is not only metallurgy where it can be applied. Today we train quality control specialists who can work in other branched of industry e.g. in chemical and electronic industries. Also our institute has done a lot to create a system of quality control in the field of education.

EM: Is it difficult for such specialists to find a job in this field?
YK: In my opinion to date there is no problem with this: 90 to 95% of our graduates are doing the job we trained them for.

EM: Are there any other Russian institutes of high education, which train similar experts?
YK: Sure, following our institute, other Russian institutes of high education started training similar specialists. This fact shows that we have guessed right a growing market demand in such specialists. Today the most important task for us is to keep an elite style, high level and good quality of the training we give to such professionals at our department. If we don` t discredit this profession by mass training of excessive number of such specialists, everything will be OK.
EM: Which additional training was given to the teachers for them to teach new subjects?
YK: Firstly, part of the professorial and teaching staff of out institute took refresher courses. Secondly, to ensure a high quality of training for this pretty new profession, which is not firmly established yet, we involve on a part time basis specialists from the RF State Committee on Standards as well as from other sectoral and academic institutes operating in other branches of industry. Thirdly, new trained personnel appear who are graduate students of out institute. We hope that in the future they will constitute the core of our teaching staff.

EM: Moscow State Institute of Steel & Alloys has been the winner of the state prize for quality. Why did this honor fall on your institute?
YK: The Russian government bestowed this prize on our institute in 2000: we had been the first institute in Russia, which introduced "Standartization and Certification" as a new profession. Besides, the system of providing for a high quality education and the general approaches it implies now play an important role in the life of the Moscow State Institute of Steel & Alloys. We have been success in demonstrating the system in the course of different competitions and our success has been marked with the prize. By the way, to date our institute is the only one among other Russian institutes of high education, which has won such a prestigious prize.