ST.PETERSBURG. Nov 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Over 2,700 retired servicemen have been retrained and have mastered civilian professions in the framework of the Russian-British program being implemented in St. Petersburg.
"Many of them have been provided a job with the largest enterprises of Northeastern Russia, including defense industry enterprises," head of the St. Petersburg Institute of Additional Professional Education Irina Kozlova told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
She said officers of the Defense Ministry who have served for at least five years after graduation from a military college are allowed to take part in the program. They are sent by their military unit in the year of their transfer to the reserve or by the local military commandant's office during three subsequent years. The former officers now residing in Northwestern Russia can attend classes in the morning, afternoon or evening and are provided free accommodation for the training period, so all conditions for mastering prestigious professions related with administration and data systems and for studying English intensively. It is not accidental that the number of applicants is growing, Kozlova said.
"The idea of a specialized Russian-British retraining program emerged in 1992 after the Russian defense minister visited Great Britain, and the system started functioning in 1995. Having mastered a profession that is in demand on the present-day labor market, a former serviceman can get a job with a private company or many state-owned enterprises, including those of the defense industry," she stressed.
Among the defense industry enterprises recruiting people after the retraining program are the Klimov plant making aircraft engines and the Krasny Oktyabr plant with a full cycle of machine- building for the aircraft industry and enterprises manufacturing essential commodities. Repair plants of the Air Force and Navy and research organizations are also on the list of such enterprises.