“To leave or to stay”: a national project in the “Focus” magazine
Info drive

One of the most acute problems of Ukraine is the mass emigration of young Ukrainian engineers, metallurgists, and technicians, who, in fact, our state desperately needs.

We focused on the ideological reason for this. that is to say, the outdated stereotypes about the futility of technical specialties.

What did we do?
  • To respond to this stereotype, we met with 6 young metallurgists and engineers who chose a tech specialty and were not tempted to leave the country.

And now, at the age of 25, 30 and 35, they are successfully leading teams of 40, 118 and even 280 people and are determined to continue building their career in Ukraine. Two of them are girls.

For example, Christina’s family was intimidated: “If you don’t go to music school, you’ll go to the factory to pull the hose.”

And now, at the age of 25, she produces pipes for European Liebherr-type machine builders, manages 28 people and, remembering how they once believed in her, hires students herself to give them a chance.

Alexei was told: “If you do not improve your grades, you won’t be able to go to proper college.”

He started to work as a welder, and at the age of 23 he became a manager with enthusiasm and responsibility. He established discipline, supported innovations and this year became a real “top” – the head of the production of medium-sized pipes with 118 subordinates.

Another guy named Ruslan figured out how to make a cheap analogue of metal protection against corrosion, which saved the plant about 3 million UAH per year. He was even invited to Turkey to teach his colleagues. Now he’s 34 and he’s a senior master of smelting and manages 40 people.

  • We invited photographer Serhiy Panin, whose works appeard in Harper’s, Esquire, L’Officiel, to shoot the heroes in a great way in their workplace in the spirit of Forbes.

The result and the electronic version of the article is here.