UEC-Perm Engines (part of Rostec United Engine Corporation, member of Russian Engineering Union (Soyuzmash of Russia)) has hosted the 16th “PROFI-2026” professional skills competition. A total of 145 young engine builders competed across ten categories, facing both theoretical tests and hands-on challenges.
Year after year, the employees of UEC-Perm Engines reaffirm their leadership in professional competitions at every level – from citywide to national contests.
Сотрудники предприятия ОДК Пермские моторы из года в год подтверждают своё лидерство в профессиональных состязаниях самого разного уровня — от городских до федеральных.
“Our employees' victories are living proof of the high level of expertise and outstanding qualifications of the whole team. It simply cannot be otherwise, as Perm engine builders create the most sophisticated high-tech machines: aircraft engines and gas turbine power plants. These machines must deliver flawless performance under extreme conditions, enduring tremendous temperatures and loads. That is why striving to be the best is not a matter of ambition – it is our everyday operational imperative, one of the cornerstones of our engines' reliability,” said Sergey Kharin, Executive Director of UEC-Perm Engines and Chairman of the Perm Regional Branch of the Russian Engineering Union.
For 35-year-old gas turbine power plant assembly fitter Demid Tarasov, this sixteenth contest marked the tenth in his working career. Fifteen years with the enterprise, he has earned a string of awards at both in-house and regional competitions, along with the honorific “For Excellence in Quality”. This year's win in the Best Young Assembly Fitter category was his second – his first victory came four years ago.
“I know firsthand just how high the skill level is among my colleagues – true craftsmen work on the assembly floor, and competing with them on equal footing is already an honor. That makes this win even more precious to me: it is personal proof that I am still growing in my trade. After fifteen years on the job, receiving that kind of validation is especially meaningful – it tells me I'm heading in the right direction,” Demid Tarasov shared.
28-year-old Anton Rategov, a turner in the machining shop, has been with the company for under three years. He entered the professional skills competition for the very first time and his debut immediately brought him victory in the Best Young Turner category. While the top award came as a complete surprise to him, his approach to work explains it all.
“If I spot a way to produce a part faster and with greater precision, I'll always bring it up with the foreman and the process engineer. I believe that striving to find better solutions is what helped me win,” Anton Rategov said.
Another competition debut also ended in success. The experts named 29-year-old NC machine operator Nikita Kazakov the Best Young NC Lathe Operator. For nearly ten years, Nikita worked at the plant as an electrician, and only two years ago he retrained, earning a new trade and moving to the machine assembly shop. He currently holds a fourth-grade qualification, yet under the competition rules, he—like all PROFI-2026 winners—can now advance to the next grade without taking additional tests.
Following the results of the 16th UEC-Perm Engines PROFI-2026 professional skills competition, the winners among young workers are: Anton Rategov – Best Young Turner; Victoria Pavlova – Best Young Assembly Inspector; Andrey Loginovsky-Khrenovsky – Best Young Milling Machine Operator; Demid Tarasov – Best Young Assembly Fitter; Rustam Nurmakhametov – Best Young NC Milling Operator; Nikita Kazakov – Best Young NC Lathe Operator.
The award for the Best Young Process Engineer for Metallurgical Shops went to Ekaterina Nikolaeva won, Daniil Muravich took the title of Best Young Design Engineer, Nikita Shulepov was named Best Young Foreman, and Natalia Vozhakova earned the honor of Best Mentor.
