Pablo Iturralde Addresses Workforce Shortage in Automotive Industry and New Generation Specialist Training

The most critical shortage in Russia's automotive industry today isn't components, but qualified personnel. This was stated by Pablo Iturralde, Director of the FDR Advanced Engineering School of Technological Leadership at Moscow Polytechnic University, on Automotive Workers' Day. He emphasized that the industry needs engineers capable of not only solving current tasks but also elevating it to new levels, and modern universities are already training such specialists. Pablo shared these insights in his expert column for Izvestia.

The expert stresses that modern engineers must possess not only technical expertise but also see the complete product lifecycle—from initial concept to end-user needs. Key skills now include working across disciplinary boundaries, collaborating with big data experts, rapidly mastering new technologies, and integrating artificial intelligence into development processes.

To prepare such professionals, Moscow Polytech focuses on practice-oriented learning from the first years of study. Students work on real projects for industrial companies under the guidance of practicing engineers rather than theoreticians.

Examples of this approach already exist: student teams develop hybrid sports prototypes for racing, electrify all-terrain vehicles, and create automated platforms based on them.

Read the full version on iz.ru