The City of Trades festival was held at Astana EXPO in Astana. This is the first large-scale event within the framework of the Year of Trades, which brought together future tradespeople, employers, and vocational schools.

The festival offered 40 interactive exhibition areas, including Astana Motors’ stand, which was visited by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Photo: akorda.kz

The Head of State viewed the exhibits on display and visited a virtual laboratory, where you could try yourself as a car painter and paint a car using a virtual reality headset.

“This project was implemented as part of the development of cooperation between plants and universities on the direct instructions of the President of this country. We have completely digitized the paint shop of the Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan plant owned by the domestic car manufacturer Astana Motors. It provides an opportunity for the university, which developed the virtual laboratory, to train personnel focused on manufacturing, and for plants – to train new personnel without extra costs,” said Nurbol Kamzanov, Professor of Satbayev University.

Astana Motors participated in the festival together with Satbayev University. Since last year, they have been working on training professional personnel for mechanical engineering, developing production processes and educational programs, introducing apprenticeships and dual training, training technical and managerial personnel at the MBA and DBA levels.

Photo: akorda.kz

The festival also showcased the popular Tucson crossover manufactured by Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan. Visitors could see the production process for the Tucson. The car has been Hyundai’s best-seller in the Kazakhstan automobile market for the second year in a row. In 2024, 22,389 cars of that model were sold.

 
Photo: akorda.kz

The festival also held skill tests where everyone could try and evaluate their skills. These tests are taken by applicants for plant jobs such as a mechanic, picker, controller, or painter. The tests evaluate fine motor skills, attentiveness, reaction speed, and accuracy.

All those provided an excellent opportunity for visitors to the exhibition to learn about popular trade jobs in the automotive industry, growth prospects, and the most recent trends in the industry.

With the opening of a multi-brand plan, Astana Motors plans to recruit 3600 new employees this year. A total of 6100 personnel will work at the four plants.