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"People want to work to make a better world"

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"People want to work to make a better world"

14.06.2021

Svetlana Smetanina

Photo credit: SPIEF - 2021

What needs to be done to reduce the talent outflow from Russia, as well as to attract professionals from abroad? This year, the International Track appeared on the Leaders of Russia platform for the first time. Thus, foreign participants could send their CVs. The winners can get Russian citizenship and a generous education grant of 1 mln. rubles (about $14 thousand). There are surprisingly many applicants wishing to take part in the competition.

This system works

The Leaders of Russia Competition was established in 2018 and ever since it has proven its effectiveness. As Sergey Kiriyenko, the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, told on the sidelines of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, over the past few years 39 governors have been appointed by the head of state to the regions of the Russian Federation from the candidate pool selection system, which operates through the Leaders of Russia project. In the same way, five federal ministers and a lot of deputy ministers at the federal and regional levels have been selected. “This system works,” stressed Sergey Kiriyenko who had been among the authors of the Leaders of Russia Competition.

This year, the Competition saw significant updates - the International Track was launched. It immediately became very popular: about 11,000 applications from 150 countries were submitted for the Competition.

When we launched "Russia, a Land of Opportunity” at the instruction of the President, the system was focused exclusively on Russian nationals. The significant number of applications received from abroad came as a big surprise to us. By the decision of the President, this year the Leaders of Russia featured the International track for the first time. We have just finished accepting applications - almost 11,000 people from 150 countries submitted them. I looked through the questionnaires and biographies - they are very successful people: company managers, scientists, teachers, media directors, public figures. They are fine. This suggests once again that when people make their choice, there are lots of aspects behind it rather than the wage rate only. These are cumulative opportunities for their own development and for the development of their children. This is a question of the environment that enables a person to develop,” said Sergei Kiriyenko.

According to him, today people can freely move not only between cities, universities, countries but also between professions. And the main thing is the person’s free will. Therefore, it is obvious to the state today that countries will compete for the most creative, leadership-oriented specialists with increasing intensity. “And here it is important to create conditions so that a person could realize his potential to the maximum. I am glad that the main priority of our today's youth is self-fulfillment. This means several important things: for a person to be able to realize his potential, more than one decision should be taken, not just to raise wages or reduce housing prices in a particular region. This means that comprehensive support for self-fulfillment shall be created,” Kiriyenko stressed.

It is interesting that the Leaders of Russia competition covers more and more age groups with each passing year. Thus, this year the student line opened up for the first time. And there are projects even for schoolchildren: "Big Change", "My First Business". According to Kiriyenko, these competitions turned out to be in great demand: 2,300,000 applications were submitted.

Act around the person’s needs

The Rosatom State Atomiñ Energy Corporation trains foreign specialists for the nuclear industry successfully and regularly. Alexey Likhachev, General Director of Rosatom, said that they needed to attract up to 45,000 foreign specialists by 2030. “This is primarily due to the construction of nuclear power plants. Some countries, like Hungary and Finland, do have an established nuclear community. And others, like Egypt and Bangladesh, still need to train specialists and create a whole structure,” Likhachev said. According to him, Rosatom has a comprehensive staged system to train people for work in the nuclear industry – it starts in school and then continues through the system of higher educational institutions. The corporation has also arranged efforts aimed for continuous professional and human development: there are two corporate academies recognized as one of the best corporate universities in the country.

Foreign specialists for Rosatom are trained both in Russian universities and educational institutions of the countries of presence. As the head of the corporation emphasized, two years ago the following task was set: the personnel should not just be taught, but it is necessary to train acting around the person’s needs and self-fulfillment.

The current Gen Z has completely different benchmarks. Three or four years ago, the first thing students asked was: how much you pay. Today's students do not have questions about salaries and apartments. This is both good and bad. It is bad because they are poorly adapted to practical life. We need to bring them back from the Internet and show that things the country needs to live on shall be attained through work and daily participation; they are not guaranteed to be taken for granted. But the main thing that we see is that people want to come to work not only to develop and grow in their careers, but they also want to come to work to change the world for the better. It is necessary to show this connection very clearly - his workplace and the department in which he works are linked to changing the world for the better, in his city, in the country, on the planet as a whole,” emphasized Alexey Likhachev.

Rosatom is ready to share its know-how in education with everyone: an agreement was signed between the state corporation and the Znanie Society on the sidelines of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Nuclear industry experts will conduct educational activities based on the new digital platform of the Znanie Society.

The continent of sanity”

As it turned out, many foreign graduates of Russian universities applied for the International Track of the Leaders of Russia Competition. For Yevgeny Primakov Jr., the Head of Rossotrudnichestvo, this is a clear indicator that Russia is regaining its popularity and becoming appealing. “We are no longer perceived as a country of a great past only, but also a great present, and brilliant future – this is attributed to the technologies that we have, Rosatom, the Sputnik vaccine, and space technologies. And taking into account everything that happens on the outer perimeter, we are gradually becoming “the continent of sanity” - healthy adequate conservatism, and this appeals to many people,” he noted.

According to him, a lot of applications for the International Track were submitted by Russian compatriots from abroad - those who are currently running projects related to Russia and young professionals. He also said that this year 18 thousand students from abroad were coming to study at Russian universities under the government quota. “On the one hand, we are interested in seeing these people return to their homes and strengthen their countries and their economies, become our ambassadors of goodwill. On the other hand, the state benefit is understandable - people who want to associate themselves with Russia in the future would have the opportunity to stay here," Primakov said.

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