On December 1, Nizhny Novgorod hosted the Global Impact Conference – 2022. This time, the topic of the global international forum was education, its significance and effectiveness in the modern world. AT the conference under the auspices of Rosatom was attended by more than 30 experts from 20 countries of the world who discussed the most significant problems and challenges of modern education, as well as the possibility of expanding access to educational programs for all segments of the population. The Izvestia correspondent attended the conference.
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The date of the third Global Impact Conference turned out to be very symbolic: the international forum was held on the day when Rosatom celebrated its 15th anniversary. The use and development of new technologies, the creation of conditions for the discovery of talents are tasks that are equally important both for the Russian nuclear corporation and for the global educational process. Therefore, the topic of the global forum “Education X as a catalyst for the future” turned out to be the most appropriate. The conference brought together dozens of experts from 20 countries of the world – representatives of the education sector from India, China, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Armenia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Brazil, Vietnam, Egypt, Africa and Latin America.
The international conference was opened by Alexei Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom. In his welcoming speech, he noted that the word “education” carries a double meaning, being associated not only with learning, but also with birth, formation, and creation. “Therefore, speaking of education, we mean not only the acquisition of knowledge, but also the formation of a literate and socially active person who wants and can help the country where he lives, make life better,” Likhachev said.
Rashid Aluash, the representative of the United Nations, who is responsible for the joint program of the Russian Federation and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also spoke about the importance of educational issues in the modern world. In his opinion, ensuring access to quality education is one of the key issues for the further development of mankind. According to the UN representative, today there are 1 billion 800 million young people in the world – more than ever in the history of mankind. “It is they who will have to make innovative decisions, act as engines of progress, shape social change,” Aluash said. “And for this it is necessary to provide young people with access to education to the fullest extent possible.”
During the conference, the participants of the plenary session “In search of a person: a view of art, science and business” spoke about what the education of the future should be like in terms of its deep content. The main speakers were experts with extensive experience in the field of education — Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova and Head of the HSE Graduate School of Business Professor Sergey Filonovich. They discussed the role of science, culture and business in modern education.
The participants of the discussion agreed that in today’s conditions education should be full-fledged and multifaceted, covering all spheres of human knowledge. “It is important that a person feel free in both areas,” Sergei Filonovich noted. “A physicist must also master the subject of culture.” Zemfira Tregulova, in turn, noted the growing interest in cultural programs among young people, as well as the growing role of business in supporting cultural and educational projects. Sergei Filonovich also named two more significant trends: today, specialists study longer, often throughout their lives, while, however, delving into specialization quite early. This, according to the expert, does not correspond to today’s realities. “The world is changing very quickly, as are the lists of in-demand professions, and the education system must take this into account,” he said.
In the digital world
Modern education is primarily the use of innovative teaching models and advanced information technologies, the participants of the conference said unanimously. The forum itself was the best proof of this: it was held in a hybrid format, and those who could not come to Nizhny Novgorod, both speakers and spectators, took part in the Global Impact Conference remotely. In total, more than 1 million people from 15 countries of the world became viewers at the forum. This figure best demonstrates the importance of advanced technologies in the world of education.
The organizers of the study came to the same conclusions, and Diana Koroleva, head of the Laboratory for Innovation in Education at the HSE Institute of Education, spoke about the results of the study. So, 61.8% of the participants in the study conducted by the institute’s specialists noted the introduction of hybrid teaching methods, combining both full-time and distance learning, as the most significant educational trend of recent years. Modern technologies, experts say, make it possible to make distance learning as effective as possible and often even more attractive to students than traditional face-to-face forms of learning. However, as Diana Koroleva noted, in order for online classes to fully fulfill their function, it is necessary to develop the technical and methodological base of distance education, to train teachers, giving them the opportunity to master the appropriate educational tools.
Developers of innovative educational programs at the Global Impact Conference received special mention: on the sidelines of the conference, the winners of the international student competition “Innovations in Education”, organized by the Rosatom Corporate Academy together with the Higher School of Economics National Research University, were awarded. This year the competition received more than 400 applications from 19 countries, including, in addition to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Germany, France, Israel, Indonesia, and Malaysia. On the eve of the conference, 10 semi-finalists were selected from among the participants, projects of various directions – from a family robotics simulator created by specialists from the Ivanovo region to a digital tool for measuring the preparedness of the education system for emergencies, created by young innovators from Yerevan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The jury announced the winners right during the conference: they were Vladislav Tereshchenko and Valery Leventsov from the Leningrad region, the creators of the LEAN digital simulator. MANUFACTURING for training in lean manufacturing.
As one of the members of the competition jury, HR director of the Greenatom company, Natalya Pichugina, said, for her the main selection principle was the compliance of the project with the needs of modern society. “Among the finalists, in particular, was a project dedicated to the development of children with disabilities, Pichugina said. – Indeed, teachers do not always know how to work with such children, and such work is very relevant today. There were interesting projects from a business point of view. For example, the winning project related to the study of production systems. It allows the trainee to quickly immerse himself in the principles and rules of the production system, and works much more efficiently than traditional methods, allowing you to learn on the job and use it in your work.” As Natalya Pichugina said, Rosatom is ready to cooperate with the authors of innovations, and, in particular, Greenatom has already started negotiations on joint work with the authors of one of the projects.
Without a break from production
The session “Corporate Jedi: HR Trends in the JEDI World” was of particular interest to the conference participants. [Justice — Equity — Diversity — Inclusion]». Today, the participants of the session noted, learning by doing is already a common practice, because, as Mehdi Azadvari, director of the Center for Economic Research of Eurasia (Iran), noted, “the task of education is to assess the expected changes in the economy in the future and be ready for these changes.” Therefore, constant work with employees, which aims to maximize the development of their abilities, is a priority for every company.
According to Tatyana Terentyeva, Deputy General Director for Human Resources, Rosatom is a human-centered company, and this principle is one of the main principles in its work. “We invariably emphasize the importance of a person for Rosatom,” says Tatyana Terentyeva. – From the point of view of working with people, this means that all our processes are aimed at helping the employee to reveal his potential, his talents. Employee training and retraining programs, social policy, mental health support programs are aimed at this. And every year the forces and means that the company directs to this goal are only growing.”
Arpi Karapetyan, Chairman of the HR Association of Armenia, spoke about the growing importance of human resources for companies in today’s world. “Today, the processes of working with people are not directed from the top down, as before, but, on the contrary, from the bottom up,” she said. — To attract and retain a talented employee, we must understand their needs and try to meet them. And as practice shows, the needs and demands of specialists are often associated precisely with professional development, the opportunity to undergo training, grow and develop in the chosen field.”
As Tatyana Terentyeva said, work with talents should begin already in high school. “Our project, the Rosatom school, has been in existence for more than ten years, and we see that it is from school that we should work with children, help them reveal their abilities,” says Terentyeva. — For students, we have career days, hackathons, various competitions, the winners of which we give grants and provide the opportunity to work in the company from the second year. But even after graduation, employees do not stop studying – in fact, everyone who works at Rosatom undergoes one or another format of training and advanced training every year. Tatyana Terentyeva is convinced: human-centeredness is the main trend of the modern labor market. “More and more companies are abandoning customer-centricity in favor of it”she thinks.
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