Retrospective
“The history of the Center began in the autumn of 2018. At the initiative of the Government of the Russian Federation, together with Maria Shklyaruk, we launched the first three courses on digital transformation,” says the director of the Center, Ksenia Tkacheva. “Today, these courses have transformed into four programs for different levels of training and leadership involvement in digital projects, and more than 23,000 people have already been selected for them. Three years is a short period by the standards of history, but during this time we have made a step forward several decades”.
Today, digital transformation is no longer just a new and popular concept, it is a national goal. And personnel training is one of the primary issues of achieving it. The training of civil servants is subsidized by the Federal Project “Human Resources for the Digital Economy”, and the Center's activities are still supported by the Government and the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation.
“Digital transformation is one of five national goals. The strategies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation have already been approved, but work on them continues. The task of the regions, the leaders of digital transformation, is to ensure the high-quality implementation of these strategies. Citizens and businesses should be the beneficiaries of digital transformation. State IT solutions should be based on modern client-oriented approaches,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko at the opening of the Center's educational course for leaders of digital transformation of subjects, regional ministers for digital development and information technologies of Russia.
Think tank in digital transformation
Today, the Center for Training Leaders and Teams of Digital Transformation of RANEPA is a leader in the field of digital transformation competencies in Russia with a unique expertise.
Not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of students are trained on the materials of the Center. For this free open courses “Digital transformation. Quick Start” and “The Era of Digital Development: Basics of Digital Transformation” were created. More than 160,000 people have already registered for them. On the Stepik platform, these courses are among the most popular.
“The principal position of the Center is that educational programs developed for budgetary money should be as open and accessible as possible for everyone,” notes Maria Shklyaruk, Academic Director of the Center. - There are about a million civil servants in the country, and all of them must have the necessary competencies in order to implement digital transformation projects in the field of public administration. Due to limited resources it is simply impossible to teach everyone according to the programmes of the Center, so we have created open courses. For them we have selected and structured the materials in such a way that all listeners could both gain general knowledge about the digital economy, and more deeply study individual topics if there is interest or professional need”.
At the same time, the key task of the Center is not just to train civil servants, but to change the idea of the ways and tools of work in management, to form a modern and effective staff in order to realize the possibilities of digital transformation in the interests of people.
“We train civil servants through the prism of customer-centricity. It is the person, his needs and his comfort that are at the center of any changes that are planned to be implemented. Therefore, our task is not just to teach management or digital skills, but to create an environment that would inspire leaders of digital transformation for new goals, provide the necessary knowledge and support for this, build communication between them, so that in the end we get a product that will be valuable and useful for citizens,” added Ksenia Tkacheva.
New projects
On the eve of its new year, the Center outlined key development prospects and enlisted the support of partners.
Research work and preparation of analytical and methodological materials will remain one of the main vectors of the Center's further activities. Over the past three years, the experts of the Center have released 10 reports on the digital transformation of public administration. Particular attention was paid to the ethical issues and risks of using digital technologies, in particular artificial intelligence. As the popularity of its use in all spheres of life is growing, the Center plans to continue studying this difficult issue together with colleagues from MGIMO and Center for Global IT-Cooperation.
“The Department of Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence of the MGIMO is one of the few departments who implements the Master's program in Artificial Intelligence. Together with the specialists of the departments and the Center for Global IT-Cooperation, we will conduct research on artificial intelligence and promote the advancement of Russian experts, their ideas and solutions in the international arena,” Ksenia Tkacheva commented on future cooperation.
“Our organizations have a lot in common, our goal is to contribute to the development of human capital for the Russian digital economy. We are interested in cooperation and are confident in the synergy of our efforts. A preliminary program of joint work has already been outlined, and the agreement is at the final stage of signing,” added Vadim Glushchenko, Director of Center for Global IT Cooperation.
Another research partner will be the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO RAS). The Institute's experts will take part in the preparation of a number of new reports, which are scheduled to be released in 2022. According to them, joint work to study the problems and risks that accompany the transition to digital era will help shape the global agenda for the development of the digital economy.
“The quality of training personnel who understand the essence of digital transformation and are able to organize it, remains the most important problem for the management system of the country, territories and cities. Interfax has a number of successful solutions for this task. Among them are applied tools in the field of risk management, as well as an educational project - the University programme of Interfax, one of the participants of which is RANEPA,” said Oleg Poletaev, director of digital business development at Interfax Group.
The high speed of updating knowledge and competencies, constant improvement of the content and forms of material presentation, the focus of the educational process on the interests and values of people are the distinctive features of the Center's programmes. By the end of 2024, more than 70,000 people will be enrolled in them. Most of them have already been trained, but given the million-strong staff shortage, there are even more ambitious tasks ahead, the solution of which would be impossible alone.
RANEPA’s Center for Training Leaders and Teams of Digital Transformation thanks all the partners who have been with it for these three years and who are joining it today. The high bar for the result and teamwork is what will remain unchanged in the new year of the Center.
https://www.interfax.ru/pressreleases/798132
