Anniversary of Presidential Program: 20 Years in Russia, 10 Years at ASU

Another group of trainees covering the Presidential Program (whose main goal is to train qualified managers) is studying at Astrakhan State University. Dr. Tatyana Mordasova, Chief of the Center of Qualified Management Training Administration Programs (Presidential Program) of ASU, gives her comments.

“It’s 10 years this year that ASU delivers the Presidential Program to meet the need of Astrakhan Region for qualified managers. We succeeded in doing that: we passed a public expertise last year, and our legal rights to train people in all our programs were confirmed. This year we have 20 new trainees within the quota of the Federal Resource Center to meet the changing priorities of our Region. Most of the 20 newly enrolled trainees cover the program “Regional Management: Formation of Sustainable Comparative Advantages of Companies & Areas”; others cover the program “Efficient Management in Healthcare: Training of Result-Oriented Management Teams for Regional Healthcare System”.

Another significant date is 20 years that the Presidential Program has been delivered in Russia. The Federal and the Regional Resource Centers are preparing a series of events in honor of this anniversary. We’ll surely take part in them; we’ll think what we could arrange for our current trainees and graduates.

The classes started in February; the program is the same. We apply teaching techniques whose efficiency was tested for years; we already formed a team of instructors and involved some of our graduates to instruct their younger peers. As the questionnaire poll results show (we conduct a survey after every single examination session), our trainees are very pleased with both the quality of teaching (especially with the techniques we apply – 60 % of them are interactive) and the information materials they obtain. They also like our material base. Classes are held at the New Building of ASU, in lecture halls with the most modern equipment. The trainees already took their first online test in Economics that the Federal resource Center arranged; they got high scores. Such “embedded quality” helps assess the delivery of disciplines objectively.

As for new features, I’d mention extension of the range of enterprises for our future business visits. An essential point is that we’ll apply a new, co-working-based format to support our trainees’ preparation of their final projects. Experience we gained last year reveals that once they get an opportunity to listen to each other, ask questions actively, and develop their recommendations, they can carry out their research projects promptly and efficiently. Themes of final projects related to healthcare are being agreed with the Regional Healthcare Minister; themes related to regional management have already been agreed.

I’d remark that our trainees usually choose one of the two major fields to write their papers. One of them concerns a development strategy for the companies they work with; another one relates to lean production. Our trainees know that our University has been involved in lean production for years, so a training course in operational efficiency is always of special interest for them.

People representing small and mid-size businesses make up the main part of the Presidential Program trainees. Earlier there were quite many trainees from large companies. Owing to the current economic and political situation and to the priorities our government sets to develop small and mid-size business, such a change in our trainees’ background is quite explainable.

Mr. Konstantin Markelov, Chairman of the Government of Astrakhan Region, will supervise the defense of the final projects, as he traditionally does that. This is what our concept of training future graduates of the Presidential Program requires”.