Advanced learning center louisville: Advanced Learning Center – East

– Yes, we are developing such a program within the framework of the production system, which simply eliminates the unprofessionalism of a specialist. We strive to eliminate everything that does not add value to the consumer. We were able to implement a personnel reserve program at all of Bazel’s enterprises, which allows us to fill many top and middle-level vacancies with internal candidates. At the same time, we consider this program not only in the traditional sense of preparing successors for higher positions. It has a much broader social role: by meaningfully working with reservists, we also form a certain society – a wide circle of professionals who have an active life position and similar corporate values, who understand what they need to strive for, and pull newcomers into their circle. An invaluable assistant in such matters is the production system created and improved within the group, which you mentioned, one of the meaningful parts of which is to teach the whole team to see the problem, reason together, draw on the experience of specialists, develop their company together, equip their workplaces so that they were more efficient. nine0007

– Do you think employers should influence the education system? Open basic departments at universities, participate in the development of curricula, finance the education of advanced students?

– Naturally, all these forms are present in one form or another in the relationship between “Basic Element” and universities. So, we are starting to open our basic departments, for us this is a relatively new area of ​​activity.

– Where, for example?

– For example, the department “Production system in mechanical engineering” on the basis of the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University (NSTU) named after. R. E. Alekseeva. The agreement on its creation was signed between NSTU and GAZ Group back in November 2011. This is the first department in Russia on the production system, opened by an industrial company on the basis of a higher educational institution. The first classes were held for second-year students of NSTU studying in the specialties “quality management”, “engineering technology”, “impulse machines”. In the future, second-year students were able to choose new departments as the base, and from the new academic year, the discipline “Lean Production” will be included in the schedule of classes for the second, fourth and fifth years. Students will have practical training at the production sites of the Gorky Automobile Plant. We want this department to conduct applied research with specific tasks. At the same time, the task is to train at the department not only students, but also graduate students and doctoral students – now there are simply no scientists in this area. nine0007

– I read that you work a lot with the Graduate School of Business of Moscow State University and have already jointly graduated quite a few managers and very famous managers .

– This story is over 15 years old. We began to cooperate as soon as we realized that Russian business faced the problem of a shortage of highly qualified managers. The Graduate School of Business of Moscow State University has been a reliable partner of the Basic Element Group in the field of personnel training and provision of consulting services since 1997. Several years ago, on the basis of this school, with my participation, the country’s first MBA program, Production Systems, was created. Graduates of this program successfully work at many of our enterprises. In addition, we traditionally sign cooperation agreements with other institutions – and there are more than 100 such universities in Russia – which assume that we teach students in the specialties we are interested in at university departments. We develop and implement additional special courses, bring teachers. Students do internships with us, but neither “Basic Element” nor the students have any obligations for further employment. This is done on purpose, because otherwise we will not learn how to be interesting for university graduates. If a student has obligations, then he will come to us “automatically” or, conversely, he will try to “jump off” in every possible way so as not to perform his labor “duties” specifically with us. And we need our graduates to aspire to us. nine0007

We have a huge number of programs with universities and other educational institutions. For example, in 2012, 7,500 students visited us in practice alone. Let me emphasize once again that our practices are not profanity. The guys are taken care of, they are brought directly to the production sites, they are taught purely practical things. This year, for example, we had two construction teams working on the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi – students of construction specialties from universities, for whom this is a specialized job. nine0007

– How does a Western university graduate differ from our graduate in terms of preparation? And if we take, for example, not the rating of universities, but the rating of demand by employers, do we get into some decent “tables of ranks” or not?

– I don’t really understand what criteria the ratings are based on, but I think that our universities traditionally occupy some last or penultimate places. The main reason for this is that our educational system is formed in such a way that research is practically not conducted in universities. Our universities are educational institutions. Research in Russia is carried out mainly in research institutes, which are separate structures, where, with rare exceptions, they practically do not train students, but only train graduate and doctoral students, as well as prepare scientific papers. At the same time, universities are engaged in the training of specialists. Most Western universities that I know of (I went to the University of Michigan, for example) focus on research. The University of Michigan occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of the amount of research, scientific research that they do, and commissioned mainly by large corporations and the state. Therefore, if the criteria are constructed in such a way that we evaluate both pedagogical activity and science, our universities in terms of research activity probably get the traditional zero. But this does not mean that we do not have research and development activities, and this does not mean that we urgently need to change our system, adjust it to what exists, for example, in the United States. nine0007

– There is a strong feeling that Russia is planning to copy the Anglo-Saxon model. What do you think about it?

– There is a big discussion going on right now about what will happen if Russian universities start paying too much attention to the research block, as American universities do. If this affects primarily teachers, then the actual educational process will be damaged, especially if research begins to become an end in itself. The fact is that the employment of the teaching staff in universities is now “sharpened” for teaching. An increase in the research part can occur at the expense of the educational part. nine0007

This is not the case in the “promoted” Western universities, because there the joint scientific and teaching activities, and even going into business and receiving state orders, were built and assembled for decades. People have learned to simultaneously engage in learning, and experiments, and scientific research. Another thing is how obligatory these studies are to be carried out on the basis of one institution within the framework of the merged universities, as it is now proposed in our country. Or can they still be continued on the basis of several institutes, using the same public laboratories that are being created? This is a question. nine0007

I think that there can be no unequivocal answer to it for one simple reason. For some, it is more habitual and efficient to work in one specific institution, while the other prefers teamwork in different specialized structures. But if we talk about education, about getting the first profession, then, of course, higher educational institutions in Russia should concentrate on providing quality education, because the state offers them such an order, forming it every year. And the state expects that this order will be worked out with high quality, and we, employers, must get specialists who are able to think, work with a given quality, and be responsible for the team and the results of their work. Now this is not so. Students with the above competencies are rare, we are happy to hire them immediately after graduation. Already during the practice at our production facilities, such guys usually make some improvement projects for us. For example, every year in Kamensk-Uralsky we hold a competition of student works, during which, based on the results of their internships, students propose projects, the jury evaluates them, and the best participants receive awards. Now, on the basis of such work, we are starting to create a school of engineering culture – a program of study in secondary school, which will reveal in children the ability to work in engineering, design and modeling. It will be connected with the system of secondary specialized and higher education. There we select children who are inclined towards scientific and technical creativity, engineering, technology, and we expect to give them – already at the level of school education – much more knowledge to work in this particular area. nine0007

– How would you formulate the tasks of the national university system?

– Here we again return to the topic of comparing our universities with Western ones. There are differences between them, so I will repeat myself. The Russian higher education system is needed, first of all, in order to train specialists, and the most highly qualified, for certain types of managerial, scientific and research activities. Once again, for most professions, a strong, meaningful secondary education is quite enough – provided that we are talking about preparing graduates with clear, specific, well-developed knowledge and skills. nine0007

I sincerely believe that now it is simply impossible to give the student all the information accumulated by mankind in each subject. It is much more extensive than can be mastered during 5-6 years of study, and it is more than it is required in the course of professional activity. Moreover, part of it will be hopelessly outdated by the time you receive your diploma. Therefore, for me as an employer, the ability of universities to give the structure of the subject and teach the student to independently obtain the necessary knowledge, structure it, compare and draw conclusions, constantly engage in self-education and self-development is much more important for me. This also needs to be taught. In addition, universities require a fairly deep study of knowledge in practice, the development of specific skills that will be useful to a person in practical life from the first day of his work. nine0007

An important ideological and educational aspect, which must necessarily be inherent in the university, is the ability to instill love for the subject, for the profession. This cannot be replaced by distance education. I am a very big supporter of distance education and I believe that the technologies of the XXI century give us the opportunity to equalize the level of education, the level of knowledge offered. For example, we have a school curriculum for preparing for the Unified State Examination, created as part of our School of the New Generation project, which Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska finances through his Volnoe Delo Foundation. The course was developed by the best teachers in Moscow, it can be offered to Russian-speaking children in any country in the world in the form of interactive programs and courses. More than 500 schools in Russia use this program, but there are children in Ukraine, Latvia, America, Africa, to whom all this can be offered online today. The same is true for any theoretical knowledge. The only thing is that remotely it is impossible to instill a love for a subject – besides the Russian language, you will not be able to instill a love for culture, develop curiosity, form a Russian worldview in such a child. You will not be able to “infect” him with the desire for constant search – for this you need a living teacher, a teacher who cares about his work. This also applies to universities. nine0007

The second task of higher educational institutions is the old, Humboldt one, to train scientists, the scientific elite, who will be engaged in branch applied scientific research, that is, to discover what is directly necessary for the current technological processes of specific enterprises.

– Why do many graduates not find jobs now, not only in our country, but also abroad?

– Total stagnation abroad. For about five years now, the majority of university graduates have not been able to find their first job, they have not been able to acquire any work skills. We don’t. In Russia, almost everyone who wants to acquire work skills receives them. Those who are lazy do not work for us. I do not know a single person who would like to work and could not find a job. Often, when suggesting people to move to work in another city, I hear: I don’t want to, I’m used to it here, create what I want, within a five-minute walk from my house. Such opportunities are not always available. But for those who are not afraid to take responsibility, are ready to plow, regardless of personal time, and transform the life around them, everything is subject to it. nine0007

Victoria Petrova

Graduated from the medical faculty of the Peoples’ Friendship University named after. P. Lumumba, State Academy for Advanced Training of Investment Sphere Employees (GASIS). From 1991 to 1996 she worked in senior positions in the Russian offices of leading American companies, including Halliburton and Belcom. Prior to joining Basic Element, she headed the HR Directorate at UC RUSAL. In April 2011, October 2013, she was Deputy General Director of Basic Element, responsible for personnel policy and the development of social programs. Since October 2013, she has been in charge of regional and social projects, the development of a corporate youth program and interaction with state, public and trade union organizations. nine0007

Anna Bykova’s interview for City to City

Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Finance and researcher at the International Laboratory for Economics of Intangible Assets Anna Bykova gave an interview to City to City about her trip to Louisville (USA)

Fashion Science

V Louisville hosted an international conference of the Association of Public Choice Researchers. Only two people from Russia participated in the conference, one of them was Anna Bykova, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor at the Higher School of Economics in Perm. nine0007

This is the 56th annual international conference of the Public Choice Society Meeting, which brings together more than 100 participants who assess the level of government impact on the economic, political and public life of the state at various levels – from city districts to countries.

Participation in the conference is considered very prestigious, it is here that the most “fashionable” research topics in academic science in the field of the public sector of the economy are discussed, using the most advanced methods and data for public policy evaluation. Since the main direction of the Association is research in the field of public choice, the conference topics are generally related to the analysis of the impact of various aspects of government intervention on the behavior of economic agents – individuals, companies, industries, regions and countries. nine0007

— What were the features of the reports and researches of this particular year?

— This year, much attention was paid to evaluating the effectiveness of various government programs, especially a lot of work was on the situation in the United States, as well as reports related to the study of various taxation systems. In contrast to Russia, in these areas in the United States, decentralization is very high and each state, as well as the municipality, has significant powers in matters of regulation and establishment of its own taxes. The topic of investment in the education system was also discussed. A separate focus, as in most other topics today, was directed to the use of big-data and machine learning methods. nine0007

I participate in the conference for the second year in a row, in Louisville, together with University of Baltimore Professor Dennis Coates (University of Baltimore County, USA), we presented the preliminary results of a joint study on the topic “Components of Economic Freedom and Corporate Performance: Case of Russia”. In our work, we have shown that the level of development of the institutional environment, as measured by the Economic Freedom Index, is positively associated with the performance of Russian companies. The main mechanisms of such influence are regulation in the tax and labor spheres. The peculiarity of this index, which was calculated by Professor Coates and his colleagues for Russian regions, starting from 90th year is that it uses exclusively the data of the State Statistics Committee, which makes it possible to conduct longitudinal studies, secondly, the calculation methodology is completely taken from the well-known Economic Freedom Index at the country level, developed by the Fraser University (Fraser University, USA), and the Economic Freedom Index North America (Economic Freedom of North America), which makes it possible, for example, to compare the regions of our country with individual states in America. By the way, our next work with Dennis will be devoted to exactly this, while the focus will be on comparing the performance of football clubs. We have been working with Professor Coats for almost 5 years, since in addition to the University in Baltimore, he is a leading researcher at the International Laboratory for the Economics of Intangible Assets of the National Research University Higher School of Economics-Perm. At the end of this week, Professor Coats is coming to HSE Perm to give a lecture on the economics of sports and participate in laboratory seminars. nine0007

— What countries were the conference participants from?

– Most of the participants, of course, represented various US universities (including the top universities in political science, such as Chicago University, George Mason University, North Carolina University, Duke University, Columbia University, etc.), there were also many participants from European and Asian countries. Russia, besides me, was represented by another participant from UrFU named after B.