The Russian government has signed a decree on the creation of new engineering schools where personnel for high-tech companies will be trained. The federal center is ready to allocate 36.6 billion rubles for 30 advanced IT incubators at universities.
In Russia, 30 advanced engineering schools will appear on the basis of universities. The Decree of the Government of Russia "On measures of state support for the development of advanced engineering schools" No. 619 was published on the regulator's website. Breakthrough research and innovative developments are expected from young graduates of IT incubators.
About 36.6 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget for the creation of schools in 2022-2024 within the framework of the state program "Scientific and Technological Development".
The resolution approves the rules for granting grants to universities that will pass a competitive selection. Experts of the Ministry of Education and Science will choose which university will have an engineering school. The winning university will apply for state support, the maximum amount of which will be 1 billion rubles.
With this money, the university should not only create a school, but also organize internships and internships with mentors from state corporations and large high-tech companies. The funds will also go to the retraining of teachers – the Government stressed that it should be accelerated.
The main selection criteria for universities are defined as follows: the ambition of the goals and results of the future school, the academic potential of the university and the amount of extra-budgetary funds for its financing, which universities are invited to attract from large employer companies in the region.
The 11-person Grant Board will be formed by May 8, 2022, and a competition for universities will be held in the same month. According to the results of the selection, 30 universities will be identified, on the basis of which pilot schools will be created. In the future, they promise to increase the number of educational organizations to hundreds.
The profile directions of the new schools were specified by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko during his report at the meeting on April 11, 2022. According to him, competence needs to be increased in the fields of microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, genetics, agroengineering, electric transport and renewable energy. Young engineers will specialize in the areas of digital design and modeling: these are robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, digital twins and other areas. By the end of the year, it is planned to develop 30 new advanced training programs for engineering personnel.
Schools will appear in different regions of Russia – where exactly is not specified yet. However, the Government hopes that after receiving education in regional universities, specialists will not leave their city and country, but will remain working in their native region.
Dmitry Chernyshenko promised to equip the engineering schools themselves "according to the highest class", laboratories, "smart" virtual factories, technoparks with modern equipment and powerful computing systems will appear in them.
Federal money alone, apparently, is not enough, so the Russian Government is counting on the financial support of large companies. Thus, the creation of schools is planned in partnership with domestic enterprises that suffer from a shortage of personnel: Yandex, Rostec, Russian Railways, KamAZ, Sinara and others. At the moment, they have announced about 1.5 billion rubles for extra-budgetary financing, but the Government hopes that the amount will grow. The text of the resolution states that the state expects extra–budgetary funds to sponsor schools at the level of 35% in 2022, 25% in 2023 and 20% in 2024.
Also, employees of high-tech companies will be involved in teaching in schools and conducting internships for undergraduates of technical specialties. Part of the training will take place at the production sites of enterprises in the regions.
"Young specialists should learn the knowledge and skills of complex systems maintenance from top-class professionals. The idea of such mentoring belongs to the head of one of the assembly shops of the Perm Motors plant," Mikhail Mishustin, the head of the Russian Government, stressed at the same meeting.
The text of the resolution provides specific indicators: each school must graduate at least 90 people by the end of 2024, and at least 333 by 2030. Also, after eight years, at least 1,335 graduate specialists should work in Russian companies.