In the structure of one of the oldest universities of the Russian Federation - Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University in 2011 in accordance with the decision of the leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan, Volga Region Center for Advanced Training and Professional Retraining was created. It is called upon to become the leading center of scientific and methodological support for the professional growth of pedagogical workers.

The main goal of the Center's work is the creation of an effective system of professional development and professional retraining of the educators of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Volga Federal District within the framework of a new model for the implementation of continuous pedagogical education of the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, based on the interaction of the university, leading schools and the system of further professional professional ) education.

The implementation of this aim requires the fulfillment of the following goals:

• securing the focus (direction) of  the advanced training and professional retraining programs on implementation of the priority tasks of modernizing the education system of the Republic of Tatarstan;
•  improving the quality of workshops, practical and laboratory lessons through the effective use of the material and technical base of KFU, laboratory, software, hardware and multimedia complexes of the profile institutions within KFU;
•  providing  teachers and heads of educational organizations with modern regulatory and legal materials, information and project technologies for the implementation current goals of the education development of the Republic of Tatarstan;
• providing  variability of content and forms of advanced training taking into account the unique nature and individual educational needs of students by involving highly qualified teaching staff of the various institutes and faculties within the KFU;
• monitoring and analyzing the dynamics of changes in the professional competence of educators in the process of professional development;
• pre- and post-course scientific and methodological support of innovative processes implemented by the educational organizations of the Republic of Tatarstan;
• ensuring professional development of senior executives and specialists of municipal educational authorities;
• provision of consulting services to teaching staff through the wide use of distance learning technologies, the use of information educational technologies and modern electronic educational resources;

Volga Region Center for Advanced Training and Professional Retraining offers educational services in the following types and forms of further professional education:

Advanced Training

• combined form of advanced training on a modular-competence basis (including workshops and problem courses):
• advanced training in the form of distance learning (the use of information technologies to provide students with the bulk of study material, interactive feedback between listeners and teachers in the learning process, providing students with the opportunity for self-study)

Internship: formation and consolidation in practice of professional knowledge and skills in the field of professional activity, obtained as a result of theoretical instruction . Mastering of modern educational practices.

Professional Retraining

Ensuring the fundamentality and practical orientation of advanced training and professional retraining is carried out through close interaction of Volga Region Center for Advanced Training and Professional Retraining with the institutes and faculties of the KFU, which allowed to create a unique system of advanced training in the Russian Federation. The peculiarity of this system is that the corresponding institution of the Federal University is responsible for controlling the quality of the advanced training of pedagogical workers, certain subject areas, using the necessary human, material, information and methodical resources.