DigitalSkills competition opened in Innopolis on 11th December.

President Minnikhanov and Minister of Communications and Mass Media of Russia Nikolay Nikiforov contributed to the opening ceremony. Rector Ilshat Gafurov was present.

“Out of 146 million people in the country, we have only 70 million of workforce. This is not that many, so we are interested in people being engaged in as qualified a work as possible,” said the Minister.

President Minnikhanov opined that preparing competent experts for the IT industry is more pertinent than ever. “10 universities in the Republic graduate workers for IT, which about 1,400 people a year. New trends of the digital economy warrant establishing new ties between education and industry, that’s why there are many grant programs for students by companies. There is also grant support for IT students from the state, such as at the Higher School of IT and Information Systems of KFU,” he added.

Kazan University has indeed become a center of IT education and integration with the industry, with two institutes and a special middle school (IT Lyceum) focused on these areas.

The DigitalSkills championship and “Teaching ICT Specialists for Russia’s Digital Economy” conference are being held on 11th – 15th December.