Within the framework of the event there was held a round table on “Youth’s Niche in the Information Society”.  Due to necessity of national economy’s modernization, increase of HR potential of the country and e-government development the issue of preparation of young Russians to usage of modern technologies becomes more relevant.

The Round Table was attended by Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of IIS Board of Directors, Nikolay Pryanishnikov, President of Microsoft in Russia, Alexander Pronin, Director of the Department of ICT Development of the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF, Nikolay Komlev, Executive Director of the Association of Computer and Information Technologies Enterprises, Mikhail Fedotov, Deputy President of the Association of Informatics Teachers and Head of Educational Center of CMC MSU after M. Lomonosov, Ivan Dementyev, Head of the Program ''Young Professionals'' of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives. The Round Table was headed by Alina Temnova, journalist and TV presenter.

Participants of the discussion reflected on the fact that nowadays young people are in urgent need of high quality trainings in IT sphere for successful employment and professional and personal growth.

«Today our country faces a very important goal – to nurture high skilled specialists, who will be competitive on the labor market and, what is more important, to stimulate them to develop in Russia and not abroad.   That’s why we think that cooperation with companies offering this kind of initiatives is very perspective. For our part we make efforts to support such programs, we put them forward for discussion in the course of business meetings and even  create methodic recommendations for educational institutions, - emphasized Alexander Pronin, Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Education and Science of the RF. – Only by joint efforts we can create favorable conditions for development of our society.”

Yuri Hohlov emphasized in his speech: “Currently the information culture of a person is very important because ICT found way into all aspect of our lives. The most important goal we have – to enhance information culture of people and youth particularly”. He also spoke about competitive advantage of Russian students – their creative potential in comparison with students from India, China is higher thanks to peculiarities of Russian system of education. Thus it is required to preserve these best practices.     

Mikhail Fedotov shared his vision of problems related to ICT specialists training in Russia: “We need to train programmers within the system of secondary education, and not only in universities. There is also a problem with informatics teachers in Russia– there is a shortage of them!”

Nikolay Pryanishnikov shared the results of work of the program “Your Course” after 3 years: around 1 million people were acquainted in this or that way with the program “Your Course”; 300 thousands were trained at computer literacy courses; 62 Russian regions participated in the program;   83 cities opened computer literacy courses, in total more than 130 centers were opened;  more than 4300 trainers were prepared; more than 51 thousand people had courses in e-services; 140 stories of success were uploaded to the web-site of the program; more than 30 thousand people enhanced their CVs at computer literacy courses; thousand of thank-you letters were received from participants of the program; during 3 years of work 764 reports on the project in mass media were documented. 

In September 2012 there was launched a new Microsoft program – Microsoft YouthSpark. «Your Course: IT for Youth” is one of Microsoft YouthSpark global initiatives. The ambitious goal of the project is to cover 300 million people around the world and 10 million people in Russian in 3 years.  Official launch of the program in Russia was held in October 2012. The program offers new opportunities for the youth in 3 key spheres – education, employment and entrepreneurship.  

Project «Your Course: IT for Youth” is destined to help high school students take seriously the choice of profession: know more about professions, which will be in demand in future,  understand the diversity of professions related to ITs,  get acquainted with the most recent technologies and get the hang of practical skills for realization of their potentials.   It is planned that in 2012-2013 school year the project will cover more than 100 educational institutions, about 17 000 senior students from 20 cities of Russia. Students-volunteers, including members of the program Microsoft Student Partners and international youth organization AIESEC, will conduct on the base of schools and computer literacy centers events related to professional orientation for senior students, will demonstrate the newest capabilities of information technologies, will tell about ICT competencies and ways of its increasing.  Hereafter school children, who participated in these trainings, will be able to become volunteers in existing “Your Course” centers themselves and will help in teaching others.

Tatiana Ershova, IIS Director General, acted as moderator of the main plenary session.

Mila Shilina from Microsoft introduced to the participants of the Conference the future of information technologies, particularly the leading transformation trends (ecosystems, artificial intelligence, cloud, new screens, sociality and Kinect system, gesture control).  

Irina Svyatitskaya from HeadHunter reported on «Labor Market for young specialists in IT sphere». She admitted that it was pleasant news that during the past year number of vacancies for young specialists increased by 60%, and 17% of all vacancies on IT market are destined for young specialists. Alongside with that according to the Federal State Statistics Service in 2012 coefficient of unemployment rate among youngsters aged 15-24 was 4 times higher that the same index among grown-up population.   

Olga Golovanova from Microsoft presented new initiative Microsoft YouthSpark. Because of the necessity of early professional orientation and for the purpose of increasing status value of IT related professions Microsoft Company displaces focus to the youth. Information about products and resources of this program is available at: http: www.microsoft.ru/youthspark

Evgeniya Levinskaya from Microsoft  and Yakov Ostanin from PH International also made bright presentation at the plenary session on Microsoft projects for youth and students.  

Karen Kazaryan

Oleg Shevkun from «Elite Group» Company reported brightly and conclusively on problems of disabled people. Stanislav Shevchenko from the Development Center «Competence» shared best practices of his organization in the sphere of pupils’ professional orientation as IT-specialists.

Alexander Yashukov, Elena Orlova and Ekaterina Ignatyeva (Microsoft) introduced to participants of the Conference Microsoft resources for teachers.  

The first day of the Conference ended with master-classes «Windows 8», «Office 2013», which were conducted by Mila Shilina and Ksenia Koshkina from Microsoft.

IIS employees participated in the work of the Conference: Olga Reznikova, Louiza Rizmanova, Irina Miroshnichenko, Marina Smyslova and Olga Kopyeva.