Two diplomas at once: AltSU successfully implements the federal project "Digital Department"

Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote about the implementation of the federal project "Digital Department" at Altai State University, which enables senior students, along with a diploma of higher education, to receive an additional IT profession for free.

According to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, digital transformation was included in the top five development goals for Russia until 2030. Training digital skills is now a key priority. Without high technologies, the work of large companies, the development of economic sectors and the improvement of the quality of life are impossible. The standard computer literacy is no longer enough; the competitive advantage of modern specialists is competence in the field of digital technologies. To this end, in the Russian Federation, at the beginning of 2022, the Digital Departments project was launched, which is supervised by the Ministry of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, Innopolis University and, most importantly, with the involvement of a wide range of IT companies.

Altai State University is the only university in Altai Krai that has won the federal program "Priority 2030". So, in May 2022, he opened the Digital Department and became the base platform for training IT personnel for the entire region.

Evgenia Zhdanova, First Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of Altai State University, explains:

— The federal project "Digital Department" provides a unique opportunity for AltSU students to obtain additional qualifications in the field of information technology. First of all, this is a great chance to get involved in the digital sphere for students studying in non-IT areas. For example, for economists, biologists, chemists, historians, philologists, sociologists, journalists and many others. New technologies will help them develop their competitive advantages, master related professions, and also introduce digital technologies in their professional activities. And for those students who have already enrolled in the IT field, to deepen their competencies in related digital fields. Thus, students enrolled in the "Digital Department" at AltSU, along with their basic education, will be able to receive an additional IT profession absolutely free of charge. This year, for the “Digital Department” project of Altai State University, together with industrial partners, eight professional retraining programs have been developed in the most popular IT areas. All programs have been reviewed by specialized IT companies, experts from ANO "Digital Economy" and industry councils established under the Russian Ministry of Digital Development. And in September 2022, the first recruitment took place at AltSU, which amounted to more than 1,100 people. Such a scale suggests that students understand how important IT competencies are now.

The implementation of the project is planned until 2030. During this period, Altai State University plans to train more than 14,000 specialists with digital competencies that are in demand on the labor market.

Alexandra Smolyaninova, a fourth-year student of the direction “Journalism” at Altai State University, was not familiar with the IT world, but already from the first classes she sees many advantages:

— Today, the IT sector opens up great opportunities for a career. My friends from other universities sign up for paid courses to master basic IT competencies, while the university provided me with this opportunity completely free of charge. Moreover, the course takes place on the AltSU educational platform with the most understandable and familiar interface. Classes are organized online at a convenient time for me.

But the fourth-year student of the direction "Applied Mathematics and Informatics" Andrey Musokhranov at the "Digital Department" is taking a more in-depth course on the development of artificial intelligence. He is sure that the Russian economy is currently experiencing a great need for specialists in this industry.

Andrey says:

— The course is designed for nine months. It is very important for me that after graduating from the university, along with the main diploma, I will immediately receive a professional retraining diploma in the Data Science Technologies and AI Development program, which guarantees me success in my future career.

At the Digital Department, students will have to complete a training program consisting of video lectures, practical case studies, independent work, consultations with teachers, passing checkpoints, performing real projects during internships with IT partners and their final defense.

In addition to continuous monitoring of the implementation of training at the Digital Department by the administrative and managerial staff, faculty and tutors of the university, independent phased control of the project is also carried out by Innopolis University. For this purpose, an Assessment Center was created on the basis of Innopolis University with the task of conducting a comprehensive independent assessment of the development of digital competencies.

As part of the assessment, students need to pass tests and solve cases that correspond to the focus of retraining programs. The final assessment and certification will be the final assessment procedures aimed at determining the level of students' competencies and their readiness for a new professional activity.