Novopavlovsk is a small city in the Kirov region of Stavropol, more than two hundred kilometers from the regional center. Despite its distance from the capital of the region, it was here that they decided to open the first “business class.”
The director of the city’s gymnasium number 1, Irina Melnichenko, the Minister of Economic Development of the Stavropol Territory, Denis Polyubin, and the head of the Kirov district, Nikolai Novopashin, signed a cooperation agreement on this initiative. The Ministry will fully supervise the new class and take charge of the training program and practice.
The Ministry of Economy of the region will fully supervise the new unusual class, will take care of the training program for schoolchildren and internships in companies.
Classes at the educational institution will be aimed, among other things, at pre-professional training in specialties related to economics, management, marketing and management.
“This is even more about the sponsorship of the Ministry of Economic Development than about an educational institution,” said Denis Polyubin. – As part of the educational project “Entrepreneurial Class”, we supervise the work of career guidance with students of specialized classes, we will develop skills that will be useful at the time of admission, specifically we will teach them financial education and business activity, we will invite them to practice and in the future to work. I am sure that it will be a multidirectional, interesting and effective project.
The training is divided into several main blocks. The first of them is the search for a business idea, a niche, its evaluation and the legal basis of business activity. The second block is related to marketing and market analysis. The third is finances. It includes the preparation of a business plan, income and expense budget for the year. And the fourth block: presentations and various social skills on team building.
They now plan to open similar classes throughout the region. Some of them will be multidisciplinary, others highly specialized.
According to sociological surveys, more than 80 percent of residents of the Stavropol Territory strive to control their expenses and improve their knowledge of financial instruments and money safety. Since 2022, this has been taught in schools in the Stavropol region as part of some subjects. But in order to transmit that knowledge to children, teachers must first receive it.
To date, more than 1,200 teachers in the region have completed special courses teaching financial literacy at the Center for Continuing Professional Development of Teachers.
According to Tatyana Taranushenko, director of the Center for the development and support of the educational system of the Petrovsky district of the Stavropol Territory, it is important to find the right approach to children to interest them in the topic.
– It seems to me that gaming technologies offer more opportunities in this direction. For teachers, they are more comfortable, because schoolchildren are not confined to the classroom, they can talk, express themselves and work on different projects,” said Tatyana Taranushenko.
There are financial literacy practices in the region for other ages. For example, students receive training at the North Caucasus Federal University at the My Business startup school. A rich intensive course for students (lectures, trainings, master classes, business reviews) has a very specific goal of developing the financial and business skills of young people. The participants are students of non-economic specialties of Stavropol universities and secondary vocational educational institutions.
“These events are organized in such a way as to show young people in detail where they can start their own business and how to avoid making serious mistakes, what tools young entrepreneurs can use, how to find leadership qualities in themselves and bring together like-minded people. . the people around them,” stressed the region’s Deputy Finance Minister, Yuri Suslov. – Consequently, the startup school program offers participants the opportunity to try completely different formats, which allow them to synthesize theoretical knowledge and practical cases, but at the same time show their own creativity.
Meanwhile
Online training sessions on financial literacy for older generations are held in the Stavropol region. Seniors receive lectures from specialists of the local branch of the Bank of Russia. They help listeners feel more confident in money-related matters and choose the financial services or products that are best for them.
The lectures discuss typical situations that every elderly person may encounter: loss of a bank card, fraudulent activities, investment basics, the possibility of refusing paid services imposed by the bank or unnecessary insurance.
Some of Russia’s most active retired students live in the Stavropol region. For the second consecutive year, the region is among the leaders in coverage of comprehensive social service centers participating in the project. In 2022, seniors in the region watched financial education webinars 5,282 times.
