On 15 July 2022 a virtual round table “Mentoring System in Russia: History, Reality and Prospects” was held by Synergy team within the Woman Leader educational programme of the Senezh Management Workshop.
The event addressed the difficulties Russian young people face when choosing a work place and finding their place in life and how mentors and tutors help students and young professionals determine their career path. The participants considered the history of mentoring development in Russia, mentoring system challenges and goals as well as prospects to establish and develop the mentoring system in Russia.
Speakers at the round table included Alexander Solovyov, representative of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) in the Republic of Singapore, Alexander Svinin, Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Singapore and in the Republic of the Philippines, Ekaterina Gusarova, Marketing Manager, ROSATOM South-East Asia, and other experts.
Milana Ozerina, Specialist in International Activities of the Center for International Cooperation, Rosatom Technical Academy, also took part in the event and shared the Academy’s experience in organizing mentoring workshops for female students from ROSATOM’s basic universities.
The international interest in mentoring was sparked by the gender equality trend in STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) gave it a priority and impulse for further development. The first mentoring workshop was held in Japan in 2017 where the OECD NEA aimed at helping Fukushima female high school students overcome gender stereotypes in science and technology professions. In 2019 Russia held its first joint mentoring workshop with OECD NEA for Russian female students at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. OECD NEA designed such format of communication with female audience as one of the key tools for changing public opinion in favour of nuclear power.
The second joint Russia-OECD NEA mentoring workshop took place in 2021 at the Saint Petersburg Branch of Rosatom Technical Academy for an international group of female students from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. In November 2022 the Academy is planning to host another mentoring workshop for female students from the Tomsk Polytechnic University as such communication format with young female students proved to be an extreme success.