With the support of Severstal, the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU), together with the City Development Agency (AGR) and the City Administration, continues a pilot project to develop the competencies of representatives of the heads of city governments.

"Pilot" is being implemented as part of the innovative project "Institute of Governance", which was created in 2021 by the decision of Mayor of Cherepovets, Vadim Germanov, and Сity Head, Margarita Guseva. During the project, "mini-city halls" were established in all districts of the city to address the operational issues of citizens.

From April 27th to 29th, the first stage of the project is taking place at the Cherepovets State University, where municipal service employees are participating in the development of skills in areas such as city development strategy, management of city projects, personal resource development, and readiness for change. GSOM SPbU Professors fdelivered the lecturers.

"As Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin said, we need to always be in contact with people, to be closer to people. To do this, we need to train specialists who work with people. And the new program, prepared by the combined team of Cherepovets and GSOM SPbU, provides an opportunity to improve the competencies of our city managers, to teach them to listen and hear the residents, to quickly solve their problems and requests," said Mayor Vadim Hermanov.

"Through joint efforts, a unique program has been developed that will take territory management to a qualitatively new level and introduce a customer-oriented approach to the work of municipal service employees," noted Olga Dergunova, Deputy President - Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank and GSOM SPbU Director.

"Cherepovets is our main area of responsibility. Here, it is our duty to show care for the city's residents, employees, and veterans of the company. Sustainable city development is no less important a priority than modern technologies and environmentally friendly production processes. We hope to provide a new level of development of competencies for municipal officials, which will enable them to create new trusting relationships with the population," said Zakhar Azarov, Advisor for CEO Sustainable Development.

The final stage of the pilot study to improve the competencies of representatives of city management will take place in June 2023 in St. Petersburg at GSOM SPbU "Mikhailovskaya Dacha" campus.