Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, Director of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU), moderated the section on competencies, training and skills at the forum “The New Reality of Management. Forum of Leaders, CEOs, HR-Directors”, organized by Forbes.

The key topic of the session consisted of questions devoted to changes in the understanding of leadership qualities and the responsibility of leaders for their own development. On the agenda was the question of the need to invest in identifying and developing leaders with high potential not only from within the public sector, but also in private companies.

“Nothing would have happened in Russia if there had not been no restless people. At first they dream, then everyone else begins to believe in their dreams, and then, when the results appear, everyone thinks that it has always been this way. Today I want to thank those restless people who have been working within the public sector and working for the state to enrich the education system."

Alexey Komissarov, Director of "Russia — the Country of Opportunities", and the Head of the Leaders of Russia project, spoke about the experience of organizing an all-Russian personnel competition, in which about 833 thousand applications for participation were submitted over 4 years. During this time, 300 people reached the finals - “Leaders of Russia”, and more than 100 became winners. Speaking about the most demanded competencies of leaders, Alexey Komissarov emphasized that the ability to present oneself in public today is not enough.

“Soft skills are very valuable and in demand, but hard skills, professionalism and specific competencies are so important today that this year we changed the rules of the competition. Instead of a single set, we switched to profile tracks, and each participant was only  able to choose one of them. The ability to work under conditions of uncertainty, without predetermined templates, and  taking responsibility for decisions every day is what employers expect from today’s leaders."

Dmitry Peskov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Digital and Technological Development, Director of the Young Professionals direction of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the University 2035 (the largest educational provider in the country, issued 450 thousand diplomas) highlighted several trends of the “new digital personnel reality ".

“In the digital world, in some cases, you can get guaranteed employment after a couple of months of training. The number of jobs in the digital area is not limited by anything, including the national character of the economy — you immediately enter into competition with the whole world. Finally, if until recently "digital" was considered to be something separate from real life, then today digital and real life have finally been merged. Therefore, the biggest deficit is becoming  the lack of specialists who can combine skills — for example, digital and spatial logistics”.

Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Petr Kucherenko spoke about the development of two projects by the state with the support of the ANO "Russia - The Country of Opportunities". The first one is the so-called centers of competence, which will deal with accounting and the verification of the soft skills of specialists. The second is the development of electronic diplomas, which, according to the planners, should contain additional information — from participation in volunteer projects to sports achievements. “This would allow a broader look at a person, allowing an  understanding of what kind of work would suit him or her best,” Kucherenko noted.

Petr Kucherenko: “Over the past quarter century, higher education has become universal and widespread — and this is good. But you need to understand that while secondary education gave you competitive advantages 100 years ago, that not even higher education does this. As a result, entering the labor market and filling out your resume, you will have to fit information about your education in two lines (and this will be the name of the university and area of specialization). But then you will have to answer in much more detail questions about unverifiable skills, such as the ability to work in a team or the ability to empathize. "

Nick van Dam, International Training and Qualifications Expert, Director of Training at IE University (Spain) and a Senior External Advisor to McKinsey & Company, cited a study by his company. The forecast is as follows: in 10 years, every third job in Europe will have “become outdated”, new positions will appear, for which new competencies will be required. Among the key ones, according to van Dam, are "critical thinking and the ability to solve complex problems and problems."

“It is important to develop skills in working with people. Developing technical skills is easy enough, but you can't read a book and learn to be a leader. Emotional intelligence is a separate area for development. Those who come to the company today will have to work for 40-50 years. All this time, you will need to maintain your energy level and physical condition. Finally, I believe that we will never bypass machines in what they do well. Therefore, we must focus on what they are not able to — and this is creativity, the production of new ideas and cognitive skills."

In turn, Svetlana Matveeva, Vice President for Human Resources of AFK Sistema (the company is a GSOM SPbU partner and member of the GSOM Advisory Board) and one of the Leaders of Russia winners, noted that business expects quick and concrete results from the educational system, but it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the academic environment. And nevertheless, universities should become — and are becoming — the “assemblage point” of the needs of the new generation of workers, employers, society and science.