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The goal of the Management Personnel Pool programme is to train top-level managers for potential appointments to regional and federal government positions.

The project was launched in 2017 upon an instruction issued by the President with 463 graduates as of today. Of them, 57 graduates are now heading Russian regions, seven are serving as federal ministers, and nine have been appointed as first federal deputy ministers.

The programme is carried out by the Graduate School of Public Management at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in collaboration with leading educational institutions.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

I would like to start by congratulating you on completing the training as the sixth group of graduates of the Management Personnel Pool programme.

As you may remember, this meaningful project started back in 2017 and was referred to as the school of governors from the outset. Indeed, 57 graduates are now heading various regions of the Russian Federation. In all, 463 trainees have taken part in the programme over these years and then went to work in different areas such as public administration, business, and public life, and have excelled at what they do.

There are things that unite you, such as leadership qualities, the talent of a leader and a person in charge, the focus on advancing professional growth, and, of course, the sincere desire to serve Russia and its people, and dedicate yourselves and your lives to this cause.

This service implies immense responsibility, which is why much is required of you and your colleagues, and trust and expectations run high. The country really counts on you and your utmost focus and discipline in order to achieve common goals.

I have said it before and I will say it again that everyone in their workplaces, no matter the field, be it public service, economic activities, or the media must put in hard work and dedication, and be fully aware of the times we are living in and the historical period we are going through.

Of course, all of you are well-established professionals and have already achieved a lot in your careers; I hope the programme has provided you with additional training, namely the practical skills which are most needed now to address big and complex tasks including at the regional level.

In this context, alternating training and real work has become the first and main feature of the ‘school of governors’ when a theoretical module is immediately followed by practice, where you can apply the acquired knowledge in your professional activities.

Hence the programme’s second feature: among your mentors you had not only best teachers and experts but also highly qualified practical managers whose names are well-known in the entire country and even beyond. I will not name them all now but I hope that they have shown their best while working with you.

I would like to also thank them for sharing their experience with you even though they are very busy and have packed schedules. They have probably given you a lot of valuable practical advice and recommendations and, I hope, shared some secrets of their own professional success.

Finally, the third feature of the programme is that you co-created the training course: you could adjust its contents and suggest topics and current management problems that require special attention.

I hope that you will also build your everyday activities on the same principles of personnel selection and training and will look for talented young people, train and support them, and also share your experience I hope you will keep in mind that you serve as an example for them, that you are management team leaders, and that you also being watched and assessed. You need to be worthy of this enormous responsibility and people’s trust.

In fact, over these seven years, the programme has proven its effectiveness. It is important that most of its participants are subsequently promoted and take new steps in their careers.

I have already mentioned the replenishing of the governor corps, but graduates can be employed not only in the regional executive bodies, including in Novorossiya and Donbass, but also in the federal Government and in parliament, in science and education, and in the cooperative and corporate sectors.

This happens not because you have some kind of certificate, a paper from the “school of governors,” but above all because of your personal abilities, hard work, skills that distinguish you and your colleagues and allow you to be rightfully called am executive candidate pool.

Graduates of the “school of governors” are in great demand. I know that some of the students of your sixth class who are still studying, have already received new appointments before the end of training and will be able to prove their worth in deed.

I am also sure that you will not skip the shortcuts. You are needed where things are most difficult, where you face real managerial challenges, where big projects are being implemented, which – it must be said frankly – not everyone can cope with, where there are the most formidable challenges, which, I am sure, you can handle.

And I should emphasise again that the “school of governors” is just one element in a broad national system of personnel selection and training. It works in all areas and encompasses people of all age brackets – from the Movement of the First, from little children and the Bolshaya Preremena contest, to an entire network of year-round educational centres and contests like Leaders of Russia and dozens of other projects on the Russia – Land of Opportunity platform.

We will keep on developing this ramified but unified system and make it more accessible. A year ago, in July 2023, at a meeting with your predecessors, graduates of the fifth class, I spoke about the need to expand our personnel programmes. And so we did.

As early as last November, we launched a programme for the development of the municipal management reserve, the so-called school of mayors. And since March 1, as mentioned in the Address [to the Federal Assembly], another new educational programme, Time of Heroes, was launched for the special military operation participants and veterans.

Recently, you may have noticed, I met with them, too. They are excellent, reliable people, who are highly motivated to work, to achieve results both at the front and in civilian life. I have no doubt that you have the same fighting spirit.

I am sure that in the future, in your upcoming work you will act together, in one team, which has already been established here, I hope, with the graduates of the programme Time of Heroes. You will coordinate your actions with them and interact with them. As far as I know, there are people among you who have also been to the area of the special military operation.

I wish you all success, and congratulate you on graduating from the programme, and I hope that you will certainly be successful.

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