Project Group №6 members

Project Group 6. Moscow Educational, Health, Culture and Social Infrastructure in Moscow.

Education
Health services
Culture
Interaction of foreigners with Russian public services

Education, Health, Culture and Social Infrastructure in Moscow Project Group (PG6) was formed in November 2010 and is co-chaired by M.Abyzov and S.Guriev. The main goal of this Project Group is attracting highly qualified finance professionals to Moscow. The Group tasks include:

• Promotion of Moscow in the International Financial Centre rankings
• Quality of life improvement for top-rank foreign specialists
• Raising the profile of Moscow abroad
• Creation of a positive image of Moscow as a place to live in

The Group is subdivided into four areas:

• Education
• Health
• Culture
• Foreigner's interaction with Russian authorities and business

This Group is consulted by various institutions, including the European Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce, the French Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the German Economic Alliance and representatives of international cultural centres.

The mandate of Project Group 6 is detailed below.

Education

For the international financial centre development, two components of educational system are very important – education of financial company employees and creation of comfortable conditions for foreigners to work and live in Moscow. Project group 6 plans to work on these aspects, as it is main objective is to provide Moscow Financial Centre with adequate labour force supply. This incorporates both making the city more attractive for international professionals and increasing the supply of highly trained local specialists. According to global ratings of international financial centres, expats think that listed below factors are crucial when choosing Moscow as a place to work in:

• Opportunity for children to get quality education on school and preschool level
• Opportunity for continuing and recognizable education abroad for children; preferably, not very expensive and not far away from home
• Opportunity to study local language without extra expenses and organizational problems
• Opportunity for leisure and additional development for children
• Opportunity for professional development and qualification, including proficiency testing at a local level
• Educational documents acceptance of family members without extra expenses and organizational problems
• No language barriers for communication at work
• Opportunity for children to retain their native language

At the moment, foreign professionals see a lack of information on quantity and quality of educational institutions, schools and kindergartens for their children; unclear procedure for joint educational programmes and acceptance of school certificates. There are few educational institutions that comply with international educational standards (for e.g., international bachelors programme).

There are not enough vacancies for foreign children in existing educational institutions; shortage of foreign language teachers at schools and foreign language subjects; restricted access to contemporary foreign language tutorials, literature and educational programmes. Low level of foreign language proficiency, lack of basic financial knowledge and low availability of such education is still common for Moscow. There is also a lack of highly skilled financial specialists in Moscow. There are language restrictions in obtaining certificates, proof of qualification (for e.g., Federal Service for Financial Markets certification).

Key problems in Moscow education infrastructure development as seen by PG6:

• Systematic, regularly updated and accessible information on quantity and quality of educational institutions, vacancies, educational conditions and rules of acceptance in schools and kindergartens in the city / region is absent
• Shortage of international tutors due to migration and visa problems
• Unclear process of providing foreigners with educational services
• Major restrictions on professional training abroad for teachers
• There are no government programmes that support Russian language studies abroad and among expats working in Russia
• Slow upgrade of educational programmes and tutorials
• There are no promotional programmes abroad on Russian education
• Non-government educational institutions discrimination on federal and regional level
• Major customs restrictions for import of study materials and scientific and research equipment that is not produced in Russia.

Ways of improvement:

1. Equity of government and non-government educational institutions.

   Clarification of documents on non-government school support; changes to the Education Act; support within the Moscow region; “Best School” contest; property/building privileges; giving rights to regions for property requirements clarification; workgroup creation to improve standards of property/buildings for Moscow and the Moscow region.

2. Government programme of finance education support.

   Competition among universities for funding and attracting foreign teachers to create joint professional and secondary education courses. Funding from private sources or government banks.

3. Support of international educational standards, including international Bachelor’s programme (IB) and GEMS.

   International Bachelor’s (IB) Degree acceptance by Russian universities, including conversion of IB results into Universal State Exam results; adaptation of International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) certificates to Russian standards; regional projects; regional job placement centres certification in Russia; increasing pool of Russian teachers and administrators in IBO activities; Russian language promotion in IBO.

4. Schools rating.

   Database keeping, systematization and analysis of information on schools in the city and region; methods for quality assessment of education with Universal State Exam results (public information), assessment, tracking changes, open publication of information in Russian and other languages. These methods are to be elaborated by expert group, with the information provided by the Department of Education, assessment is given by an independent university, and results are presented to the Department of Education, the Ministry of Education and, ultimately published by mass media and on a special multi-language web-portal. This rating system is developed by Higher School of Economics and RIA Novosti. It is necessary to raise additional funding to adapt the rating for expats needs.

5. Multinational information portal creation.

   The Portal is aimed at informing parents and children on education in Moscow, including a forum for discussions and an interactive map of Moscow with school addresses, as well as pre-schools and leisure facilities suitable for foreigners.

6. Creation of early learning centres.

   Establishing of non-government paid pre-schools, comprising early learning centres and kindergartens that provide education in Russian, English, French and German languages.

   We suggest using these centres for professional development of teachers and managers with knowledge of contemporary methods of pre-school and early learning. These managers should be capable of creating successful self-financing pre-schools.

7. Education days in Russia.

   Exhibitions by Russian cultural centres abroad to promote Russian education.

8. Creation of resource centre for teachers.

   Training courses, foreign language studies, international standards certification, experience exchange, attracting foreign specialists.

9. Reward programme for foreign languages promotion.

   Federal reward programme for foreign language teachers; contests, grants for development of educational programmes and projects.

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Health services

According to the international financial centre ratings, expats suppose that key factors about work and relocation to Russia are:

Quality and pricing of medical monitoring and routine check-up for children and grown-ups

• Convenient location of medical clinics for foreigners
• No language barriers for communication in medical clinic
• Information availability on emergency aid, routine check-up and medical insurance
• Opportunity to use international medical insurance in Russia
• Russian health services in low standing

Today, we see low foreign language proficiency among doctors in Moscow. There are difficulties and refusal to accept foreign insurance; there is no foreign language information on emergency care; few clinics for expats and their children; the quality of medical services for foreigners is poor, though the prices are very high.

Key problems in Moscow healthcare infrastructure development as seen by PG6:

• Insufficient amount of hours in educational programme and low quality education of medical personnel
• Out-of-date medical educational programmes and failure to meet international standards
• Local hospitals/clinics are not compliant with international standards, insurers’ requirements
• Lack of development opportunities for private clinics, as well as for private physicians, state-private partnership in health service industry.
• Lack of performance review and professional development centres, equipped with modern training devices and tutorials.
• Haphazard funding of equipment purchases, lack of how-to-use instructions, no maintenance.
• Unclear interaction between clinics and scientific institutions.
• Poor funding and underdevelopment of contemporary functions required in health services: medical cybernetics, medical engineering, health services management.
• Excessively high technical, sanitary and building requirements for clinics.
• Unclear usage of compulsory health insurance and voluntary health insurance for foreigners.

Ways of improvement:

1. Call centre creation

   A multi-language call centre is necessary for informing foreigners on available medical services and emergency advice.

2. Interaction of rescue services, ambulance and clinics for foreigners in emergency

3. Educational programme for health service management

   Based on non-medical higher education institutes (for e.g., Higher School of Economics, the Academy of National Economy, Skolkovo and others).

4. Project management educational programme for health services

   Based on non-medical higher education institutes (for e.g., Higher School of Economics, the Academy of National Economy, Skolkovo and others).

5. Revision of technical, sanitary and project requirements for clinics

6. Private clinics support

   Clear rules and procedures of interaction with government agencies, Federal migration service, benefits for property/land acquisition and rent.

7. Revision of secondary vocational education programmes

   Bringing Russian medical educational programmes in line with foreign best practice, including increase of educational hours for studying foreign languages and usage of contemporary tutorials.

8. Programmes revision of higher professional education and postgraduate study

   Bringing Russian medical educational programmes in line with foreign best practice, including increase of educational hours for studying foreign languages and usage of contemporary tutorials.

9. Training centres

   Federal system of training centres establishing in Moscow and other regions of Russia; providing these centres with simultaneous simulators for training, professional development and common rules for medical certification. Working group formation with participation of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Education ministry and professional medical networks for development of educational standards and certification in line with best foreign practice.

10. Support of contemporary technologies and equipment for health service needs on the basis of research institutes and universities

11. State and regional educational exchange programmes for young medical specialists

    We need short-term training of international level specialists able to speak foreign languages.

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Culture

In Russia and particularly in Moscow, museum concepts are outdated; there is a shortage of cultural events for expats and their children, few international cultural events and a lack of information. Russian culture, language and history promotion abroad is fragmented.

Ways of improvement:

1. «MIFC Events Calendar»

   A free brochure in foreign languages (based on existing prototypes in different international financial centres).

2. A unified product for Russian and foreign cultural centres and their activity systematization

3. Rebranding of Moscow

   Forming an image of Moscow as a modern, comfortable city to live in; a city on par with other European cultural centre.

4. New concept for Moscow City Day

5. Non-art museum concept creation and support

6. Audit contest and different languages data carriers upgrade

7. Training programmes and professional development for museum managers

8. Creation of a non-art museum in Moscow

9. State-private fund project development to finance non-profit activities in the sphere of Russian language and culture promotion within our country and abroad

Interaction of foreigners with Russian public services

This group was formed to eliminate trouble zones of foreigners’ life in Russia – from the moment of getting a work permit, establishing business, quality of life to issuing legal documents, visa, relocation to Russia, property rent. It’s important to pay attention to issues with education for children and personal safety. After relocation to Moscow, professional difficulties arise –understanding of taxes and legislation, issues with business management, travelling within the country. The key discomfort factor is language barriers – low level of foreign language knowledge in Russia, lack of information support (guides, directories), shortage of specialists with knowledge of foreign languages in the service industry.

Project Group №6 members

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