During the panel discussion “Training leaders of digital transformation in the field of commercial and public administration”, representatives of the state bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the expert community will discuss what professional and personal competencies are necessary for the successful implementation of digital transformation projects.

Natalya Garkusha will talk about the assessment of competencies and the training of leaders and teams for the digital transformation of the public administration system of the Russian Federation.

“The digital transformation of public administration is increasingly shifting the focus on competencies, rather than on processes and tasks. Senior executives and project team leaders must consider what competencies their employees are endowed with and whether they will be able to quickly adapt to new challenges in the face of a rapid transition to a new digital reality. Every specialist now needs deeper analytics and data science skills.

In government structures, it is no longer enough for managers to understand the specifics of management in the public sector. Leading cadres must take responsibility not only for the work of individual departments and their internal divisions, but also to form a new digital thinking throughout the country,”- said Natalya Garkusha.

The expert will also present the results of how these trends have affected the approaches to training personnel and the methodology of the educational programs of the center.

“In 2021, of those who passed the entrance interview, only about 51% of civil servants are fully enrolled in the programs of the center. In absolute terms, this is 12,620 people. At the same time, the state is faced with the task of training several million employees from regions, municipalities and subordinate institutions. Therefore, we are changing approaches in order to train not thousands, but hundreds of thousands, while maintaining the quality of education and the involvement of students. The results of such training are new competencies and digital projects of federal and regional significance. At the end of 2020 alone, our students developed more than 200 such projects.”

The Center for Training Leaders and Digital Transformation Teams was established in February 2019 under the auspices of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the Ministry of Economic Development on the basis of the Higher School of Public Administration of the RANEPA. Financing of the Center is carried out within the framework of the national program "Digital Economy".

Key activities of the Center:

• educational programs for state and municipal employees responsible for digital transformation and development of Russian authorities. In 2019-2020, more than 23,000 civil servants were selected for the Center's programs, in 2021 — 12,620 people, including deputy federal ministers, vice-governors and deputy heads of federal services, heads and participants of digital development project offices, specialists from municipal authorities authorities. By the end of 2024, more than 70,000 people will be able to study under the programs of the Center;
• educational activities - popularization of digital transformation both in the field of public administration and in other areas. For this, open courses “The Age of Digital Development: Fundamentals of Digital Transformation” and “Digital Transformation. Fast start". The courses are free and open to everyone on the Stepik platform. Over 170,000 people have already signed up to improve their digital literacy;
• research work, development of analytical and methodological materials on topics related to the digital transformation of public administration, digital platforms and their ecosystems, the implementation of digital transformation projects, the ethics of digital technologies;
• assessment of the competencies of specialists and selection of employees for digital transformation teams. The Center for Evaluation and HR Development of Digital Transformation Specialists, opened in May 2020, is responsible for the assessment, selection, and maintenance of the Personnel Registry and the cdto.work portal.