The non-governmental and nonprofit international G8&G20 Alumni Association that brings together young leaders from around the world was the forum's organizer. The organization annualy gathers representatives of national parliaments, universities, business community members, students and university graduates. During the forum, experts together with youth, discuss the problems of civil society, international relations development; solve problems in the field of economy, education and social policy.
The forum business program is divided into four blocks: youth summit, conference, joint meetings and debates. Recommendations and conclusions formed by the participants on the results of the event will be discussed by world organizations: The United Nations (UN), The European Commission (EC), The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others.
The Russian delegation included representatives from the ITMO University, Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University, The National Research University Higher School of Economics and Far Eastern Federal University.
"Representatives of ITMO University participated in the round tables on globalization and internationalization of higher education. Issues of a universal approach to the system of the education quality assessing, mutual recognition of diplomas and degrees, were discussed during the meetings since many countries still face these problems. In addition, the educational issues were raised in each of the thematic areas, such as politics, economy, health, social area and energy," Elena Shumeyko says, the manager of the ITMO University International Educational Programs Department.
The forum participants discussed the problem of the qualified personnel shortage in the field of healthcare, especially at the regional level, which leads to the preservation of low life expectancy in developing countries. Experts and young professionals managed to find a solution: mass creation of the vocational training centers where students could obtain a set of skills needed to perform a specific job.
The representatives of Australia, South Africa, Denmark and other countries have noted that graduates have a shortage of practical experience after graduation from high schools; unemployment among young people is rising as a result of that. The development of new educational programs which would combine theoretical training with practical application of acquired knowledge without prejudice to the learning process may become one of the ways to solve this problem, according to those present. So, there is a need to build a constructive dialogue between educational institutions and private companies, to enable students to combine work and study. Also, the forum participants proposed to overcome the unemployment problem through the development of inter-state dialogue. Educational institutions will know what specialists a country needs at the moment and where, on the contrary, there are too many specialists. Even distribution of the labor force will contribute to unemployment reducing at an international scale.
Among other things, the discussion was affected by a shortage of qualified professionals in the field of energy and lack of access to quality education in developing countries. Because of this, the economic growth pace remains low, since the states are forced to export raw materials instead of finished products.
Furthermore, in most developing countries there is an outflow of specialists to other countries. Often, if a professional is educated in a foreign country, he doesn't return to his country because of poor wages and weak social safety nets. It was proposed to rectify the situation by the development of the Government subsidized federal programs aimed at possible training of specialists in foreign universities and their subsequent return to their country for doing the job connected with their professional skills. In particular, such practice has been used successfully in China.
"The Forum gives a good opportunity to discuss the problems of specific areas (politics, education, economy) not only in the national framework, but also in an international one, to exchange views with representatives of different countries and cultures, and work together to find solutions," the ITMO University representative summarizes.
It is noteworthy that for the first time the event was held in 2005 in St. Petersburg. The ITMO University delegation led by Vladimir Vasilyev, the G200 Youth Forum honorary guest, takes part in the forum regularly.