ITMO and Alfa-Bank Evaluate Results of Course on Product Approach in Education

The course was divided into two modules. Participants attended online webinars, consulted experts, and practiced incorporating a product-oriented approach into educational programs. The on-site course took place in St. Petersburg and featured lectures, discussions, workshops by ITMO and Alfa-Bank experts, cross-project team sessions, and a final project defense.

Out of 1,100 applicants from 61 cities, the organizers selected participants from 49 universities and 26 cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novokuznetsk, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, and some others. Among the selectees are leaders of educational programs at Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), Moscow Polytechnic University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Murmansk Arctic University, Skoltech, and the National University of Science and Technology MISIS.

“This is the first joint ITMO and Alfa-Bank course on the product approach. The demand for a product-oriented education is driven by numerous reasons – these include concessions for the IT sector, a new educational system tailored towards the needs of the real economy sector, and a rising competition among talents. This also exposed a gap in management training – namely, a shortage of specialists ready to switch from a traditional, decades-old approach to a new practice-oriented one,” says Alexander Mayatin, the head of the Center of Top-Level Educational Programs in IT.

For the final task, participants had to analyze an educational program at their university and identify its gaps and growth areas. To do so, they needed to define desired, market-driven learning outcomes, attract necessary resources through business partnerships, and build a stable and efficient model for its further management and development.

“A product-oriented approach in education is in high demand today; we need to align our programs to what students and employers need, regularly update their content, and test hypotheses just as businesses do. We chose ITMO as our partner for the course because it has a long-standing background in technological and product development, and together, we can not only discuss educational reforms, but also launch collaborative programs that promote these changes,” comments Marat Ismagulov, the HR director of Alfa-Bank.

At the end of the course, program leaders pitched 60 projects meant to redesign Bachelor’s and Master’s educational programs.