The meeting was attended by Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, State Duma committee chair Olga Kazakova, as well as representatives of federal and regional government authorities, municipalities, the scientific, expert, and business community, and the teaching profession.
In his opening remarks, Igor Levitin spoke about the plans to hold a State Council meeting on raising the prestige of teachers and mentors.
He noted that it is important to continue national traditions of mentoring, which for many decades has ensured a steady flow of qualified personnel into various professional fields, the predictable and consistent growth of their skills, reduced time required to master new equipment and technologies, and increasing production efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian activities.
In their reports, representatives of the Ministry of Education, and the scientific and expert community described the current state and regulation of mentoring, existing obstacles to its further promotion in the economy and in the social sector, and also outlined approaches and proposals for improving and developing the institution of mentoring in the Russian Federation.
The meeting participants unanimously agreed that mentoring practices have common characteristics that make it possible to define this type of activity, though it varies in different areas (for example, in industry, education, healthcare, culture, sports and others). The work plan for the commission and federal executive authorities in preparation for the State Council meeting was discussed.