“It's always important to remember that management is a science and a field of expertise that has to be taught like maths, physics or any other subject. And our society has started to realise the importance of professional management. It has always been a given in our country that hospitals are managed by good doctors, and schools are managed by great teachers. But this should be done by people with good managerial skills, which can and should be taught,” said Yuri Levin in an interview with Forbes Kazakhstan.
In his words, an ever-increasing role in management is being assumed by working with data. Management decisions should be made based on analytics, and the ability to work with data is becoming one of the most important parts of business education. At the same time, companies are looking not simply for people with strong analytical skills, but also those with soft skills and communication skills. Graduates of technical colleges, for example, are often more comfortable dealing with their computers than with other people.
“That is why a major trend in business education is training people who, on the one hand, can work with data and are strong analytically and, on the other, are capable of working in teams effectively and know how to get information across to their colleagues. For this reason, we use project work extensively in our training. Naturally, in such conditions, students must learn to communicate and find a balance of interests with their team partners. All projects must be presented intelligibly, which means learning to get information across not in professional “gobbledegook” but in generally accessible language. It's very difficult but important work,” added the Dean.
He noted that this year SKOLKOVO is launching its MMA programme (Master of Management Analytics) to train precisely such functional leaders who know how to build a corporate strategy drawing on, among other things, analytical technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) when making managerial decisions. Demand for such specialists on the market is constantly growing.
There are general trends too concerning education overall.
One is Lifelong Learning (LLL). This stems from the fact that the traditional model of education, where you study at university for four years and then work for the rest of your life using the knowledge acquired is rapidly losing its relevance. We see how quickly the world is changing: new areas of knowledge are emerging, which we knew nothing about 20-30 years ago. These include ESG, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the rate of change in these areas is such that for you to acquire new knowledge when working is virtually impossible. In a world where business processes are constantly changing and new knowledge doesn’t fit into the confines of any one course, lifelong learning has become an evident necessity.
“So, the concept of LLL arose as a response to the greater speed at which knowledge becomes outdated and the need to stay in demand on the labour market,” Yuri explained.
Another important trend is the digitalisation of education. More and more education technologies and online programmes are emerging. At the same time, it is important to remember that these technologies must preserve the effects of presence and real-life communication that exist in face-to-face programmes as much as possible.
“This is why we are developing augmented reality and holography technology, introducing new formats of business coaching to moderate work in project teams,” continued the Dean.
Another global trend is the personalisation of education. The demand for customisation of educational trajectories is growing rapidly, and this concerns the classic MBA, too.
“For example, we at the SKOLKOVO Business School are seriously restructuring our portfolio of educational programmes and all processes for working with our students. At present, we are working on developing a recommendation engine that will make it possible with the help of AI to create personalised educational tracks using in-depth analysis of data on every student, and on their abilities, interests, professional preferences, and business trends. We consider it our duty to recommend to you exactly what you need from the educational point of view for your professional and personal growth,” said Yuri.
Such an approach, added SKOLKOVO’s Dean, corresponds fully with the present dynamic of life and meets the needs of the modern economy.
‘One person can’t interrupt a successful career for one or two years for the sake of studying, and another can’t afford to pay to study all in one go. Therefore, we will be giving the opportunity to gain knowledge in blocks. Today, you select a set of modules based on your current career stage’s knowledge requirements, then you take a break from training, and then you come back for new competences led by your constantly emerging professional and personal needs,” Yuri Levin said.
You can read the full version of the interview here.
