Murmansk universities and the regional education ministry are to develop a new strategy within a month for training professionals for Arctic projects. The new strategy must rule out the need for retraining as much as possible. Governor Andrei Chibis has issued this instruction today following a meeting with the leadership of Murmansk State Technical University and Murmansk Arctic State University (UArctic).

"The university leadership must choose their training spheres so as to be able to train skilled professionals for various industries but primarily for the Arctic. The Murmansk Region Ministry of Education and Science will be instructed to coordinate this work and to provide as much support as possible to the universities' development. Our goal is to give our young people an opportunity to receive quality education in the region, attract students from other regions and turn Murmansk into a real student city. The more young people we have, the higher is our economic activity," Andrei Chibis noted.

The governor added that the large projects underway in the Arctic would create some 20,000 jobs. The young professionals being trained in the region should get degrees that will help them find good and highly paid jobs and opportunities for self-fulfillment in the Murmansk Region.

The demand for professionals will be analyzed shortly and the work of the region's leading universities will be adjusted to the results. Taking these indicators into account, the Murmansk Region Ministry of Education and Science will work out a mechanism of targeted training and the necessary financing.