The Corporate University of Russian Railways delivered a new learning programme to the Holding employees "Digital Transformation of the Company: Project Teams". The first module "Project Management. Research Methods" was completed in early August.

This programme is a new project of the Digitalization Department, the Human Resources Department and the Corporate University of Russian Railways. It is a continuation of the "Digital Transformation of the Company: Projects for Business" learning that began in May 2023.

"Now, when digital technologies are used in all major production and non-production processes, the challenge is to help employees adapt to the digital environment and teach them how to effectively use technology in their daily tasks. In this context, the development of a digital culture comes to the forefront, as well as the understanding that with the help of new technologies it is possible to work much more productively. The employees, that have completed "digital" programmes of the Corporate University, become agents of this culture," – said Evgeny Charkin, Deputy General Director of JSC Russian Railways.

"Based on the tasks that Russian Railways is addressing today, the development of digital skills among the Holding employees is one of the priorities of the HR unit," – said Sergey Saratov, Head of the Human Resources Department of Russian Railways. – The peculiarity of the launched programme is that we have combined two programmes. – "Projects for Business" and "Project Teams", they are interrelated and complement each other. At first, among the participants there were managers of departments and branches of Russian Railways, then in early August, their recommended employees from various divisions and subsidiaries and affiliates of JSC Russian Railways joined the programme".

Digital transformation is not a new topic for the Corporate University of Russian Railways. Since 2019, educational programmes have been held for company employees that focus on developing a specific area of digital knowledge, such as "Design of Digital Initiatives" or "Digital Technologies".

According to Roman Baskin, Director of the Corporate University of Russian Railways, the number of attendees of this programme is, for sure, a record. "We gathered more than 230 people from 6 departments and 15 branches of Russian Railways in one auditorium," Roman Baskin shared. – Within the first module, the attendees studied such topics as project management, distribution of roles and tasks in a team, and research methods".

Working in teams, participants embarked on their own research for ideas to formulate challenges, define the goal of the final project, and find solutions using digital technologies.

The next educational module for the teams will be held at the Innopolis University (Republic of Tatarstan), which is an academic partner of the Corporate University of Russian Railways. The module will be dedicated to the topic "Prototyping of Digital Solutions". The attendees will immerse themselves in working with the digital architecture of their projects, selecting optimal solutions through a combination of digital technologies and process changes. Teams will select the most viable solution from a variety of options and create a prototype that will undergo a thorough critical analysis. Together with their project managers, the teams will spend the entire five months refining their proposals and will present them in December.

The best project solutions will be considered by the Expert and Methodological Council for Digital Transformation of Russian Railways. It is expected that the most elaborated ones will be given the opportunity for implementation.