Partners Factory will teach Russian students to boost up-to-date IT-solutions

MERLION - the largest Russian broadline distributor - declares conduct of the education project Partners Factory. Its purpose is to provide students and young entrepreneurs with an opportunity to gain experience in building-up an IT-business. The Partners Factory project has been joined by the first educational institution - Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, more than a half of hundred students from which had participated in the program.

“For successful carrier, students need not only theoretical knowledge provided by the university but also practical skills, - said Yulia Vladimirovna Kosareva, the Director of the Carrier Development Center of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. - We are glad to support initiatives which help young specialists apply their knowledge in real circumstances, to verify their skills and to choose the right profession”.

Students willing to participate in the project have completed questionnaires on the site of Partners Factory and sent their curriculum vitaes to the organizers. In March, according to the results of the applications revision, the selected students will undergo the stage of Evaluation Center, during which their personal features, motivation and professional interest will be evaluated in the course of business games, tests and interviews. At the final round - a business game with team settlement of cases - six students will remain in the project who will be offered to undertake one-month paid internship in the Spectrasoft team where they will have intense training and will have an opportunity to apply the received knowledge in practice under the supervision of experts and managers of MERLION and Microsoft. According to the internship results, the students will receive letters of recommendation and an opportunity to get employed by Spectrasoft.

“Partners Factory is an excellent opportunity for young specialists to verify their skills in work related to boosting of up-to-date information technologies and to get a priceless experience that will help them in future employment, - said Yulia Pechnikova, the Director of the VAD (Value Added Distribution) Business Development Department of MERLION. – The support to the project provided by the partners from Microsoft and Spectrasoft will certainly make it more versatile, interesting and intense for the participants”.

Partners Factory is also open for new partners: companies from small and medium-sized business segments working towards development and boosting of IT-solutions in Russia and also willing to strengthen the software direction or to diversify their business.

“Microsoft is trying to create conditions for professional development of young people in such key directions as education, employment and entrepreneurship. This is precisely why we actively support Partners Factory. We are sure that the program will be useful for its participants in the practical sense, - pointed Anna Kulashova, the Director of the Department for Relationship with Small and Medium-Sized Companies and Microsoft Partners in Russia. - Moreover, owing to such program we can support young entrepreneurs too, which is no less important today.

The Partners Factory project is constantly developing, its organizers keep expanding cooperation with the leading Russian higher education institutions.