MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. The Urals Federal University expanded its media classes' geography to Yamal's city of Gubkinsky to train school children for easier admission to creative departments at universities, leader of the university's Media Communication Training Department and Vice Chancellor for Information Policy Alexey Fayustov told TASS.

"During this academic year, our media classes project has grown from the district to the region level: for the first time we have a class outside the Sverdlovsk Region - our new partner is a school in Gubkinsky. In November, Media Communications teachers will go to Yamal to deliver a series of classes and master classes for school students and their teachers," he said.

According to the department's senior lecturer Elizaveta Plekhanova, the media class students will have intensive courses in SMM and advertising, and at the end of that "educational session", students will create media products, including for school resources. "Most importantly, the students will be gaining experience on real cases, not just theoretically. Thus, they will make good portfolios right now, which is required in most creative training programs, which means the students will have higher chances to study at desired universities," she said.

University teachers and representatives of large media holdings in the Urals Federal District - journalists, TV presenters, directors, producers, screenwriters, etc. - deliver online classes and lecturers

The media class students are those who have decided to study further on at journalism and media communications departments, and they consider the university a priority institution, the school's Director Marina Urazaeva told TASS. "Their program includes in-depth study of literature, social sciences and English - depending on the target department. Additionally, after classes, the students study the basics of journalism, camerawork, theory and practice of writing essays," the director said.

The school has a media studio where the students can practice received skills, which is important for a responsible approach to choosing a profession. "It is important that they understand what they will do, and that journalism is not always an easy profession," she added.

Job-related education in Yamal

There are no higher education institutions on the Yamal Peninsula, but the region is making every effort to ensure that students have every opportunity to study at the country's best universities. Specialized classes are gaining popularity.

"We are structuring career guidance so that students while in high school could realize what subjects they will need, so that they could know better the universities and employers. Every year, the number of specialized classes in Yamal is growing - by now they are about 200. Since last year, we have been building close cooperation with universities: their teachers deliver classes for children, and our children during vacations go to get acquainted with the universities," Yamal's Governor Dmitry Artyukhov told TASS.

Yamal's one in four specialized classes are supervised by a university. The region has agreements with 14 leading universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, and Tyumen. Additionally, the region offers a system of educational certificates: gifted school students may spend money on preparing for the school graduation exams with teachers of the country's best universities. "We are making every effort to ensure that our school graduates are familiar with universities and have decided on their future profession," the governor added.

About the university's media classes

The Urals Federal University has been working on the media classes project for three years. The first project was in Nizhny Tagil, and by now the university runs three media classes in the Sverdlovsk Region.

"This training program has been in constant demand among applicants. Presently, about 600 students study at all the courses. The school pupils come to us from across the country: most of all, of course, students from the Sverdlovsk Region, followed by Chelyabinsk and Tyumen, Perm and Orenburg. So far, Yamal is not widely represented in our geography, but we think the media class will improve this situation," Alexey Fayustov said.

At the beginning, media cooperation with schools was just career guidance meetings, the program's leader said. Nowadays, schools address the university and include the classes into their schedules, thus making more effective the communication with school students.