MURMANSK, December 11. /TASS/. The Course to North personnel support program, which the Murmansk Region implements since 2023 at the region's governor initiative, demonstrates effectiveness and may be extended to other regions in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone.
Russia's Northern regions have demonstrated interest in the program, the project's manager, Venera Kravchenko, told TASS.
"Attracting personnel is a number-one task for Arctic regions, and our project - Course to North - has proven its effectiveness both in attracting and support in relocation and adaptation - about 350 specialists in various fields, including scarce ones, have moved to the Murmansk Region," she said.
Relocation is a difficult period for any person, she continued. "We meet specialists and their families at the train station or airport, we keep in touch with them to address various every-day and legal issues, we follow up every specialist individually. Officials from other Northern regions, interested in our experience, wonder how we literally keep hand in hand with every participant," she continued.
Attracting young people
The Course to North Project in the Murmansk Region gave birth to a program to keep the youth in the Arctic and to attract students from Russia's other regions to practice terms there. Big companies, working in the Arctic, are interested in attracting new specialists and offer internships for university and college students with subsequent employment.
"Last year and this year, we have welcomed young people from other regions, for example, from the Voronezh Region. Inspired by the program, they returned home as ambassadors of the Murmansk Region: they share impressions with other students. We keep in touch with them, and those young, energetic people are our "beacons" who help us promote the project and fuel interest in moving to the Murmansk Region. We also work with local students and school graduates, telling them about career opportunities in the Arctic. It is important that young people make their own decisions to stay in the region," the expert explained.
About the project
The Course to North Project started in May, 2023 at the initiative of the Murmansk Region's Governor Andrey Chibis to attract promising specialists and students, ready to develop their career in the North. The project team provides comprehensive support during relocation and employment, starting with job search and to full adaptation to a new place, thus making the relocation easy and comfortable.
In 2024, the Course to North Project doubled the number of specialists attracted to the Arctic - from 130 people in 2023, including scarce specialties, to 228 specialists and their families in 2024. The task for 2025 is to multiply the number of specialists attracted to the region.