Between 18 and 20 January, as part of the Innovation League project, Voronezh State University held a career guidance intensive course called "Just Job". The participants were told about things they are not usually taught at school. The idea of the course belongs to Elena Kayukova, a business coach, psychologist, expert in career guidance, and Alina Soboleva, head of a personal growth club for teenagers.
First, the participants were to choose the idea they would like to develop, either a “smart tractor” or a “smart greenhouse”. The majority of teenagers voted for the “smart tractor”. The course was then divided into four panels, with the mentors of the Innovation League, comprised of teachers from VSU and representatives of the business community, helping and consulting the participants.
The first panel was devoted to the design of the product. It comprised of people from various scientific fields such as chemistry and biology (mentors Igor Koltakov and Marina Kholyavka, associate professors at the Department of Biophysics and Biotechnology of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and Anastasia Kharina, lead engineer at the Faculty of Chemistry, Head of the Intellectual Property Protection Department), information technologies (mentor Alexey Maximov, lecturer at the Department of Digital Technologies of the Faculty of Computer Sciences), physics and mathematics (mentors Tatiana Kulikova, engineer of the Department of Semiconductor Physics and Microelectronics of the Faculty of Physics, and Dmitry Zhukalin, Head of the Department of Innovations and Enterprise).
The second panel was about the promotion of the product. Here the creator of the Just Job project, Alina Soboleva, gave her own presentation.
The third panel was dedicated to developing the brand. Olga and Alexander Strelnikov, members of the graphic design studio ЯDESIGNER, told the participants about the key principles.
“We talked about colour theory, developed a few variants of a logo and packaging. Then we tested it on a focus group. The kids managed to design their own logos using various graphic editors” said Olga and Alexander.
At the fourth panel, Alexander Saprykin, the development director of Likengo, preacceleration expert of the Foundation for Developing Internet Initiatives, talked about the commercialisation of projects.
“I had a chance to work with mentors in several laboratories. We discussed the project in very much detail. It was very interesting. I realised that I want to study chemistry and biology” said Anastasia Kamaeva, a participant of the league.
On 20 January, the last day of the course, all the participants presented their projects.
