The Nizhny Novgorod Region's opportunities for training IT personnel were presented at the All‑Russian Forum.

      15 November 2025, 10:01 Society

      Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Yegor Polyakov and the director of NEYMARK University Gulnara Bikkulova spoke at the all-Russian forum "Digital Solutions" about why IT specialists choose the Nizhny Novgorod Region for education, work and life. The forum is taking place in Moscow from 12 to 15 November 2025.

      The Nizhny Novgorod Region consistently ranks among the top five in the country in terms of educational potential. Over five years, enrollment in IT programs has increased by more than 30%, and the number of state-funded places in them has grown by almost 30%.

      "In order to increase the share of IT in the region's GRP, we are investing very actively in IT education. One of the most important projects is the federal technopark 'Nizhpolygraph'. It specializes in secondary vocational education, including training personnel for the digital sector. I believe that for solving a number of tasks in the IT industry, higher education is not necessary. Therefore, configuring the system for training strong specialists at the level of secondary vocational education is the task we are currently addressing," said Yegor Polyakov.

      The region's key educational IT project is the IT campus "NEYMARK". It is a comprehensive ecosystem for training personnel in digital technologies with a focus on current industry challenges. It covers the entire educational cycle: from working with schoolchildren and improving teachers' qualifications to pooling the resources of the region's leading universities to implement networked higher education programs.

      NEYMARK University director Gulnara Bikkulova noted that an important feature of the project is the integration of education, science and business. Students can take part in real projects of partner organizations or in advanced scientific research conducted on the IT campus itself. The campus infrastructure, located in the city center, creates a space for living, studying and working.

      "An environment is being formed where academic life is combined with professional activity, a constant exchange of best practices, the birth of cross-industry startups and comfortable living. All of this together is an effective tool for training and retaining highly qualified specialists in the region, capable of contributing to the establishment of technological sovereignty and the development of Russia's digital economy," emphasized Gulnara Bikkulova.

      It is planned that the IT campus will become part of an entire IT quarter, which will also include an IT technopark, the R&D center IKS Holding, the scientific center of Zitekh LLC, office spaces and other facilities.

      In addition, IT personnel training is being carried out under the national project "Personnel".

      "Residents of Nizhny Novgorod submitted more than 3,200 applications for retraining in IT this year; more than 2,000 people have already completed retraining. These are very substantial figures. They are comparable to the annual output of IT specialists from universities," said Yegor Polyakov.

      IT education in the region is available to Nizhny Novgorod residents of all ages. For schoolchildren, "Digital Lessons", "digital literacy sessions" and IT days are held in summer camps. High school students participate in the "Code of the Future" olympiad and the IT academies of NEYMARK University. Since 2024, the Nizhny Novgorod Region has hosted "School 21", where anyone over 18 can obtain an in-demand IT profession free of charge.

      The deputy governor also drew attention to the significant growth in economic indicators in the IT sector. The turnover of IT companies in the Nizhny Novgorod Region grew by 17.1% in the first half of 2025 and amounted to 36 billion rubles. In addition, the Nizhny Novgorod Region ranks third in Russia for the fourth year in a row in terms of the development level of the software development industry (after Moscow and St. Petersburg).

      "It is especially important for us that IT specialists themselves rate the Nizhny Novgorod Region as a leader in support measures among the subjects of the Russian Federation. The support package in the region is very impressive. We reimburse software developers 50 percent of the cost for selling licenses to businesses at a preferential price, maintain a regional register of IT startups that allows obtaining IT accreditation in a simplified manner. We also compensate organizations 100 percent of personal income tax for specialists from other regions. Since 2018, more than 1 billion rubles have been invested in support for IT specialists in our region," added Yegor Polyakov.

      It should be recalled that the training of highly qualified IT specialists meets the objectives of the federal project "Personnel for the Data Economy" of the national project "Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State", implemented on the instruction of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

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