Head of Sberbank Mr. German Gref told Mr. Dmitry Medvedev about the success of the Tatar experiment on training entrepreneurs

The project of Sberbank of Russia and the company Google “Business Class” which started for the first time in Russia in May 2016 with support of the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan,  was considered a success. The Head of Sberbank  Mr. German  Gref told during the meeting  with the Prime Minister of RF Mr. Dmitry Medvedev:

“First of all I would like to say that in the past year, we conducted an experiment jointly with the company in Tatarstan on training the representatives of small business. Before offering any new products associated with new technologies, it is very important to enhance the level of their use. It was an experiment, which turned out to be a real success. We expected that about 2–3 thous. of small entrepreneurs would  take part in the program in Tatarstan, but the Republic's President paid great attention to the program. Every day he controlled the participation of small business in all municipalities, and a result about 15 thous. of small entrepreneurs passed through the educational program. The program turned out to be much more mass scale than we expected."

The project “Business Class” – is a step-by -step program, consisting of an online portal presenting the educational materials on a wide range of topics, and the intermediate tests focused on training, either for business startups or for development and efficiency enhancement of the existing business.

The program's results were summarized at the end of November. 200 of the best graduates of the program were awarded with the program's certificates, as well as gifts with the gifts in the form of various digital free services.

Mr. German Gref told Mr. Dmitry Medvedev about the benefits of this program for small and medium-sized businesses: "Firstly, this training program is designated for a small entrepreneur who starts from a zero level. These are all basic knowledge and tools, required and associated with calculation of a business plan, the basics of the tax laws, accounting, personnel recruitment, labor legislation and so on. This is a special case for the so called start-ups. It is the assistance in determining such areas, where according to our analysis, the biggest part of the market is still free and available for making efforts. And the second part  – for a small business, which is already in a mature condition, where a few dozens of employees are working, – everything related to marketing, possibility to penetrate new markets, control over costs, business planning, export, the whole range of issues faced by small businessmen”.

Mr. German Gref noted that thanks to a successful implementation of the program in Tatarstan  ”this year we agreed with the company Google about its distribution. We supposed to distribute it in 11 regions, but Mr. Igor Shuvalov asked us to expand it as wide as possible”.

We would like to remind that everyone can start training in setting up and developing its own business today, participants can be registered via the web site  www.business-class.pro.