Start of the Youth Day 2020

December 3, the annual international student event Youth Day 2020 started wThe Opening Ceremony of the annual international student event Youth Day 2020 took place on the 3^rd of December, which top 50 graduates of the Virtual Academy from 31 universities, representing 11 countries, take part in.

In 2020, the Youth Day is being held for the sixth time, but it’s the first time that it is organized online. The Higher Economic School of UNECON is traditionally playing the role of an organizer of this project. The event has held the status of the working project of the International Business Congresses since 2016. Financial, organizational, and expert support is also provided by the following energy companies and partner organizations: Gazprom, Uniper SE, Wintershall Dea GmbH, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, OMV AG, Energy Delta Institute, Shell and others. One of the main objectives of the project is to attract talented students to the energy sector and transfer experience and knowledge from the industry leaders to the new generation.

Special attention is paid to the training of the participants. The educational program “Energy 2020: Back to the Future” was launched for this purpose as part of the Virtual Academy. Its participants studied analytical and video materials, took part in 18 webinars by representatives of partner companies, completed different tasks and could prepare and present their own research projects during 3 months.

All in all, about 500 applications for participation in the project have been submitted this year. 270 students from 75 universities, representing 22 countries of the world, were enrolled in the Virtual Academy. Based on the results of the training, 50 top participants were invited to the Youth Day.

The activities of the Youth Day will be held the 3^rd to the 11^th of December. After the Opening Ceremony, all participants will be divided into five teams of 10 people. They have one week to complete the business case “Subsoil Energy: Back to the Future” and to present their solution on the 10^th of December to the competent jury which consists of the representatives of the event’s partner companies.

The main event of the project and the whole year – Meeting with Top Managers of Energy Companies themed “Leadership in the time of crisis” – will take place on the 11^th of December. Senior executive managers of such companies as PJSC Gazprom, Wintershall Dea GmbH, Uniper SE, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, OMV AG, and Shell will share their experience and vision of the strategic development of the industry and their companies with the participants. The event is planned to be opened by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom.

“Our team took a lot of efforts to make the online activities of the Youth Day as intensive and useful for your professional and personal development as before”, the Rector of St. Petersburg State University of Economics Igor Maksimtsev said, addressing the participants of the Youth Day at the Opening Ceremony on the 3^rd of December. “There is no doubt that online interaction cannot substitute a real communication, but it depends only on you how fruitfully you use the new formats of interaction with your age-mates, experts, and leaders of the companies.”ny leaders.”

“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all participants of the Youth Day once again. We thank the students for their motivation and hard work, our permanent partners – for their support and desire to share their knowledge and experience with the representatives of the new generation, the organizing team – for constant development and improvement of the project in the circumstances of any uncertainty.”