Teaching Start: Polytech Holds Second Graduation of Trainee Lecturers
.jpg "Teaching Start: Polytech Holds Second Graduation of Trainee Lecturers")
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) held a ceremonial diploma ceremony for graduates of the «Teaching Start» professional retraining program, implemented within the framework of the Priority 2030 program. This is the second cohort of future young lecturers who have successfully completed their training along the «Trainee» professional development track and are now ready to step into the classroom in their new capacity.
A distinctive feature of this year's graduation was the strategic emphasis on engineering disciplines. Among the diploma recipients were future lecturers in physics and higher mathematics. For Polytechnic, as a leading engineering university, top-tier fundamental training is an absolute priority, and the renewal of the faculty at these departments is a key achievement of the program.
During the retraining program, master's and doctoral students not only learned from the experience of Polytechnic's mentors but also mastered cutting-edge educational technologies. The curriculum included modules on interactive pedagogy, the psychology of effective communication, as well as innovative practices in the use of artificial intelligence, creating AI avatars, and educational chatbots. The program culminated in the defense of their own online course fragments within the university's electronic information and educational environment.
«The 'Teaching Start' program is a mandatory component of the 'Trainee' professional development track and allows us to nurture our own future generation — young academic staff who are already immersed in our culture, embrace Polytech's values, and possess the most modern educational technologies. You are becoming part of the large Polytechnic family. We look forward to seeing you in our university classrooms in the coming semester! Bon voyage!»
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"The 'Teaching Start' program definitely sets the right direction for a lecturer's development. Although I already have technical knowledge and have wanted to teach for a long time, many of the finer points of this work were unknown to me — from documentation management to teaching technologies," shared Andrey Shirokikh, a trainee and postgraduate student at the Graduate School of Power Engineering. "The 'Teaching Start' program filled those gaps, and now it will be easier to integrate into the work."
Andrey Shirokikh, Alexey Zhuravkov and Nikita Izbyakov, who received their retraining diplomas, will continue their work as teaching assistants, applying their newly acquired competencies and digital tools in the educational process.
