On October 26, 2014 the GS Group international investment and industry holding company declared the winners of the first extramural round of the International physics contest for school students from non-capital cities who submitted works in Russian. The deadline for submission of works in English was extended until November 16. In addition to the Russian school students the contestants include high school students from India, Mexico, Czech Republic, Ukraine and other countries.
7610 school students from 14 countries took part in the International physics contest, organized by the GS Group investment and industry holding company. According to results, announced on October 26, the organizers decided the 1019 winners who submitted entries in Russian. In the meantime, school students from 65 Russian regions scored 60 points required to proceed to the next round, along with high school students from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Czech Republic and India.
International physics contest, arranged by the GS Group holding company within the program of training the highly qualified specialists, aims to support students from non-capital cities. Gifted and talented children from such regions often have fewer opportunities to get quality higher education in the Russian leading universities. The finalists from among the school students of the 11th grade will get personalized scholarships for one academic year, provided the admission to universities for technical lines of profession that are in demand in the innovation cluster Technopolis GS (the town of Gusev, Kaliningrad region) and will be able to acquire a prestigious profession. In 2013 the GS Group holding company arranged the similar International mathematics contest for high school students. It attracted 4500 school students from 9 countries. Six talented 11th-graders were declared the finalists. Five of them were enrolled at field-specific universities at professions required at Technopolis GS and are receiving a monthly year-long scholarship.
Even though the International physics contest is held for school students of non-capital regions, it aroused interest from residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This year the organizers decided to accept entries from high school students from these cities on a non-competitive basis. 18 participants of the total 130 submitted papers passed the cut score and were allowed to take part in the second round. Thus, students from Moscow and St. Petersburg can test their knowledge before the exam, but won’t take part in the third face-to-face round.
Organizing educational contests is a part of the career guidance policy conducted by GS Group to train highly qualified specialists. This year physics was chosen as the area of focus as being one of the basic sciences crucial for development of the Technopolis GS high-tech industries. What is more, the educational program embraces active cooperation between the holding company and the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and Petrozavodsk State University. Besides that, GS Group renders employment assistance for the young specialists within the enterprises of the innovation cluster Technopolis GS in the Kaliningrad region. The GS Group career guidance program is supported by the Ministry of education of the Kaliningrad region.
