Prime Minister Mishustin spoke about working part-time as a bricklayer

Mikhail Mishustin worked as a bricklayer in his youth and did not finish music school as a child, although he really wanted to. The Prime Minister’s revelations were inspired by students who came to listen to his lecture on Wednesday. The head of the Cabinet of Ministers, as part of the lecture of the all-Russian society “Knowledge” at the exhibition “Russia”, which is currently taking place at VDNKh, spoke about the professions of the future, artificial intelligence, opportunities for self-realization of young people and where they train to be good officials.

Russia has all the conditions to restore its status as a great scientific and technological power, said Mikhail Mishustin, speaking to schoolchildren and students at the lecture “Creating the Future Today.” He noted that we still have a good Soviet base, and Western sanctions only spurred the industry to restart.

The Prime Minister is confident that many young Russians dream of great achievements. Today, schoolchildren and students have plenty to choose from. Mishustin listed the main promising areas: modern agricultural sector, affordable medicine, efficient energy, construction, communications, transport. “There are already good results in all these areas. It is you who can multiply them,” the prime minister emphasized.

But in order for something to work out, you have to work, and a lot, the head of government emphasized. Students asked Mishustin for advice: is it normal to combine work with study and how to make sure that part-time work does not harm their education?

To this, the prime minister responded with the words of the classic that we all learned little by little, something and somehow. But you definitely need to earn extra money.

Mishustin even arranged a quick poll for the ministers who were also sitting in the hall. Did they work part-time while they were in college? A forest of hands rose. Only Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk shook his head negatively when the boss asked him directly: “Alexey Logvinovich, did you work part-time? No? Not at all? Even in the laboratory?

Mikhail Mishustin himself worked part-time.

– I worked as a mason, loader, engineer, and at the military department. And a computer science teacher. Honestly, I’ll tell you, it’s so right when you work part-time while studying! But it is very important that you combine study and practical skills during this time. If someone is studying at a pedagogical university, it would be great to try themselves as a teacher’s assistant.

By the way, Mishustin does not regret missed opportunities. Listeners asked him what he started doing in the past and didn’t finish. It turned out that the head of the Cabinet of Ministers did not graduate from music school, although he had a piano at home and he really wanted to study music. I did not become a computer science teacher, although I tried myself in this capacity.

The prime minister was also asked about the professions of the future. It’s no wonder that this question is of interest mainly to programmers, who are worried whether the market will be oversaturated with representatives of IT professions.

Mishustin hastened to reassure: the profession of a programmer will always be in demand. But there is a nuance. Writing code itself has already become a routine process. So much so that artificial intelligence has learned to write code. This means that a regular encoder may soon lose value. But in return, new professions will come.

– The truth is that coders today lose their competitiveness without domain knowledge. This knowledge, combined with programming skills, is very important. You need to understand either physics, chemistry, biology, medicine. This is how you can achieve great success by adapting your skills to the demands of the time,” the prime minister explained.

In the future, a programmer-biologist, a programmer-engineer, a programmer-pilot, and even a programmer-architect will be in demand. Well, there may well be an augmented reality programmer too, Mishustin suggested.

But AI itself, even if it has already learned to write programs for people, is unlikely to take over humanity in the foreseeable future, the head of the Cabinet believes.

– Any new technology causes concern among society. It’s always been that way. Remember when electricity appeared, what was it like? Everyone was scared. What about the car? Photo? And if now a person could use his smartphone to transmit a hundred years ago, what would that person who lived a hundred years ago experience? Worrying to say the least. However, such devices make life more convenient, said Mishustin and added that this can only be confirmed over time.

Listening to Mishustin’s almost hour-long lecture, during which he never looked at his notes, deftly juggling huge arrays of figures and facts from different sectors of the economy, the guys could not help but ask: “Where do they train to be good officials?”

“Nowhere,” replied the prime minister. But he immediately clarified: to become a good government manager, you need to be an expert in the subject area:

– How to do it? Good studies at school, college, university. This includes practice, books, articles, additional education, self-education, courses. And then you need to train your intuition in order to make a huge number of decisions in conditions of uncertainty and limited information. And, of course, you need a team.