Yandex Launches Project to Teach School Students Programming

Internet, August 29, 2016. Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX), one of the largest internet companies in Europe and the leading search provider in Russia, is launching a project to teach programming to school children. Called Yandex.Lyceum, it will start classes in October in Saratov, Penza, Kaluga and Tambov, with the support of regional government departments and ministries overseeing education and IT. In the future, the plan is to expand the project to most large cities across Russia.

“We want to make it possible for school students in the regions to try programming and see the possibilities that it opens up,” said Yandex HR director and Yandex School of Data Analysis head Elena Bunina. “It has been made possible thanks to the support of local authorities, who are interested in training programmers for their regions. We are focusing on cities with a population of at least 100,000 people, and launching a pilot project in four cities. Next year we will build on the experience gained and expand to others.”

Enrolment is open to 8th and 9th grade pupils on a competitive basis. Those who are accepted will be taught Python, a programming language that is in growing demand and which can be used for a wide range of tasks. After completing the two-year course – taught by local teachers with programming experience and training by Yandex – the students will have the knowledge and skills to program at a basic level. Applications will be accepted from August 30 to September 15 on the Yandex.Lyceum site.

Yandex has already been training IT specialists for many years. In 2007, Yandex opened the School of Data Analysis, which provides supplementary education in the fields of data analysis and computer science, and in 2014 Yandex opened a faculty of computer science together with the National Research Institute Higher School of Economics. Yandex also has departments at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and St. Petersburg State University.

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Asya Melkumova
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E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com