At the meeting it was decided to vest the authority of the Council for Professional Qualifications in Nanoindustry to the Russian Nanoindustry Association, a non-profit partnership (instead of the Fund of Infrastructural and Educational Programs that earlier performed the Council’s functions).

Among the Association’s primary tasks as the base organization for the Council for Professional Qualifications in Nanoindustry are:

Since 2013, the Association has closely cooperated with the Fund for Infrastructural and Educational Programs (hereinafter - the Fund) in developing a system of professional qualifications for nanoindustry, being an awareness-raising and communications platform and the main expert community for developing positions consolidated with the employment market regarding the significant aspects of the qualifications for specialists working in nanotech businesses.

Thus far, 35 professional nanoindustry standards have been developed and approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor, and another 10 standards are being developed; 7 packages of monitoring and measuring materials have been developed; a base of experts has been formed for the development and expert review of professional standards; activities aimed towards developing the organizational structure of the Council for Professional Qualifications as part of the Association are proceeding to completion; core regulations to create a system for evaluating nanoindustry qualifications are being developed and will be validated during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2015.

All organizational and methodological documentation is scheduled to be completed in December 2015, along with the formation of a base of experts for evaluating qualifications and approving all Council regulations. For monitoring the nanoindustry employment market, monitoring guidelines and procedures for analyzing a given employment market have been developed to identify gaps in professional qualifications from an employer’s perspective. Procedures have been determined for identifying key jobs (qualifications) and preparing lists of key jobs (qualifications) in demand on the employment market. The first set of monitoring results are expected in October 2015. The information collected will be used to identify needs for updating the current professional nanoindustry standards, to make an advance schedule for developing professional standards and to lay out a framework of professional nanoindustry qualifications. The monitoring results will be used, inter alia, to analyze how well federal state educational standards and professional education programs conform to the professional nanoindustry standards and qualifications.

Furthermore, since 2014, the Association has been implementing, in cooperation with the Fund and the Association for Engineering Education in Russia, a pilot project on the professional and public accreditation of nanotechnology master’s programs at technical higher education institutions and classical universities. Accreditation procedures and regulations were developed based on the Fundamental Principles of Professional and Public Accreditation of Professional Educational Programs as part of activities by the National Council for Professional Qualifications[1]; a team of experts has been formed, and 17 educational programs have gone through the pre-accreditation expert review. Higher education institutions will receive the Association’s certificates for their accredited educational programs.