PJSC Sberbank : Sber, Google, and SKOLKOVO design training course for social entrepreneurs

Sber, Google, and Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO have launched a joint educational course titled "Social Entrepreneurship." The series of short, in-depth educational videos is part of the free BusinessClass program for the development of business skills for entrepreneurs. The parties announced the launch of the course during the discussion "Small Business: How to Balance Profit and Social Impact."

The event attracted representatives from big business, government, nonprofit organizations, and education, as well as investors and entrepreneurs themselves, who discussed topics including the concept of social entrepreneurship, the social impact of business and how to measure it, impact investment, government support, marketing, raising capital, and more. The same topics are also covered in the "Social Entrepreneurship" training course.

The course is completely free and consists of 12 video tutorials. It can be played online at any convenient time: users have unlimited access to all materials. Like all BusinessClass courses, it is suitable for participants at any stage of their business journey, including beginners.

Fourteen experienced entrepreneurs, experts, teachers, and managers have joined the course as instructors. The instructors include Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the Sberbank Executive Board, Andrei Sharonov, president of and professor at Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, Nikita Nikishkin, CEO and founder of Ubirator, Anna Skorobogatova, executive director of the Absolute-Help foundation and Alexander Svetlakov's Svet charitable foundation, lecturer at HSE University, and others.

Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the executive board, Sberbank:

"Together with the Google team, we started to develop various entrepreneurial skills step-by-step five years ago and found that many people who dream of becoming entrepreneurs are looking for a business model, for inspiration. Social entrepreneurship can be one of those models. People who engage in social entrepreneurship start with an idea, then a business plan and financing come along. The BusinessClass program helps people find their business model. Out of a million program participants, around 14,000 have already started their own business. In 60% of cases, the program has helped current entrepreneurs improve their business results. Companies that are in business often do not realize that they are already social entrepreneurs. They may need to take a few small steps: register, fine-tune their business model a little to receive the support they need. Knowledge-sharing is crucial in order to build a successful model. We have over 3 million active clients (there are only around 5 million active companies in Russia), and it is critical that companies develop with us: we want to be a source of growth and help our companies expand their businesses, and we want to be a bank for successful social entrepreneurs."

Julia Solovieva, managing director, Google Russia:

"The pandemic has shown how vulnerable we all are and how important taking care of others is in life and business. This is what the principles of socially responsible entrepreneurship teach. They should be applied not only by large companies, but also by small businesses. Last year, Google spent over USD 10.5 mn on information campaigns to combat the coronavirus and provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for educational programs for entrepreneurs and Russian citizens. We also promised to help 1 million people acquire new skills by the end of 2022, and we very much hope that the "Social Entrepreneurship" training course will bring us toward this goal and the Russian business community toward a more profitable and socially valuable result."

Andrey Sharonov, professor, president of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO:

"Social entrepreneurship is nothing new. It began long before the emergence of ESG policies and socially responsible business slogans. It is an attempt to move away from the obsolete dichotomies of "us or them" and "profit or public good." It is an attempt to go from combat to cooperation: profit is important for people, but people want to live and earn money in a stable and sustainable world. People's priorities include the quality of the environment, well-being of local communities, increased diversity, and reduction of inequality and hunger. This provides long-term stability and helps business; it does not hinder it. This is what our new online course is about."

Sign up for the "Social Entrepreneurship" course and find out more about the program and its experts at the link.