OREANDA-NEWS. Sistema JSFC ("Sistema", the "Group" or the "Company") (LSE: SSA), the largest publicly-traded diversified holding company in Russia and the CIS, today announces that it has won the HR-brand Award 2012, which recognises Russia's best employers of the year. Sistema's programme "Lift to the Future", received the highest award, being nominated in the category "Peace". The programme aims to find and develop the skills of talented young people. Sistema was also ranked fourth in the "Best Employers of Russia" award.

Elena Vitchak, Sistema's Executive Vice President and Head of HR, commented: "The HR-brand award is the most prestigious Russian award in HR management. We are all very proud that Sistema's HR efforts have been recognised by industry experts. In this project we tried to come at the problem laterally to develop a wider talent pool for the Company right from school."

Natalia Matusova, Managing Partner of Addwise and a member of the award judging panel added: "In effect, Sistema has taken on the role of a 'second state' when it comes to recruitment, career guidance and getting talented young people into the working world."The Lift to the Future" programme is a means of finding gifted young people, supporting their ambitions and in this way creating a group of highly trained young people with suitable skills for the whole country."

"The Lift to the Future" programme was launched in 2011 with its main objective being to consistently facilitate the development of talented teenagers and students by helping them with their career choices and facilitating professional growth through a wide network of social partnerships; which include representatives from the private sector, science, education, government and society as a whole. The core of the project is its portallifttothefuture.ru. The programme consists of dozens of events aimed at young people, the largest of which is the summer school. In 2012 180 students from cities across Russia working with mentors completed 64 projects and presented them to Sistema's senior management. In the same year, as part of the "Leaders of Corporate Charity" ranking, the "Lift to the Future" programme was recognised as one of the best practices in engaging young people in social and economic development. In November 2012, the programme was supported by the Board of Autonomous Non-profit Organization (ANO) "Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) for Promotion of New Projects" including it as part of an initiative "To create a national system of competencies and qualifications".