Statistical training for Russian-speaking countries: combination of international quality and availability

There is a strong demand for well-trained staff among national statistical offices of the former USSR countries. Before the USSR collapse, most of statisticians were educated in Moscow. Currently, there is a lack of own training facilities in most of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), so the staff training is a very significant problem. Language is an additional problem, because most of international training courses are conducted in English, but English speakers are still rare among local statisticians. At the same time, average share of Russian speakers in NSOs of all countries of the CIS region is about 96%. A special training center (International Institute for Training in Statistics - MISO) was established in Moscow in the year of 2011. Currently it provides a random set of short courses on different statistical topics in Russian in cooperation with international partners. But this is only the first step. NSOs are interested in well prepared systematically educated managers in official statistics and high-level experts/methodologists. Thus, the next step should be the development of a Master in Official Statistics Program (MOS). Paper describes concept of this MOS program.