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31
"EDUCATION - TECHNOLOGY - PRODUCTION"
EDUCATION CLUSTER AS A FORM OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN A SECONDARY PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTION AND AN EMPLOYER
O.A. Semenova
The realities of today require that a number of professional education issues that have a significant impact on the socio-economic profile of the country are solved in a timely manner. These, first of all, include: (a) a mismatch between the labor market and the education market; (b) a shortage of skilled workers, especially in high-tech and innovation sectors; (c) lack of partnerships between the system of professional education, production and the business community; (d) lengthy training of workers; (e) social insecurity of graduates from professional schools; (f) low prestige of blue-collar occupations, etc. The system of specialist training should undergo organizational and structural transformations in line with a new paradigm of education which is described by the following features: education accessible from any part of the world; education throughout life; and on the job education. Achieving the main goal of lifelong education in a knowledge-based society (lifelong enrichment of creative capabilities of a personality) is only possible in a clustered environment.
Differentiation and individualization of professional education are prerequisites for the integration processes, one of which is the establishment and development of education clusters. A special role in resolving the above issues is given to public-private partnerships between institutions of secondary professional education and various socio-economic institutions. They are understood as a system of collaboration, providing the training of highly skilled workers and midlevel specialists who can be competitive and mobile in the labor market. Members of such a partnership are teachers, students, their parents, education authorities, government and municipal self-governance bodies, employers (businesses, trade associations and consortia) and public organizations. The cluster-based approach is about mutual benefits, continuity, collaboration, mutual participation, etc. The education cluster model can also be regarded as a form of public-private partnership.
An education cluster is a system of training, peer education and self-learning tools in the innovation chain "education - technology - production" which is mainly based on horizontal links within the chain (building an integrated system of multilevel staff training for businesses on the basis of the integration of an educational institution and businesses (employers), which promotes quality, a reduction in the duration of training, graduates gaining permanent positions at enterprises, and the creation of a flexible system of advanced training for skilled specialists in line with current and future production requirements). The education cluster will help build a system of training, peer education and self-learning tools in the innovation chain "education - technology - production" to be mainly based on horizontal links within the chain. Multi-level staff training for businesses on the basis of the integration between an educational institution and businesses (employers) will contribute to
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the quality of professional education, reduction in the duration of training, graduates' becoming permanent at enterprises, and creation of a flexible system of advanced training for skilled specialists in line with current and future production requirements.
All participants in the education cluster regulate the multi-level system of staff training to the necessary level of qualification. The employer determines what to teach, the educational institution determines how to teach, and professional education is regarded as a process based on its integration with production. Both the time required for training a required specialist, and the period of his professional adaptation, are reduced. The main strategies for the formation of an education cluster include: (a) an economic strategy (building a sphere of effective educational services which meet the industry's demands in a timely manner); (b) a social strategy (providing guarantees to graduates from the professional education system); (c) a marketing strategy (promoting advanced educational techniques, arranging for occupational guidance activities); (d) a legal strategy (ensuring the development of a legal regulatory framework for partnerships; maintaining a subject position for all partners); and (e) a teaching strategy (collaborative design of educational activities in training of a specialist; providing the substantive and technological aspects of the public-private partnership among all participants of the education cluster).
Organization of interaction between partners ensures the continuity and multi-level nature of professional education and improvement of the material resource base of educational institutions in the system of professional education; facilitates the selection and structuring of the content of professional education taking into account interests of all actors of the education cluster; contributes to professional growth of teaching staff; secures employment of graduates in their chosen specialty with clear prospects of career advancement; helps build and improve their professional competence; provides educational institutions with a guaranteed order for staff training which will be paid for and the possibility to develop experimental training facilities, enhance the level of education and diversify it.
For an employer ordering educational services, an education cluster is a factory of integrated practice-oriented knowledge, which allows the identifying priority areas for investment. In an education cluster, integration is understood not only as a formal union of various structures of "education - technology -production", but also as a search for a new form of connecting potential in order to achieve a super effect in reaching the goals set. An education cluster involves independence in selecting programs of professional education and introduction of end-to-end curriculums, covering the main areas and specialties in manpower training. Diversification of education makes it possible to take into account the needs of the labor market, to create conditions for training of a creative, multifunctional highly professional specialist. Discovery of professional preferences and appropriate occupational guidance can help in addressing the problem of saturation of the labor market with professionals who receive education and work in the same professional field; however it seems to be appropriate to do this not only with respect to senior students, but also enrollees and first-year students.
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The development of an education cluster as a form of public-private partnership in a secondary professional education institution contributes to the achievement of its main goal: to train a skilled specialist to the appropriate level and profile who is competitive in the labor market, comfortable with their profession, has some knowledge in related fields, is capable of working efficiently in the chosen specialty to the international standards, and ready for constant professional growth, social and professional mobility.
References
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