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NEW APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION UNDER CONDITIONS OF THE INNOVATIVE ECONOMY FORMATION
© Чуланова З.К.*
Институт экономических исследований, Республика Казахстан, г. Алматы
В статье рассматриваются подходы к формированию более рациональной и эффективной профессиональной структуры, способствующей качеству экономического роста с учетом потребностей инновационного развития и социального прогресса в условиях построения наукоемкой экономики.
Ключевые слова: модернизация экономики, человеческий капитал, высшее образование, профессиональные навыки, рынок труда.
The main wealth of any country in all times is represented by its human capital that is considered as a set of such qualities as education, professionalism and health. In the XXI century human capital has become the main factor determining the economic potential of a country and its ability to adapt to rapidly changing world conditions. Its main characteristics are: quality and activity, education and training and development of the health sector. Together they become a source of welfare, both for individuals and for society. This is confirmed by the Human capital theory of the American economist T. Schultz, who considers the human capital as the saved-up expenses for labor force reproduction [1]. This type of capital accumulates as the result of people's ability to work, their creative activity, and it is necessary to maintain the people life, to increase the welfare, etc.
At the same time it should be noted that a high level of human capital by itself does not provide a high rate of economic growth. The most important factor in this aspect are the conditions under which workers interact in the production process. In this connection the predominant role belongs to the social-labor sphere development, the level of which determines the efficiency of the human capital accumulated in society, influencing growth and its quality parameters.
It is obvious that a country's activity and level of its participation in global processes are defined by it's ability to reach high economic growth and quality of the human capital. The first positions in competitiveness ratings belong to countries staking on innovation, ability to create and apply new ideas. These countries understood at the right time that the economic policy focused on generation of knowledge and stimulation of innovations is impossible without the corresponding social policy, aimed at the development of the main resource of all countries
* Заместитель директора центра макроэкономических исследований, кандидат экономических наук.
without an exception - the human being. Already it is axiomatic that all of the most developed countries are successful in their development through innovation.
Industrial modernization and development of new technologies increase the demands for the workforce of high quality. Transition to innovative development of the economy is accompanied by changes in the current structure of employment, the emergence of new trends and forms of employment. The increase in the qualification requirements for workers causes changes in the demand from the labor markets. According to experts, every year in the world economy over 500 old professions disappear and more than 600 new ones appear. At the end of the last century it was sufficient to have a higher education in order to be able to work for 20-25 years. Today the most effective activities of a worker is 5-7 years, and in the spheres determining scientific and technical progress - 2-3 years. The biggest changes observed are in the qualification skills of technical professions, management and administration of the services industry. Least of all qualification changes affected the agricultural production [2].
A study conducted by OSCE experts found that in some countries 13 % of employees believe that their existing qualifications are not enough to meet their official duties. At the same time 33.5 % of the respondents consider themselves overqualified for their current job. However, even in the midst of the crisis in 2009, more than 40 % of employers in Australia, Japan, Mexico and Poland reported difficulties in hiring employees with the necessary qualifications [3].
So it can be said, among a complex of economic and organizational factors of creation of innovative economy the most significant is the human capital at the heart of which are education, and professionalism. Under these conditions human capital in particular is becoming the strategic resource of the country. It changes the competitive nature in the global markets and determines the place of a country in the global economy. It is quite logical to say that today, in fact, there is a competition between the human capital of different countries.
Development of a competitive national economy on the basis of new technologies requires highly qualified specialists who are able to use successfully accumulating experience and knowledge. The structure of the economically active population of developed countries contains a high proportion of skilled workers.
Development of professional skills - both traditional and new - initially requires from workers higher qualifications with great attention given to increasing elements of creativity in the labor process. This is due to the fact that under the conditions of the innovative economy a crucial role belongs to the sphere of intellectual services, which is inextricably linked with material production and continuously transforms it using information technology.
The formation of a workforce of higher quality assumes increasing responsibility of both - the employee and the state. The mission of the latter is to encourage workers and create favorable conditions for enhancement of this process, in
order to ensure a high quality of life, which is one of the factors for effective development of human capital.
Today of paramount importance is an active employment policy, assuming the training of skilled workers with a view to conforming with the requirements of innovative economic development. Employment policy should promote professional and territorial mobility, formation of the new labor mentality. The role and importance of corporate social responsibility in the training and retraining rises under new conditions.
As practice shows, the current labor market in Kazakhstan is experiencing a definite shortage of a skilled labor force. Evidence of non-compliance of the vocational structure of labor market supply is unemployment in the presence of available vacancies. For example, in 2013 only 38.5 % of workers had higher education, 34.3 % - secondary special, 7.8 % - professional [4].
5.5 million people had higher and secondary professional (vocational) education, that is 64.6 % of the employed population. The self-employed population forms a third of the economically active population of the country, 62 % of them are employed in the agricultural sector, being in fact low-skilled workers. The educational level of labor migrants (unskilled in their majority) finding jobs in agriculture, construction and trade, does not contribute to improving the quality of labor potential.
Shortage of a skilled educated workforce becomes a constraining factor on the development of innovative production, and an obstacle to improving the competitiveness of some economic sectors and regions, thus causing disproportions in the economic development. Labor market of Kazakhstan is experiencing also a certain deficit of effective managers. The market economy requires a new business model for managing. But Kazakh managers do not always have enough experience. This is confirmed by the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 [5]. Kazakhstan takes in terms of Labor market efficiency a high 15th position due to such components as Pay and productivity (9th place), Hiring and firing practice (21) and Flexibility of wage determination (24). However, such indicators as Reliance on professional management (70th position), Cooperation of labor-employer relations (54th) are quite low.
This proves that the national labor market has not yet formed a strong demand for highly skilled labor. Moreover, a high level of education and professional qualifications are not always appropriate guarantors of high social status and income. Low wages in the public sector and individual branches of material production increase the imbalance in the labor market without contributing to the influx of skilled personnel in these sectors of the economy and reduce the demand for vocational education in these fields.
The problem of insufficient qualifications and skills of national staff will be exacerbated in the conditions of the now functioning Common Economic Space and the forthcoming accession to the WTO. Opening of the national market to
foreign workers and companies-employers will lead to greater competition with foreign qualified personnel for high-paying jobs.
The formation of a more rational professional and educational structure of employers, thus more effective in its influence on the rate and quality of economic growth, should be directed to ensure the socio-economic balance between supply and demand for labor. Today, however, the choices of labor activity and specific workplaces of graduates and young professionals do not always coincide with the needs of the economy. This discrepancy requires to take into account the increasing demands of workers on content of work, labor conditions and payment.
In the real world the main factor in improving the competitiveness is getting education and vocational training. OECD countries spend for this purpose on average about 6 % of GDP. International experience shows that countries where more attention is paid to investment in education, using in particular the continuity of learning and creative development of workers, came out of the last crisis faster.
In Kazakhstan, in the aspect of social modernization a key factor of development is becoming development of new approaches to education and vocational training and retraining, particularly universalization skills adequate to the needs of forming innovative economy and improvement of the quality characteristics of specialists. Quality of the workforce, as an integral component of the country's competitiveness, largely determines the effectiveness of the implementation of other competitive advantages, in particular, favorable geographical location, the availability of natural resources and favorable investment climate, etc.
According to experts, one of the most important factors of economic growth up to 40 % is education. This indicates that formation of an effective education system is a major strategic objective of public policy targeting sustainable development. Just the current system of education at all levels is responsible for the formation of citizens' skills and quality of knowledge relevant to the modern world standards and requirements. In the face of rising global competitiveness when information becomes goods, and the supply of services transformed so that they can be obtained via Internet, adapting the education system to the new realities is of current importance. Modern professional training requires competence approach - teacher should not simply give «ready knowledge», but he must develop the ability of students to apply this knowledge in practice.
Today Kazakhstan has formed its own national education model. Currently 75 % of the population aged 5 to 24 years old receive education. 30 % of people are involved in education and science. In educational sphere 414500 teachers and scientists work. Competitiveness of and demand for these people in the labor market is determined by the education sector in the learning process. Therefore, creation of an effective education system became one of the priorities of the state policy from the very beginning of the independence of Kazakhstan. During the past 10 years funding for education has increased by 7.5 times. In 2011, funding amounted to more than 1 trillion tenge or 3.8 % of GDP [6].
Integrating into the global community, Kazakhstan is an active entry into the world educational space in order to bring the national education system into conformity with international educational standards. An example of a strategic approach is the Presidential program «Bolashak» for students training in the best world universities. Every year 3000 students acquire specialties in demand for the national economy in order to create new knowledge and produce high quality products and new technologies competitive on world markets.
According to the objectives of social modernization Kazakhstan's new universities are created to become educational and research centers to ensure the supply to the economy of a workforce as required by the modern economy. As an example the Nazarbayev University can be cited - an international university, based on international standards, it operates on the principles of autonomy and academic freedom, positioning itself as an educational and research institution. All academic and research programs of the Nazarbayev University are implemented in official partnership with the best world universities and international scientific organizations.
One of global trends is minimizing the distance between education and practice. The modern higher educational institutions are moving to a model of a research university in order to strengthen the interaction of education, science and industry. In particular, the research university can independently develop and implement standards for educational programs of higher and postgraduate education, but not below the established state standards. They also have the right to impose additional requirements for professional orientation and create experimental promotional companies. All this will eliminate the contradiction between the level of university training of young professionals and the needs for really professional staff, as well as build an effective system «school - science - production».
It should be noted that Kazakhstan has launched an initiative to support the university technology business incubators, in which students, PhD students and young scientists will be able to realize their ideas and turn them into commercial products. Along with this program the Association of Universities of Kazakhstan works on the formation of the special fund to support innovative work of students and youth business innovations which look positive and promising. However, practice shows that practical application of scientific research and practical ideas of talented youth becomes problematic because of the lack of material resources. It would be timely for Institutes for Development and domestic business entities to show interest in the emerging positive initiatives and support young talents, representing a promising integral part of the intellectual resources of the country.
The formation of a more effective professional and educational structure of employees and its influence on the rate and quality of economic growth should be directed to ensure the socio-economic balance between supply and demand for labor. The formation of the competitive human capital could not be considered in isolation from the formation of the system of quality education, improvement of
employment sphere and adequate wages. In conditions of global competition and international integration the effective formation of the innovative economy is possible under the following conditions:
- Introduction of standards of higher professional education of the third generation, suggesting formation of the ability to apply knowledge in practice, development of creative thinking.
- Integration and consolidation of the best educational and scientific resources of universities and research institutes for training specialists in the top-priority areas of science, engineering and technological innovation.
- An active state policy in the sphere of science and technology, favoring creation of effective institutions for development and support of science and innovation.
- Improvement of legislation for support of research and innovation, as well as commercialization of scientific research and protection of intellectual property.
- The formation of national innovation systems, including complex of organizations, both public and private, involved in research and development, production and sales of high-tech products, sources of funding and management.
- Development of entrepreneurial culture and mindset in order to obtain a prevalent creative approach to business, positive attitude to change, understanding that the main factor of development is knowledge.
- Increase of the social responsibility of business in the professional training of employees on the basis of improvement and modernization of the tripartite partnership between the government, employers and employees.
List of sources:
1. Shultz Theodore W. Investment in Human Capital. // American Economic Review, 51, March 1961. - P. 3.
2. Innovative economy: employment, work motivation, work efficiency / Ed. Chizhova L.S. - M.: Economy, 2011. - 430 p.
3. Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better lives. A strategic approach to skills policies. - OECD, 2012. - 114 p.
4. Economic activity of the population of Kazakhstan. - Statistical Yearbook [Электронный ресурс]. - Statistics Agency of RK. - Astana, 2013. - Режим доступа: www.stat.gov.kz.
5. The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 [Электронный ресурс]. -Режим доступа: www.weforum.org.
6. Human Development Report 2014. Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа: www.hdr.undp.org.
