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ORGANIZTION OF PROFESSIONAL RETRAINING
FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL IN CIVILIAN OCCUPATIONAL
SPECIALIZATIONS
IN THE NONGOVERNMENTAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUITION OF CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION “ATOMPROF”
E. A. Batrakova,
M. V. Gorelova,
S. N. Protsenko
One of the key directions in carrying out social protection of discharged military personnel is their right to professional retraining.
History of the matter. Retraining of military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation (hereafter - AF) began in 1992 in connection with the great reduction in the numbers of the AF. Before this, it was carried out with the support of charitable foundations, in particular the Public National Foundation (18%), and also the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (34 %), the Norwegian Ministry of Defense (1 %), NATO (3 %), and the European Union (1 %). In this period, approximately two million military personnel were discharged from the AF, but only 57 % of all desiring to do so were able to realize their right to retraining. In 2001, the state program "Social Adaptation of Military Personnel Discharged from the AF RF, From Other Forces, Military Units and Agencies, and Members of their Family for 2002-2005” was developed and approved. The state program for 2002-2005 was not implemented on account of the absence of budgetary financing. Only from 2006 did allocation of resources from the federal budget for retraining of military personnel begin. September 6, 2006, the decree of the Ministry of Defense of the RF "On the means and conditions of sending military personnel-citizens of the Russian Federation, having completed military service on contract, for professional retraining in one of the civilian occupational specializations” was issued. Training of military personnel in accordance with this decree took place until 2009 (the decree did not extend to military personnel of other defense and law enforcement agencies).
The legal basis of retraining of military personnel. Its basis lies the Federal law of 27.05.1998 "On the status of military personnel”, which only declared the right of this category of citizens to free education (without specification of means of compensation for the corresponding expenses), and decrees of defense agencies, in which the conditions and methods of retraining military personnel were specified.
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Training in the Nongovernmental Educational Institution Institute of Continuing Professional Education “ATOMPROF” (hereafter -Institute) was initiated for retraining of military personnel in 2009, and already by the next year, government contracts were concluded with the North-West Regional Head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the MVD RF, the Frontier Department of the FSB RF for Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, and other service agencies for the retraining in one of the civilians occupational specializations. At the current time, 80 people from among the number of military personnel of different defense and law enforcement agencies have obtained a certificate of professional retraining from the Institute. In the Institute, military personnel study in an intensive regime (502 study hours over the course of 3 months) in one of the courses: "Economics and Management”, "Information Systems”, or "English Language”. Particular characteristics distinguish the retraining program for military personnel. It is no secret that military personnel are people who, as a rule, interacting within one and the same strict hierarchy, have not had the opportunity to develop in market conditions. Transferred to the reserve are typically people of middle age, who obtained a military education while still in the Soviet Union and therefore are not sufficiently familiar with the principles of organization of business processes and with modern management approaches. All these factors were considered during creation of an instruction program. From the point of view of psychological component, the entire program independent of the primary disciplines are directed at increasing the learner’s competitive ability and personal activity on the modern labor market, which allows them to realize themselves in a worthy manner, in both a moral and professional sense. The primary approach on which the Institute bases the retraining of military personnel is the use of intensive methods of instruction. The program is planned for three months, and learners attend a lecture hall for eight academic hours daily. In fact it is possible to speak about the method of "immersion”, insofar as learners listen to lectures, participate in seminars and training sessions, complete practical assignments, and work with the use of computer program applications over the course of the entire working day. With account of the fact that they must also prepare for lessons the next day, it ends up that they are not distracted away from the process of instruction. As a rule, this provides significant results.
The progression of disciplines in the program. Study begins not with theoretical courses, but with information technology and the psychology of business communication. On the one hand, each of these disciplines formally provides a specific competency, and on the other hand,
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they carry out reorientation of the student on the psychological level. Computer disciplines, first of all, develop the thinking processes (the ability to adapt, to distinguish analogies, to remember, to synthesize material, etc.), i.e. they develop and increase the coefficient of the intellect. Moreover, and this is the most important, it teaches self-discipline and overcoming oneself. This, in essence, is a small-scale model of their future civilian life, when the former military personnel should study something from the very beginning, irrespective of their past achievements and status, and achieve results in an unfamiliar field. A parallel course of psychology in addition to these specific lessons in the field of management psychology allows learners also to solve their particular personal problems.
Alternation of subjects in the program allows the learner, on the one hand, to switch between different disciplines, and on the other hand -to obtain a holistic picture. The issue is that different instructors of one and the same concepts speak from the point of their subject, and learners have the ability to collect all this knowledge at the same time, not falling under the influence of any one point of view.
Completion of the course. Training instruction in completed in an educational training firm, which allows the knowledge, abilities, and skills learned in each discipline to be implemented and for a specific result to be achieved. The educational training firm is a virtual enterprise, created by the learners themselves. Roles or positions in the enterprise are assigned to the participants beforehand in accordance with their own interests, goals, and desires and with consideration of the opinion of the training instructor. Training participants complete the entire process from registration of the enterprise to organization of its work. Investment projects are developed and analyzed independently by them. Each subsection in the virtual enterprise fully conforms to the work of real prototypes and analyses the results. Use of similar training is also provided for the program "State and Municipal Administration” with consideration of the particular features of work within state and municipal organizations. Modern programs of retraining contain materials generally directed at the final product (i.e. obtainment of a certain capacity of knowledge and insights about the subject studied). Furthermore, our methods are focused on the process of instruction itself. Programs directed at the product reflect the final concepts of instruction. In programs targeted at the process, the focus is on the means of instruction and on the description of specific methodological techniques that are the most suitable for realization of the program goals. Thus, the use of the educational training firm in the retraining program not only gives learners an idea about work in real enterprises in the real world
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and introduce them to completely new types of work, but it also helps them to adapt to modern working conditions. In the course of training, such approaches to instruction as the communicative, cognitive, individual-pragmatic, and sociocultural methods employed. In programs geared towards the process, basic methodological approaches are reflected, the application of which allows the goals of instruction to be carried out more suitably. Learners having completed the training acquire invaluable experience in a team and experience of independent decision-making in a sphere of work that is new for them. The correct application of unique modern methods in retraining allows for remarkable results in education to be achieved both in terms of the amount learned and the length of instruction.
Job placement. The Institute takes an active position on promotion of its graduates on the labor market. For more effective job placement, monitoring of the job placement of its graduates has been established in the Institute. The goal of monitoring is to analyze job placement and reveal the reasons why the transition of military personnel to civilian life is difficult. Job placement of military personnel and members of their family is organized in conjunction with employment agencies. Cooperation in the matter of job placement with organizations, enterprises, and institutions of the city has been established. Consulting on professional orientation and psychological support of discharged military personnel has been organized. Thanks to this directed work, more than 80 % of the military personnel completing training find employment.
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