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SOME REGIONAL ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM OF FURTHER EDUCATION
V. P. Ermakov
The role of education as a means of cognition, understanding and building the future is considerably growing under globalization, enabling every individual to gain excellence in the process of a continuing professional self-determination. A new understanding of the essence of education as a global problem of building the future is a realized social need. Today education after some period is regaining the status of the fundamental value of Russian society. The integration of Russia into the Bologna process when life-long education becomes an imperative, determines the need for a socio-philosophic analysis of further education and its place in the creation of the system of additional professional education (APE). The APE social practice requires a theoretical construction of the model of "developing education", the education in which there dominate the trends of an educational activity of a creative personality.
Today additional professional education is regarded along with basic professional education as practical education affecting the lives of a wide circle of people. The taking into account the needs of modern science and technology allows one to speak about further education as an APE social practice related to the unleashing of the creative abilities and maintaining the value and social confidence of the personality. The fundamental objective of additional professional education is the development and broadening of the individual intellectual resources of a students personality.
Life does not start from "the desirable place", it is mediated by social practice and enters educational space which determines social needs. The continuity of education aims at obtaining knowledge about acquiring knowledge, at rational initiating of cognitive and behavioural innovations, at the awareness and presentation of social interaction.
Since the main constructive element of postmodernization is knowledge, then a person possessing knowledge becomes an element of the development of society. This approach was actively put forward by such outstanding philosophers as D. Bell, M. Castels, P. Drucker, A. Etzioni.
The traditional idea of further education prescribes a socio-role approach, the prospect of education as teaching skills of playing a certain social role. We note that among the students in the APE structures the number of those oriented at the change of their profession prevails. Hence, in the APE system a person learns to realize his/her independent social prospects, to raise his/her "social
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innovation". The APE should be regarded as a source of satisfying economic, social and other needs. In modern society education is not a source of abstract progress but of social confidence of people, is a means of revealing links with society, of personal well-being and belief in the future.
The APE system is better developed in central, economically affluent regions of Russia, where the APE structures mainly enroll "brainworkers" for whom new professional knowledge is a means of retaining ones professional identity. Additional professional education creates a standard of a definite professional model, lays the foundation of the potential of realization, of the ability to perceive changes and to participate in the changes. Modern humanitarian knowledge once again sees a turn to democratization, when man becomes the essential social priority.
According to the data of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, every year 1,4 million people take professional training and retraining courses in the APE system, while in the regions of the Russian Federation, 900 APE institutions offer such education. The concept of modernization of Russian education for the period as far as 2010 approved by the Government (RF 29.12.2001) determines the tasks of the formation of a flexible, highly efficient, constantly developing system of further education in the country "According to some estimates, the average annual rate of increase in the new knowledge totals 4-6 %. That means, that about 5 % of professional knowledge should be obtained after graduation. Tire volume of the time needed to upgrade professional knowledge for higher education specialists amounts to 28 % of the total volume of the time the worker has at his disposal during his whole working period".1
Especially topical is the process of building an optimal regional system of further education, integrated into the economic space of a specific region. Equally topical is taking into account the requirements to educational and qualification levels of specialists, to the needs of the real sector of the economy, to the assessment of the demographic situation, the level of social mobility of young people and other age groups of the population. It will be true to conclude, that the level of the development of the APE system is an indicator of the level of the development of the economy and the organization of management in a region. As an example of an integrated model one can mention the experience of building the Inter-industry Regional Centre of Professional Training and Retraining for managers and specialists in the Republic of Tatarstan, which combined the branches of additional professional education of the higher edu-
1 The concept of the Federal Targeted Program of the development of education for 20062010. Education in documents. - M.2005. № 30.PP.15-30.
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cational institutions in the Republic, and also Kuzbass Regional Institute of the Development of Professional Education which had developed and introduced "The "Networked interaction of basic educational institutions as a resource of the development of the system of elementary professional education in Kem-erovski District" programme. The results of the work of those structures ensuring the networked interaction of educational institutions of different levels aimed at streamlining the volumes and structures of training skilled staff for the economy and the social sphere of Tatarstan and Kuzbass allow one to draw a conclusion, that today the APE system is one of the strategic priorities of the state educational policy.
In the southern regions of Russia (Rostov Region, Krasnodar District, Stavropol District, Republics of the Northern Caucasus) the process of the formation of the regional system of further education, the defining of the trajectories of the interaction with the real sector of the economy of the region is taking place. Models of further education have their specific social and territorial features and the process of their formation differs as regards their development and intensity rates. Methods of a mechanical use of positive experience, both Russian and foreign, disregarding regional specific features, traditions and mentality fail to deliver the expected results.
The majority of higher educational institutions of Stavropol District as sys-tems-forming centres of further education are carrying out an active monitoring research of the regional labor market to identify the range of specialities of higher professional and additional professional education which are currently in demand. The analysis of the monitoring research and the realization of the training of specialists in new specialities of higher professional and additional professional education shows, that there exists a non- productive practice of the duplication of specialities, as a rule of a humanitarian type, in the frame of one territorial unit and even of one higher educational institution. On the regional scale there does not exist any trustworthy forecast from the state and municipal organs of government for educational institutions of various levels, that would identify real demand for specialists (at least for the period from 1 to 3 years) and, accordingly, for educational opportunities. And while the use of the teaching staff carrying out teaching in the traditional format is acceptable for the system of higher professional education the problem of attracting the teaching staff using innovative ways and methods of tuition for the APE system rapidly responding to the needs of the labor market is rather acute.
Among the problems still waiting for their solution in the APE system at the regional level, it is necessary to mark the defects of the existing system of quality management of APE from the point of view of meeting the needs of
all interested parties (personality, society, state, economic subjects, consumers of educational services). A considerable problem for the APE system in the regional aspect is training and retraining of scientific and pedagogical staff hav|ng a command of modern technologies and methods of teaching aimed at various age groups.
According to the forecast of authoritative specialists, by 2008, various forms of post-graduate education will have involved not less than 10-15 % of the employed population of the country. To solve this problem, by rough estimates, it is necessary to increase "the capacity" of the domestic APE system three or four times as much. It is just the APE system that is to become one of the decisive connecting links between higher professional education and socio-economic needs of society and state.
Translated by author
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