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The formation of future economists’ competitiveness in the process of professional training
Lebedeva Olga Vladimirovna, Vyatka State University of Humanities, The Department of Pedagogy E-mail: [email protected] Snigireva Yelena Anatolyevna, Vyatka State Agricultural Academy, The Department of Foreign Languages
E-mail [email protected]
The formation of future economists’ competitiveness in the process of professional training
Abstract: The article deals with the problem of forming the competitiveness of future economists. The authors present their own definition of the concept “competitiveness ofa future economist" on the basis of acmeological, competency building and culturological approaches. Forming the competitiveness is realized through using the technology ofproject activity both in educational activity and in extracurricular activity offuture economists in the process ofprofessional training.
Keywords: the competitiveness of future economists, acmeological approach, competency building approach, culturological approach, modern education technologies, the technology of project activity.
The problem of formation of future experts’ competitiveness is stated by the Government of the Russian Federation as one of the most urgent challenges which the system of higher education face in the period of the ongoing modernization of education. The reality of the present time is the relationship of the labour market and education. The implementation of competence-based educational standards should provide the high quality of modern education and the formation of necessary competencies, the willingness and ability of future economists to use gained knowledge in their professional activity in order to be competitive on the labour market.
Under a market economy the competitiveness of an individual is an important professional characteristic. Nowadays it attracts the attention of many researchers from various fields of science. Being a purely economic category at first, the term “competitiveness” has already found its place in the categorial apparatus of pedagogy and psychology.
Having analyzed the psychological, pedagogical and economic literature we have come to conclusion that some aspects dealing with the formation of the future economists’ competitiveness aren’t developed sufficiently. These aspects are: 1) the lack of integration of acmeological, competency building and culturological approaches as the methodological basis; 2) the investigations of many authors are limited by only one discipline and they underestimate interdisciplinary connections in the process of students’ educational and extracurricular activities; 3) ignoring the formation of common cultural and professional competencies (СС) and (PC), which is the main requirement of the Federal State Educational Standard of the Higher Professional Education; 4) not using the technology of project activity in order to develop the functions of organization-management activities; 5) the absence of the concept “the competitiveness of a future economist”.
While determining this concept we paid attention to the peculiarities connected with the intermediate position of a graduate, who should possess CC and PC as the basis of his professionalism. And at the same time we took into account the influence
of the labour market and the specific employer on a graduate.
The concept “the competitiveness of a future economist” is developed on the basis of integrating the following methodological approaches: 1) the idea of the competency building approach about ability and readiness for the professional activity as a result of taking possession of CC and PC; 2) the idea of the culturological approach about the axiological and activity functions of culture, which provide the formation of the value system and the development of creativity as the competitiveness constituents; 3) the idea of the acmeological approach that a future economist achieves “acme” of his professional development, the indicators of which being “successfulness”, “efficiency”, “being in demand on the labour market”, “high-quality products” We consider the competitiveness of a future economist to be an integrative, professional and personal quality, reflecting his ability and readiness for successful professional activity (calculation and economic activity — performing computations of economic and socioeconomic indicators, developing economic parts of enterprises plans; analytical — collecting and analyzing information; scientific-research — taking part in developing proj ect decisions in the field of professional activity; organizational and administrative — the rational administration of economy, production and social development of enterprises), the basis of which consists of CC and PC supposing the existence of informational, communicative, project, analytical, evaluation and reflexive, axiological abilities providing the demand for a graduate on the labour market.
According to the the Federal State Educational Standard of the Higher Professional Education for the direction of education 080100 “Economics”, the purpose of the basic educational program for the Bachelor’s degree course is to train competent professionals considering the needs and requirements of society, to develop a creative and socially active person and his professional culture by forming CC and PC. Professional activities of a bachelor in economics include: 1) calculation and economic; 2) analytical and scientific-research; 3) organizational and administrative; 4) pedagogic activities.
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Section 6. Pedagogy
The analysis of the basic educational program has shown that there are 1512 hours (42 credits) for studying the humanitarian, social and economic cycle of sciences. The same number of hours is given for studying the subjects of the mathematics and science cycle. And there are 4680 hours (130 credits) for the professional cycle. This allows us to conclude that the time given for studying the humanitarian, social and economic cycle of sciences isn’t enough for forming the CC of future economists. From our point of view, the best way out of this situation is to establish interdisciplinary relations in the process of educational and extracurricular project activities of future economists in the “Business Club", which increases the efficiency of professional training of students by combining theoretical, practical and research activities of students in the whole pedagogic process.
The fundamentals of educational and extracurricular activities of students-economists are: 1) the unity of purposes, objectives and the content of economic education; 2) providing interdisciplinary connections between the disciplines of professional cycle: “Microeconomics”, “Macroeconomics", “History of Economic Thought”, “Management”, “The World Economy and International Economic Relations”, “Organization of business”, the discipline of the humanitarian, social and economic cycle “Foreign Language”, and extracurricular activity of the “Business Club” with the functioning study group “Business English for Economists”; 3) the use of interactive methods and forms, modern educational technologies, among which the main role is given to the technology of project activity used for working out interdisciplinary proj ects in order to form the competitiveness of future economists.
Considering the interdisciplinary connections results in: 1) deeper understanding of value and essence of the profession “an economist” and defining the aim of a student’s professional development; 2) getting known with the problematics of the science and being able to plan the scientific search of decisions; 3) making conditions for self-realization and selfdevelopment of a person; 4) the integration of the content of studied sciences in order to define the common sphere of meanings, the problematics of economic activity.
The technological basis of formation of future economists’ competitiveness is presented by the technology of project activity, information and communications technologies, group work, web-quest and portfolio. In our opinion, the main role belongs to the technology of project activity, which allows to stimulate students’ taking part in working out interdisciplinary projects, that are aimed at modelling of their professional activity.
Using the principles of group work (positive interdependency, simultaneous interaction, teaching the skills of group work, individual estimation, systematic process of reflexion) allows students to adapt to humanitarian style of interrelation with social partners in the terms of competition. Portfolio helps students to estimate and develop their potential abilities for achieving “the tops” in their professional activity. Information and communications technologies promote mastering the skills of computer work as a means of manag-
ing information, developing the abilities of competent work with information in global computer nets, which is necessary for a modern competitive person.
Our experiment has been made with the bachelors in economics of the Vyatka State Agricultural Academy. It included the organization of students’ working out interdisciplinary projects with the use of the complex of modern pedagogic technologies (group work, web-quest, portfolio) with the main role of the technology of project activity. Teaching bachelors to work out proj ects began at their first year while studying the discipline “Foreign Language” by means of stimulating students to take part in working out interdisciplinary information and role projects. The teaching was continued in the process of students’ extracurricular activity in the “Business Cub”, where they worked out practical projects, and in the study group “Business English for Economists”. The future economists have worked out 20 group interdisciplinary projects and 3 individual interdisciplinary educational projects at the discipline “Foreign Language”. The students’ role projects “Our Firm” were completed and added by economic sections and economic concepts during the students’ work at the “Business Club”. It promoted future economists’ possessing the complex of CC and PC as the basis of their professionalism.
The peculiarity of the students’ project activity in the “Business Club” is its scientific-research and practical orientation. During working out their projects future economists communicated with different specialist and experts and took an active part in conferences and contents. The students taking part in the “Business Club” have worked out 16 scientific-research and practical projects; in the in the study group “Business English for Economists” they worked out 5 group projects and 3 individual scientific-research projects. The worked out projects were presented at different contents and conferences of different levels: International Team Contest of Business-projects “Business Project Contest”, International Contest “Unity in Diversity: Russia and the English-speaking World”, International Conference “Language in the Sphere of Professional Communication”; Russia-wide Contest of the Youth Authorial Proj ects “My Country Is My Russia”, Russia-wide Intellectual Game “A Newcomer in Farming”; Town Contest “Business Idea”, which is held annually at the Agricultural Academy, and Academic Contest of Students’ Proj ect Works in Foreign Languages. A lot of projects have been awarded by different diplomas.
Studying the students’ analytical lists and their portfolio allows us to make conclusion that the majority of students liked to take part in project activity. During the project activity the future economists were able to learn: to work in a group (33.7 %), to find necessary information, to choose the main information and systematize it (20.4 %), to work out a project (16.7 %). 10.8 % of students acquired the skills of planning, defining the goals and objectives of the activity, 9.2 % of students — the skills of analyzing, and 9.2 % of students — the skills of presenting the project results and making up presentations.
36 % of project activity participants liked to display their creative work and to work out new ideas; 22.5 % of students
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