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VOCATIONAL TRAINING
AND LABOUR MARKET CHALLENGES
O. E. Stanulevich
Presently, vocational training and education development programmes are focused on the demands of the dynamically changing labor market. Regulatory documents require increasingly closer cooperation between educational organizations and employers; attention to regional and federal employers' requirements for the programmes; changes in the list of vocational training programmes; and the structural modernization of the entire vocational training system. Technical progress, including the introduction of new technologies and equipment in different branches of economy, leads to changes in the nature of professional activity; an increase in responsibility at particular workplaces; and the emergence of new professions and specialities. The 2013-2020 Development of Education State-Run Programme, approved by Governmental Order No. 792-р of May 15, 2013, stipulated the new trends in the Russian occupational skill structure.
After the consolidation of training programmes for skilled workers and midlevel specialists, some new challenges appeared: the transformation of some training programs for skilled workers from the level of secondary vocational training into short-term vocational training programmes and the transformation of some training programs for mid-level specialists into university programs for applied bachelor degrees, first of all, but also programs of profound secondary vocational training. This is connected with employers' demand to reduce the time of training in working professions and increase the number of practice-focused programs, as well as with increase in requirements for a fundamental education in a number of hi-tech specialities. However, the list of secondary vocational training programs is not only reduced but also enlarged in connection with the emergence of new occupations and the introduction of new professional standards, as the new professions / specialities can be taught within the framework of a secondary vocational training.
Analysis of the specialists’ occupational skill structure demanded by the labour market is a starting point for changing educational lists and qualifiers. The new positions have to be time-tested. During the first stage, employers and educational organizations attempt to devise training programs in the new professions / specialities on the basis of existing programs by developing a variable part of the vocational training program and/or extending education programs which meet professional standards. In particular, in 2006 the German company KNAUF expressed a desire to introduce a new profession of primary vocational training in regards to a dry building master. That profession appeared in connection with the application of a new internal finish technology. During the first stage, the profession was introduced as suited for primary vocational training, including some professions of the All-Russian Qualifier from the list of existing qualifications. Such an approach enabled mastery of all necessary competences, but there was no necessity to confer the whole range of all qualifications included to the profession designated by the employers.
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KNAUF supervised the development of the educational standards the curriculum and the professional standards in the new working profession regarding the sheathing mounter. After the standards were approved in 2010, the new profession was introduced into the All-Russian Qualifier.
To introduce the professions of workers and the positions of employees new but necessary to the labour market, the RF Ministry of Public Health Care and Social Development worked out a package of documents on development and the approval and introduction of professional standards. Introducing by-laws to the Federal Law On Education in the RF, the Ministry of Education and Science stipulated a number of changes which provided the mechanisms of entrance of new positions into the Lists of Professions and Specialities of Secondary Vocational Training. The employers having partner relations with the colleges of Moscow and, due to the labour market’s demand, offered a number of suggestions, thereby proving a necessity to differentiate between "an absolutely new profession / speciality" and "a new profession of primary vocational training and a new speciality of secondary vocational training". Moreover, some of their suggestions had to be specified due to the extent of new competencies which could be mastered within the framework of the variable part of the programs. In particular, they suggested a new primary vocational training profession for carving specialists. However, when the activity was analyzed, it was determined that the profession is based on that of a cook supplemented with an additional carving module. That means that the profession is not absolutely new but can be mastered within the framework of a professional skill improvement program as an additional module. Before a new profession / speciality is introduced, the professional community should carry out a scientific investigation and methodological examination to find out whether it is expedient to regard it as fundamentally new.
Secondary vocational training institutions have some experience with the introduction of new secondary vocational training specialities. In particular, employers generated a demand for the new speciality of logistics.
When introducing new professions and specialities, the volume of work depends on how innovative each position is. The entire process consists of the preparatory, analytical, instructive and administrative stages. The preparatory stage is to evaluate the expediency of the introduction of a new profession / speciality. The evaluation is to justify the necessity to introduce the new position and provide sufficient figures of employment of the graduates with the new qualification, which is also meant to prove the interest of the respective employers to introduction of the position. The analytical stage is to perform a functional analysis, meaning the employers are to stipulate the basic labour functions of the specialist of the new qualification. Each labour function is to be described in terms of actions, skills and knowledge necessary for the worker of the new qualification. The result obtained is to be posted on the Internet and discussed with a group of concerned employers. This stage is to result in a functional card. If necessary, the professional standard is to be developed in full. In addition, the place of the profession / speciality on the respective List is to be featured. The instructive stage is to develop the qualification profile, the federal state educational
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standard and the basic syllabus and curricula on the basis of the functional card for the profession. For the speciality and the federal state educational standard, the basic syllabus and curricula are to be developed on the basis of the competence module. These documents are to result from the instructive stage. The Federal State Educational Standard is to be discussed with employers and the pedagogical community. The administrative stage is to result in a covering letter to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation with a draft of the Federal State Educational Standard for the new profession / speciality.
References
1.Олейникова О. Н. и др. Профессиональные стандарты как основа подготовки конкурентоспособных работников. - М.: Альфа-М, 2007.
2. Павлова О. А. Профессиональные стандарты как инструмент определения квалификационной структуры национального рынка труда // Неформальное образование. - 2013. - № 3 (9).
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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