Translated material
Cheaper for yourself
Russian businessmen are ready to support vocational schools and technical schools
Russian business is seriously concerned about the country's shortage of qualified specialists in areas in demand by the market. It turned out that more than 15 years after the start of market reforms, domestic education is still poorly adapted to the modern requirements of employers. Moreover, according to experts, the gap between the needs of society, the economy and the supply of the education system is growing.University graduates have to be further trained and retrained in production, and the system of secondary vocational education also cannot satisfy the developing business in terms of either the quantity or quality of graduates. “On the other hand, despite all the efforts of the state, educational programs are underfunded by at least 40-50%,” said yesterday the rector of the Higher School of Economics Yaroslav Kuzminov at a joint meeting of two commissions of the Public Chamber - on issues of the intellectual potential of the nation (it is headed by Mr. Kuzminov himself), as well as on issues of competitiveness, economic development and entrepreneurship.
Both businessmen and representatives of the education system realize that today it is necessary to create such a mechanism of interaction between the sphere of work and the education system that would contribute to the preparation of a highly qualified workforce adequate to the new economic conditions. After all, as stated in the resolution of the April congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, it is “the workforce, its quantity and quality that is the decisive intangible factor in the competitiveness of companies and the entire Russian economy and, as a consequence, the public well-being of the country.”
Moreover, businessmen are ready to seriously invest in the education of their future employees. According to the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Chairman of the Public Chamber Commission on Competitiveness, Economic Development and Entrepreneurship Alexander Shokhin, many large enterprises, for example the Lipetsk Metallurgical Plant, Severstal, have created their own training centers that train specialists not only for their own needs, but for the economy as a whole.
Moreover, many members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs are ready to take over former vocational schools and technical schools from local authorities on the balance sheet of their corporations in order to educate young people at the modern level, eliminating their underfunding. This idea, however, has not yet found support from the authorities, who, according to Mr. Shokhin, view this “ideologically as the privatization of educational institutions.” Therefore, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs sees a solution in the co-founding of local authorities and corporations.
The President of the Russian Union of Rectors, Rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy spoke about the possibilities of cooperation between business and the higher education system. According to him, it would be good to follow the path long trodden in many countries and create corporate universities at higher educational institutions, in which, in addition to fundamental education, students would receive the special knowledge necessary to work in a specific industry. According to the rector of Moscow State University, business structures could well act as co-founders of such corporate universities.
However, the problem for business is not only the lack of qualified specialists, but also the inability to determine the quality of an applicant for a particular, often well-paid position. The Soviet system of determining qualifications (categories) has practically been destroyed, and diplomas of graduates of educational institutions (including universities) generally mean little to employers. Because the real level of education in many of them is a sealed secret.
As a result, today even those employers who claim that there is a shortage of specialists or skilled workers are extremely reluctant to hire graduates from educational institutions. They are more interested in hiring those who have already worked (although this applicant could simply be kicked out of his previous job for incompetence), looking for people they know, and luring employees away from each other. The salary level may not depend on the true qualifications of the applicant for the job. “This situation does not give rise to interest in professional growth,” Yaroslav Kuzminov is sure.
The RSPP seems to have found a way out. On May 15, the union's bureau established the National Agency for the Development of Vocational Qualifications. Its task, according to Alexander Shokhin, is to develop professional qualification standards that could be used in the educational process. In addition, the agency plans to create a system of professional exams. They will assess the level of competence of a particular specialist, and the conclusion should have authority among entrepreneurs. “This will be a system of a kind of unified non-state exam that will open transparent horizons for professional growth and define clear criteria for increasing qualifications,” explains Mr. Kuzminov. It is expected that the exams will be paid. The high interest of workers in obtaining the agency's conclusion should allow it to achieve self-sufficiency. Until then, according to Mr. Shokhin, the new structure will be financed by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. “The new system will stabilize the labor market and enable investors to attract employees without the risk of running into a low-skilled worker,” says Yaroslav Kuzminov.