Professional orientation of young people as a factor of effective development of the labor market

Popandopulo Ol'ga ORCID: 0000-0003-0630-7241 PhD in Philosophy docent, Volgograd State University 400062, Russia, Volgograd region, Volgograd, Marshal Voronov str., 24, sq. 367 olga_popandopulo@list.ru Other publications by this author

Youth, young citizens are a socio–demographic group that is at the stage of life and labor self-determination and has a set of specific features that distinguish it from other social groups. According to Federal Law No. 489-FZ of December 30, 2020 "On Youth Policy in the Russian Federation", young citizens are considered to be persons aged 14 to 35 years inclusive ^[1]. It is during this period that state stimulation and support for the development of the potential of young people is of paramount importance. In many countries, young people are a special object of effective social policy, within the framework of which the interests and needs of the younger generation are linked with the expectations and needs of society. Youth is the most important innovative and strategic resource of any society, therefore youth unemployment has the most threatening consequences for the further development of the state.

Youth unemployment is a socio–economic phenomenon in which able-bodied young people are in the process of finding a job and are immediately ready to start it, but they cannot realize the right to work guaranteed by the state. At the same time, there is a loss of livelihood, which can lead to a violation of the financial situation and negative consequences for the moral, mental and social status of a young person ^[2]. As a result, the lack of permanent employment among young people leads to mass unemployment, which causes negative manifestations both in the sphere of social life of society and in the sphere of economy and employment regulation.

The high unemployment rate among young people is currently an indisputable fact. According to the results of the survey of the service "Work.<url>", in the second quarter of 2020, the share of resumes published by people under the age of 30 was more than 40% ^[3]. Unemployment is not only an indicator of economic instability in the country, which was caused, among other things, by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but also one of the most significant socio-economic problems of our time.

To understand the situation of young people in the Russian employment market, it is necessary to identify three main age groups. The first group is teenagers aged from 14 to 18 years. This age group includes students of general educational organizations and secondary specialized educational institutions. This category is not involved in labor activity, but the level of financial condition of most families forces young people of this group to actively look for a place for employment after receiving vocational education. Therefore, the labor prospects for these teenagers are unfavorable. We can say that there is a real danger of remaining in the field of low-skilled labor. This may lead to the lumpenization of such workers and their transition to a marginal lifestyle. On the other hand, the occasional participation of students in work can be assessed as a positive phenomenon that meets the interests of not only the young person and his family, but also the interests of society. However, for this age group, it is necessary to create special working conditions, that is, increased responsibility and attention from employers is required. Therefore, many employers do not seek to provide vacancies for minors.

The second group is represented by young people aged 18 to 25 years. Students who are preparing to complete vocational training and graduates of educational institutions are the most vulnerable category in the employment market, as they do not have the necessary social experience and sufficient work experience. In this age group, most young people seek permanent employment. Among the characteristics that are crucial in the job search process, job security, decent wages and the possibility of career growth come to the fore.

The last group is young people aged 25 to 35 years. Representatives of this age group have already made their professional choice, have certain qualifications and life experience. Therefore, they place higher demands on the future place of work, which do not always coincide with the available vacancies in the labor market ^[4].

It can be said that young people have certain difficulties related to employment. The existing problems are not universal for all young people, since each age group is characterized by its own characteristics of job search, which are explained by the passage of a certain life stage.

At the same time, young people of the first two age groups have a lack of professional knowledge, skills and experience, which is the main reason for the employer's choice of qualified applicants when applying for a job. Young professionals who have entered the labor market for the first time and do not have sufficient experience are considered to be a socially vulnerable group of the population in all countries of the world. Short work experience, in most cases, becomes the reason for the appointment of a minimum wage. Negative factors for employers are also the need to provide benefits and vacations in connection with the birth of children and their upbringing for girls, labor instability of young people due to mandatory conscription into the army. On the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the influence of objective factors on the formation and functioning of the labor market in Russia: the unstable socio-economic situation, the lack of interconnection between the vocational education system and the needs of employers, the lack of a graduate distribution system and a number of other problems force young professionals to look for work outside our country.

It turns out that young people cannot find a job with decent working conditions, because in the eyes of employers, graduates of vocational education organizations do not have a number of competitive advantages (for example, the presence of work experience) and carry a number of risks in which the applicant can leave the current place of work at any time. At the same time, the problem of employment of young specialists is aggravated by the influence of several factors – the need for rapid employment after graduation to ensure stable earnings, the lack of demand for the profession in the regional labor market. The latter problem is most typical for young people under the age of 27, who often enroll in higher education institutions in order to get a deferral from conscription.

The situation with the irrational distribution of labor resources is a serious problem not only at the level of the whole society (for example, the process of functioning of the employment market), but also at the personal level for every young person. It is for young people that the question of determining their place and choosing a future profession, as well as choosing a potential professional educational organization, is the most relevant, since it is during this period that the process of socialization of a person takes place, the formation of his social identity, that is, adaptation to the expectations and needs of society, a social group.

Identity is a multifaceted phenomenon that includes the processes of awareness of life goals, attitudes (self–identity) and motives. Professional identity is the result of merging the processes of personal development and professional self–determination. It is the process of forming the professional identity of the future workforce, young people, that is one of the main factors for creating conditions for the normal functioning of the employment market.

It can be said that the issue of the formation of a professional identity of a person throughout the entire process of socialization of a person, starting from school age, is an important aspect of the life of modern society. A well-formed professional identity has an impact on the life of a particular young person, his goals, self-esteem and the success of his professional career. In addition, the degree of identification of a young specialist with the professional community, the degree of acceptance of the ideas of a certain profession makes it possible to determine a person's contribution to society by evaluating the results of his professional activity ^[5].

Therefore, to help citizens in professional self-determination, taking into account the current situation on the labor market, there is a system of professional orientation.

To date, in domestic and foreign practice, the concept of "professional orientation" has a long history. Career guidance is a very voluminous concept and different researchers can interpret it differently. For example, in the interdisciplinary pedagogical dictionary, career guidance is understood as "a scientific and practical system of preparing young people for a free, independent and conscious choice of profession, taking into account the interests of the individual, individual characteristics and the needs of the labor market. Career guidance is carried out through information, counseling, diagnosis, selection, correction and adaptation."

In our opinion, a fairly comprehensive definition of the concept of "professional orientation" is given by L. A. Yovaisha. Career guidance is "a specially organized system of educational and educational work, which aims to form the professional orientation of students, their abilities to consciously choose a profession, taking into account the needs of society and to assist them in self-determination when choosing." K. K. Platonov defines professional orientation as a set of measures aimed at identifying personal interests, abilities and characteristics each person to assist him in the rational choice of a specialty (profession) that is more appropriate to his individual capabilities ^[6].

It can be concluded that professional orientation is a set of social, medical, psychological and pedagogical measures aimed at the formation of professional self–determination among young people, taking into account their interests, inclinations, abilities, as well as taking into account the needs of society in specialists of a certain profile. It is important that a person chooses a profession that will match his abilities and interests, so that he feels satisfaction from the chosen job and is successful in it, which will ensure benefits for the whole society.

There are two main types of professional orientation of a person: internal and external career guidance. External professional orientation is the activity of informing citizens about existing employment opportunities, identifying their abilities and personal needs, developing certain skills and abilities, accumulating their experience and helping them choose the direction of vocational training or retraining. In choosing a future profession, a number of socialization agents influence a young person: parents, friends, relatives, school representatives, in particular teachers, specialists of specialized social services (for example, inspectors of the state employment service), etc.

Internal professional orientation is an activity that aims to introduce new employees of an enterprise or organization to the course of their professional tasks at a new place of work, to introduce them to direct managers and representatives of the professional team. The work on the professional adaptation of new employees of the organization, as a rule, is carried out by an individual in a small company or a personnel department, a training department, HR specialists in large companies ^[7].

It can be said that assistance in professional self-determination of young people occurs within the framework of external professional orientation, and it should be carried out by representatives of public institutions and individual agents of socialization of the individual. However, the solution of this crucial issue very often happens by accident, spontaneously and is based on existing stereotypes, and young people are not provided with sufficient assistance in the process of professional self-determination.

The process of choosing a profession plays an important role in the development of the younger generation of any state, therefore it is important to organize support for young people, to assist them in solving emerging problems in the process of analyzing the employment market. The difficulty of choosing a profession and organizing vocational education lies in the fact that preferring a certain profession means giving up other alternatives that can radically change the lifestyle of a young person. It is the activity of vocational guidance of students in general educational organizations that should help solve the issues of socialization of the personality of a teenager, including in the field of the formation of the professional identity of a young person. Professional self–awareness is one of the most important components of any person's self-awareness ^[8].

Society is a dynamic system in which old professions are constantly dying out and new professions are emerging in all spheres of public life. Therefore, education, career guidance and employment should be subordinated not only to the interests of the youngest person, but also correspond to the current situation in the employment market. Most of the activities of public employment services and private recruitment agencies are based on obtaining information from employers and transmitting it to the applicant and vice versa, that is, a person does not receive within the framework of professional orientation not only new skills and abilities, but also specific vacancies that would correspond to his personal interests and capabilities.

A significant problem in the development of the vocational guidance system is that it is designed for a certain average type of person. There is no individual and differentiated approach to a young person who is at the stage of choosing a profession. In the course of career guidance, declarative methods are used, without a practical component. This means that young people cannot test their theoretical knowledge and abilities in various types of professional activities.

An incorrect career guidance system leads to the fact that already employed people work inefficiently. They become susceptible to internal depression and stress, which negatively affects their psychophysical state and the results of professional activity, that is, such people do not make a significant contribution to the life of society by achieving high performance in their field of professional activity. The complete absence of a vocational guidance system leads to the loss of more time by a young person for primary self-determination. At the same time, the risk increases that a young person will make the wrong choice of his future profession, based not on his preferences and abilities, the interests of society and the state, but on the opinions of other people and established stereotypes. Thus, there will be waste of human capital, which could be avoided if there is a competent system of assistance in professional definition, an effective education system. The coordinated action of the above-mentioned systems would create conditions for the self-realization of young people, which would lead to rapid development in various areas of society: science, culture, etc.

The professional orientation of young people plays an important role in the process of staffing, which is in a state of constant change. In addition, there are a number of problems in the social context that must be solved within the framework of the system of vocational guidance of citizens: informing citizens about the disappearance of a number of old professions and the emergence of alternative specialties, taking into account recent changes in the employment market that occur under the influence of technological progress. In this case, professional orientation becomes a tool for training, employment, organization of entrepreneurial activity of citizens, professional development of existing specialists, individual adaptation and development assistance to students with different personal characteristics. Career guidance should assess the theoretical knowledge and abilities of a particular person, compare them with the needs of the employment market, and also correspond to the constant changes in the values of young people and society as a whole ^[9].

It can be concluded that the professional orientation of students is the most important component of secondary general, vocational and higher education and it plays a significant role in solving the problem of training future specialists for the country. Effective development of any modern society and economy is impossible if young people do not have the opportunity to analyze the field of current vacancies, which is formed taking into account the needs of a particular region and country. Therefore, the relationship between career guidance and the system of state personnel policy becomes obvious.

The state personnel policy is a nationwide strategy for the formation, development and rational use of the professional potential of individual specialists (personnel), society. The State personnel policy of the Russian Federation is one of the most priority areas of activity of the governing authorities to coordinate activities aimed at improving and developing the entire Russian labor potential. It consists in social regulation, which covers the whole society and social relations arising in it, has a significant impact on the establishment of priorities of social values in the professional sphere. The state personnel policy of the Russian Federation is aimed at the formation of labor collectives, rational and expedient use of all labor resources. Within the framework of the country's personnel policy, generally accepted principles of working with citizens are being developed, their education and upbringing within the framework of general secondary and special vocational training, advanced training and retraining of existing specialists in various branches of industrial activity. The most important function of the state in this case becomes the most optimal selection and organization of personnel, the creation of conditions for them to maintain a high level of professionalism in all spheres of cultural and economic creation ^[10].

Conditionally , the following groups of expected effects of the implementation of systemic professional orientation within the framework of the state personnel policy can be distinguished:

1. general plan effects. These include potential results that need to be correlated with indicators and performance parameters for the optimal use and development of the entire human resource of the country;

2. specific parameters and performance indicators of work on vocational guidance with a specific category of the population. The evaluation of the results obtained takes into account the peculiarities of the educational and age group with which psychological and pedagogical support was carried out when choosing a profession;

3. parameters and performance indicators of the selected organization or institution that provides assistance in professional self-determination at the level of a specific region, municipality, district;

4. indicators of the effectiveness of the results of professional self-determination of a particular young person.

The allocation of the expected effects of the general plan allows us to assess the importance of professional orientation of young citizens in the system of state personnel management. Examples of general effects are real effects expressed mathematically and moral effects.

The real effects, first of all, include the reduction of costs associated with the change of professions and vocational education institutions by young citizens. This is due to the rash choice of a future profession by a young person due to the lack of complete information about the chosen field of activity, insufficient consideration of health restrictions, etc.

The next real effect can be called the reduction of inefficient costs for training specialists who are not in demand in the labor market at a given time. The resources received will be directed to training personnel in those areas of production where there is a shortage of them.

Specialists who have independently and consciously chosen their profession will be more successful in their field of professional activity. It is systematic work on professional orientation that allows you to form the necessary skills so that young people can make the right choice of their future profession. A larger number of qualified and motivated specialists will contribute to the development of many organizations.

Moral effects include:

1. raising the status of the government and the state, which helps citizens in solving the existing problems related to employment and professional self-determination.

2. the growth of positive moods among specific young people who, with the help of professional consultants, see personal and professional prospects in the current socio-economic situation;

3. an increase in the number of people who have successfully made their professional choice can become a positive example for the younger generation when they solve similar issues.

It is worth noting that the complexity of the organization and management of the vocational guidance system is the need for simultaneous compliance with various requirements of the labor market: on the one hand, the state needs to ensure a high–quality selection of qualified specialists, on the other - it is necessary to maintain a balance between the desires and needs of young people. It can be said that the professional orientation of young people should consist in the joint work of students in general educational organizations, their parents, teachers, applicants, teachers of vocational education organizations, state and public organizations, employers. The model of work on professional orientation of citizens in the regions should provide conditions for conscious and independent professional choice by young people, taking into account the existing socio-economic situation. Employers should be interested in creating an effective career guidance system, as this will allow filling existing vacancies in various production areas.

Thus, the professional orientation of young people is one of the main tools of the state personnel policy, the purpose of which is to form the labor potential of the country. Effective development of any modern society and economy is impossible if young people do not have access to objective information about the current situation in the labor market of a particular region and the country as a whole. Since society is a dynamic system, there will always be an obsolescence of some areas of industrial activity and the emergence of alternative professions that arise as a result of technical and technological progress. Therefore, the task of the system of professional orientation of citizens becomes not only the assessment of the abilities of a particular young person and the correlation of his interests in his chosen professional activity with the needs of the employment market, but also constant compliance with changes in the values of youth and society. Therefore, the problem of organizing the effective formation of the primary professional identity of young people is the most important factor in the development of the employment market. 

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