"Virtual" human capital and professional adaptation of young people

Ivanov Sergei Yur'evich Doctor of Sociology Professor, M.A. Budanova Department of Theoretical and Special Sociology, Moscow Pedagogical State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, M. Pirogovskaya str., 1, office Building 1 soc-lab@yandex.ru Ivanova Dar'ya Vyacheslavovna PhD in Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Theoretical and Special Sociology named after M.A. Budanova, Moscow Pedagogical State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, M. Pirogovskaya str., 1, office Building 1 soc-lab@yandex.ru

Chvyakin Vladimir Alekseevich Professor, M.A. Budanova Department of Theoretical and Special Sociology, Moscow Pedagogical State University 117405, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Varshavskoe Shosse str., 152-8-109 170558@inbox.ru Other publications by this author

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the development of a consumer society cannot occur without significant and regular value transformations in the structure of its sociodynamics. In this regard, an important role is played by the process of adaptation of various groups of the population, including young people to the ongoing social transformations. This process largely assumes that an individual has a certain human capital in the context of the development of social relations, the realization of the needs of modern society. The study of the content, forms of manifestation and mechanisms of the formation of human capital in the youth environment allows us to more fully present the priority directions of the socio-cultural development of the new generation.

The ongoing social changes are largely due to the new reality associated with a significant expansion of the sphere of consumption. Not only services, but also information and technologies are considered as a consumer choice. The well-known American sociologist D. Bell (1999) defines the modern stage of development as a "post-industrial society" ^[1]. Among its characteristic features, the scientist identifies the following: centralization of theoretical knowledge; creation of a new intellectual technology; formation of a class of knowledge producers; transition from the production of goods to the production of services; change in the nature of labor. Work in a post-industrial society is associated with a "game" between a person and an artificial environment, where people are replaced by machines that produce goods. Often, it is identified with the communicative interaction between social actors: an official and a petitioner, a doctor and a patient, a teacher and a student, etc. In other words, we are talking about the dominant consumer choice, which covers various spheres of modern society, including economic, social, spiritual and political. This choice is due to the fact that within the framework of the expansion of the informatization of society, the "technologized" knowledge is most in demand for a modern person. Such a process involves the creation of innovative research methods, the emergence of new areas of knowledge or new problems in already known areas.

According to Russian scientists R.I. Kapelyushnikov, A.L. Lukyanov, Igumnova O.A. (2020), human capital is undergoing significant transformations - a set of competencies used to meet the diverse needs of an individual, a social group and society as a whole ^[2,3]. This concept includes health capital, cultural and moral capital, labor capital, intellectual capital, social capital, etc. Moreover, it has both rational and irrational expression. In the latter case, capital takes on the features of imaginary, unclaimed capital.

Modern consumer society forms requirements for the accumulation of human capital, its rational use. However, not all representatives of age groups are in demand in the labor market. The cult of consumption in modern society is accompanied by non-decreasing "social gaps" and inequality in the social and labor sphere. There is a significant increase in differentiation: the quality of life between the poor and the rich, the income of the population, work motivation within the same organization, etc. The decrease in the quality of the use of human capital is evidenced by the significant scale of registered unemployment, the spread of underemployment, the low level of social protection of the labor person, etc.

It is obvious that the problem of professional adaptation of various social groups in market conditions is broad in nature and covers the process of formation of human capital, as well as its rational use and development. Among the levels of human capital formation in the framework of the subject of our study, we will separately single out individual levels related to the peculiarities of socialization of a certain social group. Young people are among the most vulnerable social groups in the Russian labor market. Moreover, it includes those who are just getting a vocational education, as well as those who enter the labor market in search of a decent job. However, both of them face the problem of forming their human potential, which is in demand in the labor market.

The subject of the study is the process of formation of human capital and professional adaptation of young people.

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the formation of the human capital of young people and the professional adaptation of young people in the conditions of social transformations observed in Russian society, based on the emerging consumer choice of subjects of social relations.

The novelty of the research lies in the concretization of the process of human capital formation in Russian society, taking into account the professional adaptation of young people.

The research methodology is based on the use of methodological principles developed within the framework of the theory of generations by N. Howe and W. Strauss; structural constructivism by P. Bourdieu, the theory of human capital by G. Becker and T. Schultz. The research was also based on a general scientific methodology that provides a systematic approach to solving the problem of professional adaptation of young people in combination with the use of sociological assessments.

The study is based on the analysis of official statistics (FSGS) data characterizing youth employment as a social group.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the article is research in the field of sociology of education in the context of the demand for young professionals, the demand for various forms of professional training of Russian youth. General scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison allow us to identify individual features of the development of the human capital of youth in the consumer society, as well as the problems accompanying this process. We are talking about specific problems of sociodynamics as the ability of society to respond to internal and external changes, as well as social mechanisms for regulating the social behavior of young people. Special emphasis is placed on the study of the totality of the processes of functioning, change and development of modern consumer society and its institutions of socialization of the younger generation.

As part of an empirical study of the professional trajectories of young specialists, monitoring surveys were used, conducted with the participation of the authors in the period 2017-2023 by the Laboratory of Social Technologies of the ISGO GBOU VO "MPSU" (hereinafter LST).

The technological changes observed in society today are not a reflection of impersonal forces of nature, but a consequence of purposeful social and economic decisions. The modern Russian consumer society determines the cultural and status stratification and sets certain adaptation strategies, professional development trajectories for the modern generation, as well as determines the value basis of personal development for status groups.

In the broadest sense of the word, under the professional adaptation of young people, we will understand the process of adaptation of young people to their future profession to the conditions of their professional work, on the basis of this, further professional development and consolidation of young personnel in various sectors of the national economy takes place.

Their value basis has a significant importance on the trajectory of professional adaptation of young people. Thanks to him, human capital is formed, the goals of career development are determined ^[4].

Of interest are the results of a survey conducted in 2017 with the participation of the authors of the LST "Value orientations of modern youth". The sample size is 3,048 students. The study involved 23 universities from 4 regions of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Togliatti, Petrozavodsk, Stavropol).

The survey showed that the motivation for the formation of the professional potential of a young specialist is influenced by a whole group of factors, including its value basis. Moreover, values determine an individual's adaptation to the labor market, the nature of interaction with potential employers. In fact, we are talking about the structure of significant consumer values that predetermine the professional adaptation of a young person and set the vectors for the formation of demanded professional competencies related to achieving a specific result.

It is established that boys and girls entering the labor market can show both "active" and "passive" pole positions of professional adaptation. In this regard, the diversity of values among different categories of young professionals is fixed, which determine their professional and personal typology. The most popular value dispositions, dominant social stereotypes and individual preferences are distinguished among young people.

Thus, representatives of the studied different groups of young professionals are guided primarily by individual life values (family, home, health, work, independence). At the same time, a significant preponderance of individualistic values of self-realization and career success (professionalism, material well-being, independence, career) is recorded for "active" youth. "Passive youth", often guided by the concept of "going with the flow". Among the key significant values for this group are tolerance, tolerance, respect for others. At the same time, to a much lesser extent, representatives of this group focus on active cognitive capabilities, professional identification.

Of course, the unstable socio-economic situation directly affects the features of the professional adaptation of young specialists. In the context of expanding public access to higher education services, inequality of potential opportunities and results remains in the context of the formation of human capital. Not all individuals start from the same "starting" positions. At the same time, we must not forget that in the analysis of the determinants of professional behavior of representatives of various strata of consumers, the most significant are the attributes of an individual's belonging to a particular social class, social group, the most important of which are: profession, occupation, personal achievements, social ties, income, ownership, value consciousness, etc. We emphasize that a fairly common mistake is an attempt to equate representatives of a class with only one indicator, for example, income.

In the conditions of free consumer choice for a young person, unique types of his adaptive behavior and ways of accumulating human capital will manifest themselves. These types depend on the conditions in which human capital is formed, the influence of social institutions. At the same time, young people are trying to realize their desire for socio-economic stability and security through obtaining an affordable education. The emerging stable stereotype of the instrumental value of higher education is often associated with the potential demand for qualified specialists without taking into account the specific supply on the labor market in a number of areas.

Often, a significant proportion of young people in the conditions of mass education forget about the existing restrictions on the labor market and high competition in a number of areas of training. FSGS (2021) constantly records a significant proportion of young people who have higher education and work outside of their specialty (political sciences and regional studies (57.1%), social sciences (52%), agriculture, forestry and fisheries (46.5%)). It is obvious that the high proportion of those who failed to find a job in the specialty is explained not only by the unsatisfactory level of remuneration, but also by the lack of proper motivation for an individual to work in the specialty, inflated expectations from future work. Here we are talking about a significant problem in the formation of demanded human capital, taking into account personal expectations.

In the broadest sense, the concept of "human capital" was defined by American economists G.S. Becker, T. Schultz, L. Turow (2003) as a set of valuable qualities available to an individual, the development of which takes place on the basis of education, vocational training and medical care ^[5]. According to the developed approach, the development of human capital takes place on the basis of investments in these areas. It is assumed that human capital is capable of accumulation and social reproduction. In turn, scientists are based on the fact that human behavior is conditioned by the desire of individuals to maximize utility with fixed preferences, within the framework of accumulating the optimal amount of resources provided in various industry markets.

In particular, G.S. Becker justified the high productivity of investments in education, healthcare, training and retraining of personnel in production. In general, human capital is largely the dominant factor of production. As L. Turow rightly concludes, an individual with this capital can be its owner; the use of human capital makes it necessary to make preliminary investments for a sufficiently long time, and these investments occur in a social context.

Summarizing what has been said, we note that under human capital within the subject field we will understand the totality of knowledge, skills and abilities that an individual has and can potentially use in the context of conditions, means and goals of the development of society. A special dimension for the formed capital is still set by the socio-cultural basis, which is predetermined by the system of priority values. The currently dominant "consumer" aspect of value orientations allows us to distinguish segments according to the priority of individualism, the structure of demanded services that provide mobility and functionality of a particular person. Among these are professional activities.

The required professional knowledge accumulated and applied by young men and women in a particular field of activity can also be considered as a certain component of human capital development. The assessment of accumulated human capital is often carried out according to the degree of rational employment - professional suitability, qualifications, salary level, etc. At the same time, on the one hand, young people with a higher level of education do not always get more profitable and well-paid jobs. On the other hand, not all of them can fully use their human potential. The problem, as the well-known Russian sociologist V.A. Yadov (2013) justifies, is seen primarily in the presence of a disposition of personal, group and social values ^[6,7]. This leads, according to O.A. Igumnov (2022), to the conclusion that terminal values and value-means at various levels of the social structure have a significant imbalance and are fixed at the institutional level. The result of this is the formation of "virtual" human capital, which does not always coincide with the requirements of society.

The famous scientist F. Trentmann (2019), in his conclusions goes further and emphasizes that artificial desires today replace natural needs ^[8]. Being overwhelmed with a large number of opportunities and ways to meet them leads to the priority of momentary needs. At the same time, the focus on the diversity of value choices and the formed personal egoism completely leveled group self-awareness and the dominant of socially significant values. A larger volume of consumption means that we have to deal with a new type of "horizontal" social dynamics, in which the results of consumer behavior are associated with the satisfaction of situational personal expectations and individual self-identification.

Information accessibility and inclusion allows modern youth to act in real time on the principle of "here and now". However, the information received does not mean that it can be applied at a particular moment. Information cannot overnight turn into human capital for young people and ensure belonging to a certain status group. Knowledge acts as a specific asset that they can use with a conditional probability in their professional activities. However, this requires a temporary resource, solid cultural and economic capital. Moreover, the acquisition of fundamental knowledge requires a relatively long time in the educational process. Otherwise, we are talking about the formation of "virtual" human capital.

Education as a social institution fixes certain professional development tracking and provides the necessary opportunities for this. However, this social institution also lays down certain social risks in the context of the use of accumulated "knowledge" capital. According to P. Bourdieu (2005), class relations are reproduced through education, including such a component as cultural capital ^{[9, 10]}.

Moreover, the reproductive function of the educational institution is projected by the actions of the dominant class that ensures its existence. A wider range of educational services is an attribute of the modern pluralistic consumer society. Freedom of choice in some cases allows you to improve the quality of education, or get additional professional opportunities. At the forefront is the creation of favorable conditions for ensuring the availability of educational services, expanding the choice of educational institutions by young people.

At the same time, the consumer choice realized by the younger generation in the field of education is associated with the assessment of education as a way to realize individual interests, educational programs and organizations, as well as the satisfaction of instrumental value needs. The choice of education that a young person makes largely depends on the material well-being of the family and the level of education of the parents themselves. In fact, the "new consumer standard" today applies to almost all levels of education. Thus, education influences the nature of social reproduction and allows an individual to increase his mobility, and finally, in some cases, improve his social position, but only within the framework of personal expectations formed by the environment. However, the questions remain open: what are the guarantees that a young person will be at the right time and in the right place and get a decent job?; how effective will the formed capital be?

Of interest are the results of the all-Russian survey conducted in June 2023 by the insurance companies Rosgosstrakh and Rosgosstrakh Life. A total of 1,218 Russians were interviewed ^[11].

According to the survey, a significant majority of parents are only concerned about the possibility of their children's admission to university. Moreover, 33% are ready to consider any option of teaching a child, as long as he is enrolled. But every fifth respondent wants to see their children at the university, and in those specializations that they dream of or for which they have inclinations. Another 20% of parents note that it is important for them that the child's admission to budget places is important. A quarter of respondents (27%) initially do not expect that their children will be able to study at all at the expense of the budget.

Given that higher education can be obtained, including on a paid basis, parents often try to save money for the education of children in advance. The majority of parents surveyed (60%) manage to save for university fees: 36% postpone from time to time, and 24% — regularly. About 40% do not think about financial savings for a child's higher education.

It is also interesting to note that the emphasis on higher education is becoming one of the main trends in a number of other countries today. International statistics data indicate that among, for example, African-Americans aged 25 and older who have at least a benchmark for a higher education diploma in 2003 reached a record high and amounted to more than 80% ^[12].

The demand for the massization of higher education is largely connected with the change in the socio-economic structure, the challenges of the information society, and finally, the "virtualization" of social relations. Modern means of information communication stimulate the reduction of the phases of reproduction of human capital, intensify the transfer of best practices, new behaviors. It is no secret that representatives of Russian youth also have an increased demand for additional vocational education programs. It is they who allow you to receive the necessary educational service in an accelerated format. Moreover, there is a gradual separation of the subjects of the educational process from each other, ways of obtaining information are being improved. Distance education is particularly popular. According to experts, only in 2020-2022 the share of people studying remotely has increased significantly, from 14.5% to 41.3% ^[13].

Let us also turn to the data of a study conducted by the Superjob portal in May-August 2021 among the economically active population over the age of 18. According to the survey, there is a relatively high proportion of those who plan to change jobs among students of additional vocational education (19%). However, this indicator correlates with a low proportion of those who expect to move up the career ladder at their old place of work ^{[13, 14]}. This confirms the assumption that human capital can be used with different effects and not always rationally.

Of course, such an element of the human capital of youth as social mobility extends to the choice of distance learning, employment, flexible combination of work and study. Nevertheless, an excessive range of educational services does not guarantee the increasing opportunities of an individual to move up the career ladder overnight, to qualitatively change their "virtual" human capital.

Naturally, the key condition for solving many social problems of young people and the implementation of their "ambitious" plans is employment and ensuring their stable condition in the labor market. The risk society sets its own algorithm of action for young people. The unstable state of economic sectors, the continuing social inequality, the lack of necessary conditions for the gradual formation of human capital, and finally, the imbalance of traditional values create the risk that young people will not be able to fully solve many of the tasks set, taking into account their social needs.

The origins of the growing virtualization of human capital should be sought not only in the field of education, but within the framework of the emerging social and labor relations. As E. Atkinson rightly believes, for modern society, social inequality is not a consequence of a higher level of education, qualifications and additional payments for it ^[15]. The traditional question remains: in whose hands are the means of using human capital?

In the digital society, a number of quantitative changes are recorded, associated with the growth of additional "load" on the IT industry, the sectors of processing and analysis of big data, artificial intelligence. The increasing demand for digitalization of many professions and remote employment is quite understandable. The problem is seen not only in the quantitative renewal, but also in the qualitative renewal of human capital, taking into account digital markers. Quantitative determinants of the acquired knowledge cannot always provide qualitative changes in the personal position. It is quite obvious that the information society increasingly complicates the problems of social inequality, forms "virtual" imperatives of behavior. New trends today are set not by the acting actor himself, but by the "industry" of influencers, bloggers, media personalities. In other words, those in whose hands is the information capital and the resource of influence. The ratio between different types of employment is changing, the ratio between wealth and capital, and finally, the demand of the young generation entering independent life is fixed, without taking into account the specific supply on the labor market.

The all-consuming penetration of digital technologies into the daily life of modern youth, in fact, contributes to the transformation into a consumer (functional) value of a particular place of work.

The structure of the emerging information economy forms its differentiated demand for specialists with higher education. According to the FSGS (2021), the largest number of persons with higher education is noted in such economic activities as finance and insurance (69%), real estate transactions (50.7%), public administration and military security (58%), education (56%), information and communications (61%), professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and related additional services (58%). There is another non-high-tech industry contrast. For people who do not have a professional education and do not fit into the digital industry, a significant majority of jobs are provided by uncompetitive sectors of a number of traditional industries – agriculture, trade, transport ^[16]. In general, in the conditions of the observed surplus of certified specialists, not all industries can boast of reaching a qualitatively different level of labor productivity, besides, the number of high-performance jobs has a clearly limited format.

The style and motivation of professional behavior are also significant attributes of the formation of the human capital of young people. For a more detailed analysis, let's turn to the representatives of modern youth - "generation Z". The buzzers, according to the theory of generations developed by N. Howe and W. Strauss (1997), include young people born in the period 1997-2012 ^[17]. In fairness, we note that the values and markers of the "virtual" capital of buzzers continue to form. At the same time, they are initially ready to exchange individual freedom and the complexity of socio-political systems for external and public control.

It should be noted that the socialization of "buzzers" is significantly influenced by both the digital industry and the crisis phenomena in the economy, socio-political uncertainty. In many ways, its representatives focus on virtual communication, on the development of individualism and moderate creativity. Of course, representatives of this generation perceive many aspects of life as a set of digital services. Often, the entry into adulthood of this cohort is postponed to a later period.

As the founder of The Flexible rightly points out Worker.com Chelsea Ashburk, in professional activity, buzzers focus on personal satisfaction from the work performed ^{[18, 19]}. For them, the prestige and prospects of the profession, the quality of life are less important. Moreover, most of them are ready to leave the organization if corporate values do not coincide with their values. One of the main motivating factors for them is not high wages, but satisfaction with their individual goals.

In general, the strategy of professional adaptation of representatives of modern youth in virtual reality is focused primarily on the sign of consumer expectations from possible work, the achievement of quite specific goals of professional development of the individual, taking into account the accumulated human capital.

For a more complete picture of the assessment of professional trajectories of adaptation of representatives of the younger generation, it makes sense to refer to the results of a sociological survey conducted with the participation of the authors in 2023 by the LST and the Eurasian Association of Pedagogical Universities (EAPU) "Young teachers of pedagogical Universities of the CIS member states". A total of 1,295 respondents were interviewed. The respondents were young teachers of pedagogical universities under the age of 35. Geography of the survey of neighboring countries, including: Russia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.

According to the survey, young teachers from CIS countries have different opportunities to develop their professional potential and, as a result, strategies for professional adaptation (Table 1).

Statistical verification by the chi-square criterion reveals a high significance of differences in evaluation positions in five groups of respondents from CIS countries (?2 = 136, p < 0.001). The preferences of young teachers differ based on the resource base available at universities. For example, representatives of Armenia most often pointed out career opportunities. Representatives of Uzbekistan stated about good working conditions more often than in the sample as a whole. Representatives of Kyrgyzstan stated about the acquisition of new experience and knowledge more often than in the sample as a whole. Representatives of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan reacted more strongly to the motive of choice – the attitude with students.

In general, the sample shows a statistically significant relationship between the motives for choosing a university as a place of work and the desire to link their activities with the university for the next 2-5 years (Pearson's R = 0.57).

The top-3 main reasons for choosing a university as a place of work, for those who associate their work with it for the next 3-5 years, include:

- communication with students (15.1%);

- acquisition of new experience, knowledge (12.5%);

- the opportunity to realize their labor potential (12.5%).

The assumption is confirmed that young teachers focus primarily on their personal development and self-realization. On the contrary, those who do not associate their activities with the university tend to focus more on using the resource of free time: a convenient work schedule (26%) and the opportunity to have free time (21%).  It is obvious that the use of accumulated human capital is deferred for them.

And yet, young teachers from different study groups are connected by the fact that they demonstrate to the same extent the relevance of the motive of communication with students (35 and 31%, respectively). This motive is a key one for many young teachers within the framework of their professional adaptation.

Summarizing the above, we note that the presented motives for choosing a university as a place of work make it possible to differentiate young teachers according to their preferences and can act as an effective tool for attracting young people and their subsequent professional adaptation.

Table 1.

Motives for choosing a university as a place of work, depending on the country of residence, %%

Thus, young teachers are characterized by dual motivation: on the one hand, there is a demand for professional and personal development, preservation of continuity; on the other - for meaningful aspects of work, stable employment. The latter position speaks about the formation of a stable model of professional behavior.

Young teachers also demonstrate diverse motives for choosing a teaching profession. Among them, various groups can be distinguished: "careerists", "pragmatists", "potential researchers", "methodologists", etc. For each group, a certain structure of retention motivation is traced. However, it does not always adapt to the specific needs of young people and the human capital they have formed. Discrepancies in requests and real opportunities can cause a change of job. Among the young teachers who got a permanent job, there is a high turnover: according to the most conservative estimates, a quarter of them quit within the first three years.

Among young teachers there are also those who have overestimated personal expecta-tions and ambiguously assess the conditions, resources and material factors influencing their choice of a university as a place of work. Among the reasons for this situation can be called a significant age polarization in the field of education, insufficient social protection of young teachers, erosion of work motivation, etc.

Youth employment is far from a trivial issue. It is significant that the situation of young people in the Russian labor market remains difficult, especially if we consider the continuing high level of those who do not work in their specialty, who are unemployed. In many ways, this is facilitated by the age stratification of the labor market and the tendency to strengthen its duality.

According to the FSGS data, during the period 2008-2021, significant changes occurred in the structure of employed by age: the share of employees aged 20-24 years decreased from 57% to 49.2%, on the other hand, the share of employees aged 55 to 59 years increased from 59.8% to 70%.

At the beginning of 2022, unemployment in the age group of 15-19 years was 27.6%, in the group of 20-24 years – 15.4%. Among Russians aged 25-29, unemployment is still higher than in the labor market as a whole - 4.3% ^{[20, 21]}. The non-decreasing proportion of young people who do not have a job indicates that many problems remain unresolved to this day.

The dynamics of the relative distribution of unemployed youth over the past ten years also captures the fact that employers are cutting costs for young professionals and often "displace" them into the public service sector, in which the capital of low-skilled workers is in demand.

The "virtualization" of human capital is also manifested in the fact that some domestic companies that focus on young people as future permanent employees have begun to use atypical forms of youth employment, outsourcing and outstaffing, part-time employment, remote work, etc. As a result, as the socio-economic situation worsens, an increasing proportion of young people find themselves outside the usual channels of employment.

The requirements imposed by employers for applicants for vacant positions regarding localized work experience and qualifications do not allow young professionals to be "one hundred percent" in demand in the competitive labor market. Of course, there are quite a lot of objective reasons. One of the reasons is seen in the erosion of employers' social responsibility. On the one hand, the most significant is the reluctance of employers to invest additional funds in the training of young professionals. In addition, the potential of the system of vocational training and advanced training is not being used enough, because it is also given over to "virtual" knowledge.  On the other hand, employers are increasingly distancing themselves from the process of training young professionals. It is noteworthy that many formats of work with students and applicants, whether it is practice, internships or hiring, are transferred online to the detriment of the quality of professional training. In other words, we are talking about the format of truncated human capital, replacing its rational forms with irrational ones.

All this actualizes the need to use and expand the mechanisms of social partnership between the subjects of social and labor relations on the basis of increasing the involvement of employees in the labor process, the formation of an active personal position.

In this regard, let us turn to the results of a sociological survey conducted with the participation of the authors in 2023 by the laboratory of social Technologies of ISGO MPSU "Monitoring the assessment of satisfaction with the quality of graduate training". The research method is an online survey using Google Forms. A descriptive method (descriptive approach) was used, the basis of which is represented by an analytical descriptive methodology.  In total, about 100 employers – strategic partners of the MPSU took part in the survey. The purpose of the study was to assess the opinion of employees of employers' organizations on issues related to the implementation of professional activities by graduates of the Moscow State University.

During the survey, employers were asked to indicate: "What is the decisive factor for you when hiring a young specialist?". The distribution of responses is shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1. Decisive factors when hiring a young specialist, %

According to the survey, 27% of employers noted the personal qualities of a young specialist (1st place). Further, employers indicated the presence of a good portfolio and recommendations from the university from the practice bases (15% - 2nd place). The need for work experience in the specialty was stated by 13% of respondents (3rd place).

In general, the distribution obtained shows that a certain proportion of young people often focus on positions that require a creative approach or participation in specific projects. The survey confirmed that not all employers are ready to meet such needs due to the lack of necessary experience and competencies of young professionals. As you can see, the motivation of employers is most likely related to the assessment of specific (real) components of human potential. Employers often do not take into account the "transition" period for successful professional adaptation of young people.

The assumption is confirmed that the introduction of effective mechanisms for profiling young people, their division into socio-professional and socio-demographic groups, differing in the degree of activity and methods of job search, is still becoming relevant.

The situation is complicated by the fact that partnerships between a young specialist and an employer are not always established. A certain proportion of employers often focus on the fact that young people do not have to pay a lot, they do not need additional training. In addition, if a young person leaves the organization after a short period of time, another one will take his place. The concept of "student contract" has practically disappeared from use, there is no distribution after graduation. 

The survey showed that representatives of employers' organizations named some changes that will primarily contribute to improving the quality of training of university graduates (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Changes that will contribute to quality improvement

preparation of university graduates, %

Employers are one of the main ones offering measures to update educational programs in accordance with new technologies (31%). Further, according to the degree of significance, respondents call the combination of training areas (14%). Another 12% of employers consider the improvement of the material and technical base of the educational organization as priority measures. Another 9% of respondents stated about the inclusion of interns in the production process.

Employers were also asked to name proposals to improve the quality of training of university graduates. According to the survey, most employers focus on the practical component of professional training of specialists and the need to be within the walls of an educational organization in order to be more actively involved in its life, gaining professional experience.

At the same time, the demand for human capital implies that employers are ready to receive it. And this will be possible, as the domestic researcher D. Mond (2022) rightly notes, in the event of trust between the subjects of social interaction, while social capital is already being formed at the level of the organization – a prerequisite for action ^[22].

Thus, improving the quality of training of young specialists as an integral part of the formation of human capital implies a closer connection of social and market infrastructure, ensuring the alignment of the specialization of educational institutions with the directions providing for the accelerated development of new sectors of the economy. It is obvious that it is important for social partners, represented by employers, university administrations, representatives of state authorities, to introduce into practice the early formation of an order for the training of young specialists in popular professions. It is important to expand programs to support young people who have significant problems with employment, as well as those who have had their first unsuccessful experience in the labor market.

Conclusions

1. In modern society, the "virtualization" of human capital acquires a special sound due to the emerging dysfunctions of a number of social institutions, leading to the imitation of the process of obtaining professional knowledge. This is due to a number of objective and subjective factors, many of which are associated with the loss of social responsibility of the subjects of social partnership, the lack of their involvement in the process of professional adaptation of young professionals.

2. The active phase of the formation of the labor market of young professionals involves ensuring a balanced supply and demand. In this regard, measures to coordinate the volume and structure of training specialists with the needs of the labor market are of particular importance. This will be achieved by streamlining information about available vacancies, as well as encouraging employers to create additional jobs for young people. At the same time, it is planned to create new production facilities equipped with high-performance equipment and technologies that provide a full production cycle, commissioning of new facilities operating mainly on local resources.

3. As part of the change in the employment structure, it is planned to create new types of youth employment. At the same time, one of the key areas of the state's activity is seen in stimulating the development of entrepreneurial activity among young people, credit benefits, and deepening institutional reforms.

4. Management of the process of formation and use of the human capital of youth involves the creation of conditions at the local level of social partnership to promote active professional adaptation aimed at unlocking labor potential, acquiring new experience and practice-oriented knowledge.

5. Professional adaptation of young people entering the labor market should be carried out taking into account their personal aspirations and expectations, as well as work motivation that contributes to their consolidation in the workplace.

6. The existing best practices show that, at the regional and sectoral levels, it is necessary to create unified institutional structures that could most effectively solve the problems of the synthesis of education and youth employment. Thanks to this synthesis, it is possible to solve the problems of youth employment quite flexibly.

Conclusion

The phenomenon of human capital is caused by a whole system of subjective and objective factors. However, it is not always possible to say that human capital is formed taking into account the requirements and needs of both a certain social group and society as a whole. Significant discrepancies between the required and real human capital lead to its "virtualization". The problem of the formation of the human capital of the younger generation is of particular concern. Today, the level of qualification of young people is slightly higher compared to previous generations. The reaction of young people to the difficult situation on the labor market is associated with an increase in the number of those who "situationally" enter educational institutions, increase the length of stay in the parental family, etc. The increased educational level of young people could not lead to the mitigation of problems in the youth labor market. Many young people are not protected from the threat of age differentiation and market segmentation.

The leveling of the professional adaptation of young people is also indicated by the fact that the age of their full professional maturity and economic independence has become later. In addition, the risk of youth unemployment has not decreased at all. The increase in unemployment noted until recently was proportional to age and level of education. The presence of unclaimed human capital, its irrational forms and the influx of young people into depressed sectors of the economy invariably grows into an increase in the number of those who lose hope of finding a good job.

The measures taken by social partners at various levels to form the human potential of the younger generation are not always effective due to the fact that barriers preventing successful professional adaptation of young people and the reasons that worsen their position in the labor market are often not analyzed. In this regard, the relevance of the application of best practices in solving problems of professional adaptation, taking into account the balanced formation of human capital, is of particular interest to the widespread use of the system of employment programs for young professionals based on contractual and legal regulation of employers' responsibility for supporting young professionals, including apprenticeship contracts and continuous training in the classroom and at the workplace.

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