COMPETENCE OF GRADUATES OF
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
AS AN OBJECT OF SOCIOLOGICAL
REFLECTION
Valentina Vladimirovna Fursova
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Makpal Barkiyayevna Syzdykova
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Talant Dyusenuli Bimakhanov
Kyzylorda State University named after Korkyt Ata
Maria Alievna Makhambetova
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Recepción: 05/08/2019 Aceptación: 16/09/2019 Publicación: 23/10/2019
Citación sugerida:
Fursova, V.V., Syzdykova, M.B., Dyusenuli Bimakhanov, T. y Makhambetova, M.A.
(2019). Competence of graduates of higher professional education as an object of
sociological reection. 3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. Edición Especial,
Octubre 2019, 205-217. doi: https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctic.2019.83-2.206-217
Suggested citation:
Fursova, V.V., Syzdykova, M.B., Dyusenuli Bimakhanov, T. & Makhambetova, M.A.
(2019). Competence of graduates of higher professional education as an object of
sociological reection. 3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. Special Issue,
October 2019, 205-217. doi: https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctic.2019.83-2.206-217
3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. ISSN: 2254-6529
208
ABSTRACT
The relevance of the chosen research topic lies primarily in the increasing
share of young professionals in the workforce and the need to develop, in
this regard, measures to address problems related to youth unemployment in
Kazakhstan. The authors note that the education system does not always form
students’ competencies that are in demand on the labor market, as a result of
which employers do not want to hire university graduates, prefer workers with
experience, which contributes to the growth of unemployment among university
graduates. In this regard, the authors conducted an expert survey of the heads of
organizations in order to identify their views on the competencies of university
graduates needed in the labor market (130 people were interviewed).
Recommendations for improving the education system with the aim of forming
competencies important in the modern labor market are oered.
KEYWORDS
Youth, University Graduates, Competencies, Employer, Competitiveness,
Unemployment.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Youth unemployment in modern Kazakhstan is due to the fact that young
professionals after graduation are looking for work but face the problem that
employers do not need them due to the fact that universities do not teach the
necessary competencies in demand in the labor market. Well-known British
sociologist J. Goldthorpe in the analysis of the labor market introduces the concept
of “labor situation” and denes it as a set of social relations in which “a person
is involved at work through his position in the division of labor” (Goldthorpe
et al., 1987). In this context, young people cannot nd a job because of the
incompatibility of their competencies with the skills required by employers, and
therefore the “work situation” is violated. Market conditions are a “set of material
rewards and life chances”, as R. Erickson notes (Erikson & Goldthorpe, 2012, p.
176). As for life chances, they are low among Kazakhstani youth.
Social problems of unemployment among young specialists are studied by
Ganskau, Ponomarenko, Geleta, Akulich, Zaslavskaya, Savinova, Borisova,
Kuzmin, Maslova, Vidyapin, Zhuravleva. It is sociologists who mainly attracted
the attention of the public to employment as a social problem.
The modern labor market in Kazakhstan is characterized by high level of
unemployment, late payroll, a gap between the needs of society and prestigious
professions, dissatisfaction of employers with the education system, etc.
(Shedenova, 2008, p. 518-522). The entry of young people into the labor market
is accompanied by considerable diculties and contradictions. The reason
for these problems may be related to the incompetence of young people due
to the lack of competencies, since universities do not train practically oriented
specialists, and university education lags the needs of employers. Therefore, a
signicant part of graduates does not nd work in their specialty or do not get a
job at all, which leads to an increase in unemployment among young people. As
a result, the invested nances for their education are not justied. There is also a
reluctance of employers to hire graduates without work experience because they
believe that they lack practical skills and professional competencies. Therefore,
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the relevance of research is that it is necessary to look for new ways to solve the
problem of youth employment in the labor market in accordance with the needs
of social development and the current level of economic development. The topic
of the research is at the junction of several topical issues of modern society,
such as: upbringing and education of young people, comprehensive personal
development, scientic management of society.
2. METHODOLOGY
In order to assess the opinion of employers about the professional training of
specialists by the university and further improve the quality of educational
services of the year, a survey was conducted using a method of non-formalized
interview among 130 business leaders (April 2019). The survey involved
respondents engaged in various forms of professional activity, as well as in various
organizational and legal forms of entrepreneurship.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Employment of university graduates is not only a problem of graduates, but also
a problem of these universities. In each university there are two closely related
subjects of the market: the rst is the educational services market, and the second
is the labor market. Therefore, the competitive advantage of an university in the
market of educational services is crucial, increasing the guarantee of employment
after training and attracting a greater number of applicants. The main task of
modern education is to prepare the best specialists, which must be competitive
in the labor market. A young specialist should be competent, knowledgeable,
versatile, highly qualied specialist who can quickly adapt to the changes that are
taking place, able to solve the industrial and innovative situation, is inclined to
show self-esteem in society, also able to freely Express their opinion, knowing the
high level of knowledge with higher education, have a high level of knowledge,
have higher education, possess deep knowledge of the national language, history
and culture.
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In modern conditions, universities oer mainly to study for prestigious “market”
specialties, since, on the one hand, they are in demand (they are quite popular),
on the other hand, they require minimal investments from universities in the
form of special equipment, etc. These specialties do not mean that the skills
and abilities have been programmed into a specic eld, but only store them as
providers of quick-reaction capabilities in the market, which is very important at
the present time. Applicants consider higher education not as an investment, but
as the achievement of social status, which frees the departments of employment
of students at universities from the responsibility for the employment of
graduates. This conclusion can be made based on how the above departments
deal only with collecting certicates of employed graduates. Also, the success
of the graduates’ professional career is estimated based on the rating system
of universities in Europe and America. The latter are interested in a detailed
continuation (through research) of their former graduates working career.
The problem of personnel is most relevant for employers. In the eld of vocational
education, the employer has a demand for the most diversied specialists with
higher education. The modern information society requires the training of
specialists with a high level of information competence, the ability to quickly
navigate in information technology and to apply their knowledge in practice.
The signicance of information competence is determined by the transition of
Kazakhstan society to the stage of informatization (Fursova et al., 2017). This
denes new requirements for human resources, including the ability to adapt to
the information ow, work with information, perform information loads, work
in the information environment. Avraamova and Verpakhovskaya (2006, p.38)
in their research found that employers are interested primarily in the following
competencies of graduates: decision-making skills and ability to work in a team,
activity, initiative and independence, retraining and training for the acquisition
of skills and knowledge. At the same time, higher education in the information
society is considered a necessary but insucient condition for employment.
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Personal qualities are also important in the labor market. When hiring a new
employee, company managers often take not those who have the appropriate
qualications, but those specialists who dier in their personal qualities.
Employees of the personnel agency “Personnel” indicated that, rst, employers
pay attention to the behavioral aspect of the applicant. It must conform to the
corporate culture of the company and have such qualities as: teamwork, exibility
of thinking, search for non-standard solutions and resistance to stress (Ocial site
of the personnel agency “Personnel”).
According to the results of the survey conducted by the authors, it turned out
that the very rst obstacle to the employment of young people today is “lack of
work experience”, this factor is important in the life of young graduates. The
factor “mismatch of the profession with the desired job” is also an important
obstacle for young people. It is known that in our society there are dierences
in the preferences of young people and the chosen specialties. Due to lack of
funds, school graduates cannot get the desired profession, many young people
are enrolled in specialties for which state grants are allocated. But, they, in turn,
do not want to work on the received specialty. “Lack of acquaintances” is the
third factor hindering youth employment. It should be noted that in almost all
our studies we noticed that factors such as the lack of “acquaintances”, the lack
of “nancial opportunities” always come to the fore. The survey also raised the
issue of “lack of knowledge and qualications.” Let’s explain this factor by the
following example. For example, when a young specialist visits workplace, he is
asked several questions during an interview. The employer asks, “Is there any
work experience?”, “What can you give our company?”, “What are you capable
of ?”. This is understandable, it is benecial for each employer to get a person
who knows the job. At the same time, a big problem lies in the fact that applied
knowledge in the preparation of future personnel is not suciently developed at
the university (Employment of Kazakhstani graduates, 2016). Formal practical
training of students causes various problems.
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Employers also noted that they are looking for the right workers with the help of
numerous resources (through private labor exchanges, through advertising in the
media, etc.). However, most employers also use methods such as personal and
corporate communications, personal acquaintances, oers and advice from close
acquaintances when selecting personnel. The studies of Kazakhstan sociologists
also point to this (Indigigyan, 2014, p. 257-262).
Employers also answered questions about their relationship with higher education
institutions. For example, we found that only a minimal (about 10%) number of
employers teach copyright lectures. Some noted that they participate in round
tables and conferences held at universities. But at the same time there is no
close professional interaction between employers and universities. Kazakhstan
sociologists also write about this. They note that between universities and
employers there are no eective relations in the eld of research, commercial or
scientic novelty (Maulsharif & Bolysbaeva, 2017, p. 29-23).
According to the results of a study conducted by Rating.kz research agency with
72 Kazakhstan and international companies, 64.9% of respondents noted that
Kazakhstan universities do not enter any contacts with employers in the process of
training specialists. According to employers, many higher educational institutions
in our country cannot resist competition from near and far abroad. Managers
and specialists of the company conrmed that high quality of specialists are
provided by Russian universities (64.9%) followed by British universities (44.4%)
and American universities (36.1%) (Ready to work - why not take?, 2017, p. 35-
40).
Our study showed that due to the lack of practice and special training, employers
do not want to hire young people, namely young people aged 16-24. The problem
is that graduates of educational institutions do not have work experience, and
without experience it is impossible to nd a job.
As for educational institutions, in our opinion, it is necessary to make certain
changes to the curricula of the university today, that is, to introduce special courses
aimed at professional, psychological and ethical training of the future young
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specialist, which will allow to overcome diculties in the process of employment
among young people. Such specialized courses provide young professionals with
comprehensive assistance in their employment. It is also necessary to make the
transition from one-time actions to continuous cooperation of enterprises and
educational institutions. In the conditions of a post-industrial economy, it is very
important to develop social partnership in the process of preparing and assessing
the quality of education of specialists with higher, secondary and primary
education.
4. SUMMARY
According to the study, the problems of youth employment, the existing practice
of regulating youth employment is not eective enough. In our opinion, the main
way to ensure youth employment is to bring the modern education system in line
with the requirements of the labor market. For the uniform integration of youth
in the labor market in the education system, a competitive basis must be created
for each professional level. There are several ways to solve this problem, including
the broad holding of information work among young people, aimed at shaping
and enhancing the values of work, popularizing working professions. According
to the authors, such measures as the formation of entrepreneurial skills among
young people, the organization of professional practice in the framework of the
University program, improving the quality of professional education, the use
of alternative methods of training and retraining of specialists based on the
principles of continuous education can improve the situation.
To achieve the relevant qualities (competencies) of graduates, it is necessary to
solve the following tasks:
1. Teaching students’ practical skills and job search skills, self-employment.
2. Teaching students’ self-presentation and interviewing skills. Employers
pay attention not only to the diploma, but to what the students have done in
an educational process that is interesting and meaningful for their professional
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development. For this, future specialists need to engage in the development of
various projects, participate in contests, grants, and conferences, which will
allow developing logical thinking, public speaking skills, and scientic discussion
skills. In this regard, it is necessary to make certain changes to the curriculum
of the university today, that is, if special courses of professional, psychological
and ethical training of the future young specialist were introduced, then, in our
opinion, several diculties in young specialists employing could be overcome.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Currently, many unemployed young people who have graduated from a higher
education institution, with a diploma in their hands do not have the opportunity
to nd a job on their own. Most of all this dicult problem is faced by newly
qualied specialists. Even if they nd a job, the employer does not hire them
without work experience.
Thus, we can recommend the following measures to universities and employers
to solve this problem:
1. Allocate more academic hours for practical classes in enterprises.
2. Increase the time of practical training, based on the student’s prole.
3. Improve computer literacy, especially better master MS Excel, MS PowerPoint
and all the basic application features.
4. To increase the level of foreign languages knowledge, as a signicant part of
employers cooperate with foreign companies.
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