Russian universities and colleges often graduate students who lack practical skills to work in their specialty. One possible solution to the problem is dual training focused on applied skills. The training model allows you to bring student learning as close as possible to the needs of the market. The method has proven itself well in Germany and a number of European countries. Whether such a model is applicable in Russia and what prevents its development – in the material of Izvestia.
Alien among their own
Despite numerous discussions about the approach to training focused on practical skills, graduates of domestic universities and colleges have rather superficial ideas about the applied side of the specialty they have received, experts from the National Agency for the Development of Qualifications (under the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation) believe. As one of the ways to solve this problem, a dual training system is proposed.
According to personnel monitoring in secondary vocational education (SVE) for 2021, 5.89% of students study in the Russian Federation according to the practice-oriented (dual) model, calculated in the NARC. Its spread is hindered by the inertia inherent in the system of traditional vocational education, as well as objective difficulties and risks. In dual training, the share of practical training reaches 70%, and the remaining 30% are for gaining knowledge in the classroom. This method is widely used in the education system of Germany and other European countries. In the last decade, the practice began to take root in Russian colleges and universities.
In 2022, a new program “Professionality” will start in Russia – this is a technology of secondary vocational education with an emphasis on practice. The program is designed to bring the level of education of college students as close as possible to the needs of the market.
“A feature of the project is the voluntary involvement of the enterprise in joint work with an educational organization, the provision of all possible assistance in terms of developing programs, updating the material and technical base,” says Elena Maklina, head of the Center for Supporting Development Programs for Regional Systems of Secondary Vocational Education of the IRPO. “This approach to secondary vocational education will make training more flexible, adapted to realities and able to fill the shortage of personnel in a timely manner.
Clusters are being competitively selected to receive subsidies in the amount of 100 million rubles. They are provided for the modernization of the material and technical base of a college or technical school in accordance with the equipment of the supporting employer. As a result, this enables a seamless transition from training to employment. As early as September 1, more than 150,000 students will begin training in practice-oriented programs in 70 clusters.
It is believed that dual education in Germany appeared in the 60s of the last century as a result of the analysis and adaptation of Soviet vocational education. Now it is back under a new name.
“A strong distinguishing feature of German dual education is that only those masters who have undergone special training in pedagogy can be involved in practical training at the enterprise,” said Nikolai Panov, head of the department of vocational education at the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. “Unfortunately, we don’t have that. Moreover, today even many masters of industrial training in colleges do not have a pedagogical education. And this affects the quality of education.
Problems in the spread of dual education are also related to the remuneration of mentors in the workplace. If this issue is resolved, then there are no problems with the interest of specialists and the outflow of personnel.
The head of the basic training center of the National Agency for the Development of Qualifications, Olga Klink, doubts that the classic model of dual training can be implemented on the Russian market. In Germany, the number of apprentices in an enterprise generally depends on its size and staffing needs. In an educational organization, only “theory” is studied. Practical training is carried out and financed by the employer. Already from the second or third year of study, he pays for the costs due to the participation of the student in the production process.
“Due to differences in the structure of vocational education and the labor market, Russia needs to create its own model of dual training, using the best of world experience,” Olga Klink is sure.
The NARC notes that it is important not to turn vocational education into training for a specific job. This may reduce the professional mobility of the graduate, as well as opportunities for professional and career growth. The risk arises if the employer is too actively “pulling the blanket” on himself. Another possible problem is the imitation of practice, when the presence of an employer’s visa on an educational program is equated to dual education, providing them with a basis for passing it and participating in the certification of students. Finally, there is a risk of low business interest in public-private partnerships.
“Dual training, not backed up by obligations from both students and employers, will not have an effect,” says Yulia Khanzhina, deputy director of the Young Professionals direction of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. — A tool for securing these obligations can be targeted training, and such training can be organized at any course, with the provision of social support measures (additional scholarships, payments) and the obligation of the graduate to work for a certain time at the enterprise.
What in practice
The dual training projects are based on practice-oriented training programs, the development of which takes into account professional standards. To implement the dual education project, the Krasnogorsk College and its partner, the Krasnogorsk Plant named after. S.A. Zvereva – developed a federal standard in the specialty “Photonics, Instrumentation, Optical and Biotechnical Systems and Technologies”. In addition, together with several employers, the Krasnogorsk College became the creator of the Federal State Educational Standard “Production and operation of optical and optoelectronic devices and systems.”
At the St. Petersburg College of Shipbuilding and Applied Technologies, the dual education project also began with the creation of practice-oriented educational programs. This practice can be organized in several ways. For example, at the factory S.A. Zverev, 43 student jobs have been created specifically for students of the Krasnogorsk College. The complexity of the approach is that, by inviting students to the workshops, the enterprise must resolve the issues of organizing the work of students, payment, discipline and compliance with various regime moments.
The concept of dual learning is often linked to targeted recruitment, career guidance and mentoring projects. As examples of integrated concepts, one can cite the projects of the ChTPZ group, the Krasnogorsk plant named after. S.A. Zverev, the company “Hyperglobus” and others. For example, the ChelPipe group trains students in three professions at the same time – the main and two additional ones. As part of the program, the company guarantees the student a job, compensates for meals, pays for the pool and fitness, learning English and obliges to work for three years after graduation.
According to Denis Kuzmin, director of the MIPT School of Biological and Medical Physics, the success of dual training programs is quite logical, especially in the field of natural sciences. But it is important to maintain the relevance of educational programs for a variety of components. There is also a need for practical activities and the participation of partner enterprises that will support universities and share advanced technological knowledge with students.
Vladimir Blinov, head of the Center for the Development of Vocational Education of the Russian Academy of Education, says that in the Russian Federation they often adhere to their analogue of the dual education system. There are such enterprises in the country, but their training centers, as a rule, implement the entire program themselves, without turning to colleges. According to him, it is unprofitable for them to conclude an agreement with an educational organization – it is much easier to hire their own theory teachers.
“In recent years, our largest enterprises have been organizing vocational training on their own and very successfully,” says Blinov. – The number of such graduates absolutely exceeds the number of graduates of educational programs of colleges and technical schools who have received a working specialty. For example, one of the leading enterprises in our transport industry annually graduates more than 100,000 workers from its training centers. The difference is that in Europe graduates of dual education programs receive a full-fledged diploma, while in our country they receive a certificate from the enterprise.
To keep frames from leaking
The successful implementation of the dual approach can help enterprises solve the personnel issue, and for students and trainees it will close the need for practical training, they note at the Russian Institute of Additional Professional Education “IPO”.
“Create conditions for the functioning of organizations and enterprises in the regions — solving their personnel issue by sending students to study and graduates to jobs in exchange for tax benefits,” the IPO believes.
Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the Kuzbass State Technical University named after V.I. T.F. Gorbacheva Natalya Kudrevatykh is sure that the training of highly qualified specialists must meet the requirements of the regional labor market.
“Often this is not carried out in full, which requires additional training of the graduate,” says Natalya Kudrevatykh. — Self-training their staff, representatives of the real sector of the economy are faced with the financial cost of this direction and the instability of the movement of personnel. There is no certainty that a trained young specialist will not leave for another enterprise.
Successful implementation of the model requires trilateral interest: regions, local enterprises and educational organizations with the support of federal agencies, notes Ekaterina Yesenina, a leading researcher at the Center for Vocational Education and Qualifications Systems of the FIRO RANEPA.
– There are still problems of a legislative nature, for example, a system of per capita funding, in which groups of less than 25 people are not interesting to the college, but are actually acceptable for the enterprise when organizing practice and providing employment. In the dual system, educational organizations form groups for theoretical training from students of several enterprises, she sums up.
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