Professional Adaptation of Students of Secondary Vocational Education in IT-specialties in the Context of the Requirements of Employers in the Digital Economy
Authors:   Pushkin Leningrad State University, Boronenko T.A. , Nuretdinov R.I. ,   Pushkin Leningrad State University
Published: January 2025

Introduction. The digital transformation of the global economy, including the economy of the Russian Federation, is developing rapidly. The launch of the national project "Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State", the goal of which is to create digital platforms in key industries by 2030. With the growth of digitalization of the economy, problems of a shortage of specialists with IT-competencies arise; the shortage of personnel in IT specialists is estimated at approximately 500-700 thousand people. And young IT-specialists often have only general professional competencies and do not have sufficient experience in using highly specialized professional tools. This situation lengthens and complicates the process of professional adaptation of young specialists, which entails the desire of employers to hire experienced employees. These contradictions determine the need to modernize the system of secondary vocational education in the field of information technology in order to increase the demand for graduates in the labor market and reduce the time of professional adaptation of young IT specialists in the workplace.

Materials and methods. The analysis of scientific works and statistical data of recent years on the topic under consideration confirmed the problems we have identified and substantiated the need to expand the system of professional adaptation of students in the field of information technology. A survey of students in IT-specialties of the information technology profile was chosen as a method for determining the problems of professional training of students, the degree of professional orientation and the level of knowledge of the requirements of future employers in the field of information technology. In 2024, surveys were conducted of students of secondary vocational education of the enlarged group of specialties "Informatics and computer engineering" on their understanding of the demand for various development tools in the field of information technology, in which 93 respondents in St. Petersburg took part.

Results. In surveys of students of secondary vocational education in the information technology profile, questions were asked about the students' knowledge of various programming languages and database management systems, the need and desire to study them, and their demand by future employers. It was found that students are familiar only with the most popular tools for developing IT solutions, and only every fifth respondent has real experience in using them. At the same time, more than 90 % of respondents are confident that studying various software tools for the work of a future IT specialist is necessary for successful professional activity. Conclude that students do not fully understand the real requirements of the future labor market and have an insufficient level of initial professional adaptation to the conditions of the future profession of an IT specialist. A model of the process of forming professional competencies of IT specialists is proposed as a solution to the problem of professional adaptation of students of secondary vocational education in IT specialties. Discussion and conclusion. The results of the research revealed a personnel shortage in the labor market in the field of information technology and a tendency for it to increase. To overcome the existing gaps between the results of professional training of IT specialists and the requirements of the labor market, a model of the process of formation of professional competencies of middle-level IT specialists was presented, taking into account the need for professional adaptation of students to the conditions of future employers. The key element of the model is the practical training of students, representatives of employers form a bank of project tasks and accompany the process of solving them in the role of mentors.