PREFERENCES OF PROFESSIONAL CHOICE OF YOUTH

ABSTRACT

Based on the data of the author's sociological study, the article reveals the main preferences of young people's professional choice, as well as an attempt to assess the consequences of unconscious choice of profession.

Keywords: youth, professional self-determination, professional choice.

Today, the phenomenon of substituting vocational choice with educational choice has been observed, where the choice of profession is determined by:

the attractiveness of the educational institution for the applicant (location, references to the educational institution, material and technical equipment, etc.)

the anticipated level of vocational education;

results of the unified state examination;

possibility to get a state-financed place or cost of education.

According to the results of the author's study conducted in 2018 among students of higher and secondary specialised educational institutions in Belgorod (n=100), less than half of the students enrolled in a particular specialty out of professional interest (42.1%). 23% of those surveyed, when choosing their field of study, proceeded from the possibility of entering a budget, while 40.5% listened to the opinion of their parents or people around them, who consider this to be a prestigious field of study.

Once students graduate from higher or secondary vocational education, they once again face the problem of professional choice. It is not uncommon for young people to be disappointed in their chosen profession while still studying. Moreover, the situation on the labour market does not always allow you to find a job in accordance with your qualifications. For example, according to a study conducted by HeadHunter in 2019, 41 per cent of university graduates do not work in their field of study [5]. In the same year, the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre conducted a similar study [2], which showed that 47% of Russians do not work according to their speciality and 28% have not tried to find a job according to their qualification at all. The most popular reasons for this were lack of vacancies (30%), insufficiently high wages (28%) and a demonstrated interest in another profession/field of work (20%). Also, 6% of respondents mentioned the difficulty of finding a job without work experience. Russians with higher education (58 per cent) were the most likely to get a job in their area of specialisation.

The following data highlights the situation, when the professional interests of university students do not correspond to the requirements of the labour market. The HR-Director service presented the most popular professions on the Russian labor market, including IT specialists, engineers, marketing analysts, social workers and interpreters. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, medical, economic and media-related fields of study were the most popular among applicants. The competition for these professions was over 14.

Thus, the need to study young people's professional choice is due to the importance of this process as an essential condition for personal self-realization, as well as the demand for a person in the economic system of society.

So, the choice of profession determines a person's future life. As a rule, a person has to make his/her first decision on occupational choice in high school age in connection with enrolling to a professional educational institution. At this age, young people are not yet aware of the far-reaching consequences of their decisions related to material wellbeing, social advancement or employment behaviour. At the same time, young people tend to have insufficient understanding of the labour market situation when they enter a vocational training institution. Thus, for the most part, the decision to choose a profession is made unconsciously and is based on a predisposition to particular educational disciplines, public opinion, and the attitudes of the family and the immediate environment. Young people focus on professions that have been established in the public consciousness as promising. This opinion, however, does not always correspond to the actual situation on the labour market. For example, at the moment there is a demand for representatives of working professions which are not attractive to young people.

The above-mentioned discrepancy between the professional preferences of high-school students entering vocational education institutions and the real needs of the labour market leads to a shortage of highly qualified personnel in certain professional areas on the one hand and youth unemployment on the other.

Speaking of the content of professional choice, it is worth highlighting a number of professions that young people find attractive. in the course of the author's sociological study conducted in april-May 2021 in Belgorod region (a mass survey of students and high school students in Belgorod region, n = 600; focus group interviews with students and high school students, expert interviews), it was discovered that healthcare occupies the first place in this indicator (30.33 per cent). In addition, almost half of those surveyed consider this field to be the most prestigious (43.33%).

At the same time, 22% plan to study health care.

Over the past year, the popularity of this field has increased and an even greater flow of applicants to medical specialties at Belgorod State University is predicted in 2021, which is due to the increased importance of medicine in the population's perception in connection with the spread of the pandemic of the Covid-19 coronavirus infection. In addition, every fifth respondent who is planning to study or is studying for a medical specialty notes that he or she did not choose the profession independently.

It is noteworthy that the second place in the indicator "attractiveness to young people" is occupied by professions in the communication technology group (26.33%). At the same time, only 2.67% of young people plan to study in this area. The group includes professions related to internet promotion (SMM - social media marketing), which have become increasingly important in recent years. "SMM is my hobby. And if in 2012-2013, when I first started doing it, no one knew what it was at all. It was rejected, social networks were rejected. Now every third or fourth job is "SMM specialist", "content manager". In just a few years, this profession hit the top" (expert's remark in an interview from 30.04.2021). At the same time, training programmes in this field are practically absent from Russian universities, and the vast majority of specialists in this area are "self-taught".

The high popularity of professions in the group 'Communications and Information Technology' cannot be overlooked: 22.33% of young people consider these professions attractive. This figure is also linked to the development of digitalisation in all areas of life. "...we have a story about information systems (about digital literacy in schools). And many of our students got interested and thought about going into IT" (expert's rejoinder in the interview of 29.04.2021). It is noteworthy that 97.9% of respondents wishing to study in this field made this decision on their own, which is quite high against the background of the overall autonomy of young people's decision to choose a profession, amounting to 79.33%.

As has already been mentioned, the most popular professions among young people are those in the health care group, and this choice is often made under the influence of parents.Indeed, among young people with a dependent type of career choice motivation, medicine is preferred by 21% of respondents along with law (26.6%) and finance and economics (20.2%).

It cannot be overlooked that students with an autonomous type of motivation are more willing to get a job in their speciality (75.47%).

The desire for employment in the speciality also varies among students studying in different professional areas. Thus, the highest level of this indicator is among the respondents studying in the following areas:

Communication technologies (including Internet marketing) (100%);

Media, publishing and printing (100%);

Food industry (100%);

Chemical, chemical and technological production (100%);

Health care (96.3).

On the contrary, the least willing to get a job in their speciality are students studying in the fields of "Administration and Office Work" (33.3%), "Culture, Art" (42.9%), "Finance and Economics" (44.7%).

A small number of respondents were in demand for engineering occupations: architecture, engineering, geodesy, topography and design (4.83%); construction, housing and utilities (1.67%). Agriculture is in the bottom four of the list (0.33%).

On the one hand, popularization of this professional field is important, as only 5.33% of respondents consider it prestigious. On the other hand, it is a question of the sufficiency of information about the labour market. Survey data showed that an absolute majority of young people (77.17 per cent) are interested in the labour market situation (demand for professions in the country and the region, level of wages, opportunity to get vocational training in the area of training they are interested in). Focus groups revealed that young people use a variety of sources for this purpose, from job search services to official websites of job centres and specific departments and organisations. "<...> I look for vacancies on various resources: both third-party services and the employment centre's website" (response of focus group participant A. from 21.04.2021). "I am interested: Internet, personnel department of health care facilities" (response from participant B. of the focus-group of 21.04.2021). Only 19.83% of respondents claim to be fully informed about the situation on the labour market. More than half of the respondents point to a lack of such information.

According to young people, medical specialties are thus the most attractive and prestigious. Almost a quarter of those interviewed plan to study in this field. The popularity of these professions has increased in the past year, which is determined by the spread of the new coronavirus Covid-19. Professions in the fields of communication and information technology are also gaining popularity, which is connected with the worldwide digitalization, also a consequence of the pandemic: during the quarantine, all life has moved into the online space. At the same time, the professional choices of young people in the Belgorod Region do not always meet the demands of the labour market, which may be due to a low level of awareness among future specialists about the professions in demand, the level of wages in the region and the content of certain professions.

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