SPECIALISTS IN YOUTH WORK: DIGITAL SKILLS

ABSTRACT

The article provides an overview of the competencies needed by youth workers and an assessment of the level of these student competencies.

Keywords: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills, information literacy.

Today, the development of digitalization is characterized by a high growth rate, as well as penetration into all spheres of life of modern man.

The rapid development of the ICT sector presents us with new challenges that require new skills to solve them, skills that allow us to work intuitively in a digital environment and to access large amounts of information quickly and efficiently [2].

А. T. Bulatova singles out 4 groups of competences that a youth work specialist should have: professional; projective; managerial; instrumental.

Let us take a closer look at the last group.

Instrumental competencies include:

• the ability to collect and classify information;
• the ability to compile surveys of information on the problem in question;
• the ability to apply statistical and sociological methods of collecting social information;
• pedagogical methods and techniques for working with different categories of young people [1].

In modern conditions, the first three of these competences are inextricably linked with the digital skills of the specialist. In addition, the specifics of working with young people involve the use of digital technologies: much of the work has "migrated" to online.

The expert survey identified the highest-priority digital skills for youth workers. According to the experts, these primarily include:

• working with office applications
• information processing
• use of software to organise and coordinate team work
• design skills.

The experts also mentioned information search and storage skills as well as work with photo, video and audio file processing software.

At the same time, students studying in the field of youth work organisation assessed their skills as follows:

Thus, it is the skills in working with programmes directly related to the duties of a youth work specialist that are rated the lowest by students. In addition, only 3.3 out of 5 on average are rated with office software skills, despite their use for academic purposes.

Only 47% of the students surveyed were able to list grant platforms and cultural initiatives that they were aware of. Among the most frequently mentioned was the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, with some students also naming the Grants.RF platform. However, only 14% of respondents have experience of working on these platforms.

Speaking about software tools for implementing management tasks and coordinating teamwork, only two respondents could name programmes of this kind known to them: in both cases Bitrix24 service was mentioned.

At the same time, the experts argue that for practice in the youth sector it is useful to be familiar with visible digital tools for teamwork (such as Padlet, Google services*, Motiv system), etc. This sensitivity to the new digital environment helps to build work processes, communication and results quickly, which is popular with young people.

How can HEIs influence the development of digital skills? At the moment, many HEIs in the country are focused on digital and information technology development, and the recent realities of the pandemic period have obliged both students and teachers to embrace the digital environment at an accelerated pace. However, all this is not enough to acquire professional digital skills directly.

When asked where most of the digital competences are acquired, respondents most often answered, "In the process of studying in higher education (doing homework, preparing reports, essays, presentations, projects, research papers, etc.)" (33%). At the same time, only 15% of respondents think that the main skills were acquired in the ICT and informatics classes in the higher school.

HEIs undoubtedly contribute a lot to the development of project management skills, organisation and implementation of events, teamwork and team-building skills for students in ORM, and basic skills in digital systems are also developed by HEIs, but this may not be sufficient (as confirmed by the survey results) for graduates who, once employed, face real work tasks. For example, an absolute majority of respondents had difficulty answering the question of what digital skills they lack in order to become competitive in the labour market (83%). The remaining 17% equally believe that they have enough skills to get a job in their field.

Responding to the question, "Do you think HEIs do enough to develop professional digital competences?", students more often summarise (44%) that they would like to attend training or additional training in order to build professional digital skills.

Thus, the importance of high levels of professional digital competences for future youth workers cannot be disputed. The HEI, as the main guide to the profession, should provide students with the opportunity to build up these competences.

*(По требованию Роскомнадзора информируем, что иностранное лицо, владеющее информационными ресурсами Google является нарушителем законодательства Российской Федерации – прим. ред.)

Referenses:

1. Булатова, А. Т. Развитие профессиональных компетенций и культуры добровольчества у студентов ОРМ в процессе летней педагогической практики (опыт ПГГПУ) [Электронный ресурс] / А. Т. Булатова // Режим доступа к изд.: https://elar.urfu.ru/bitstream/10995/32111/1/m21-2013-01-30.pdf – Систем.требования: IBM PC, InternetExplorer.
2.   Князькова, В. С. Теоретико-методологический подход  к дефиниции понятия «цифровая грамотность» / В. С. Князькова // Новая Экономика. – 2019. – № 2. – С. 92-97.
3. Коммерсантъ. Мониторинг IT [Электронный ресурс] // Режим доступа к изд.: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5481130 – Систем.требования: IBM PC, InternetExplorer.