Foreign Language Learning As A Component Of Personnel Training In Corporate Education

Model of professional activity with included language experience

The accumulated scientific potential in the field of foreign language education and personal experience of teaching a foreign language in corporate structures allow to formulate the initial position of the study, that is changing goals and content of corporate education with focusing on building a multidimensional model of professional activity with language experience included. Such a model of professional activity reflects its nature in terms of global information society when information support of managing the professional task, communicating with experts and databases are necessary conditions for professional activity.

The main idea of the proposed concept is that professional experience which includes a subsystem of linguistic behavior in a professional field, is developed through sequential solution of the system of professional and communicative task-situations which include such tasks as: 1) establishing understanding with partners in terms of interpreting arising professional issues ("task on understanding"); 2) project development, requiring the coordination of economic interests and technological capabilities of partners ("task on design"); 3) mastering new technologies and principles of production in the form of training support from one of the partners ("the task on perception and transfer of experience"); 4) discussing criteria and procedures for assessing the effectiveness of production and quality of the product, its marketing parameters ("the task on identifying the marketing characteristics of the product"); 5) identifying and assessing cultural and business characteristics of partners, developing mutually acceptable standards of cooperation ("the task on dialogue of cultures").

Integrating foreign language experience into the structure of professional activity is achieved by assimilating professional and personal meanings of possessing foreign language communicative competence, the indicative basis for implementing various types of professional and communicative activities, the experience of this implementing in the process of solving a sequence of complex professional and communicative tasks. Foreign language competence integrated into the structure of professional activity is a fundamentally new type of competence, the essence of which is revealed in solving the above professional and language tasks.

• The first task designated by us as "the task on understanding", is associated with establishing information and psychological understanding with partners in terms of interpretation of the professional problem. In this situation, the specialist is required not only communicative but also the actual professional competence: the ability to express the essence, scope and class of the problem, to find analogues of its manifestations in the organizational structures of the company represented by partners. It is also necessary to give your statements an adequate speech form in accordance with the accepted professional terminology, to simulate the process of understanding and possible interpretations.

• The second task, designated as "the task on design" is associated with implementing the design, planning procedures, coordinating work regulations and resources, economic interests and technological capabilities of partners. Here a specialist must use professional speech constructions and definitions, reflect and formulate technical ideas. It is impossible without professional knowledge expressed in the language. At the same time, he must actualize in his mind the traditions and norms of design activities adopted by his partners.

• The third task is the task of perception and developing new technologies and principles of production in the form of training support from one of the partners. The largest modern corporations see their most important organizational and managerial function in training their employees according to the achievements of the world experience. Of course, it is impossible to implement this function without proficiency in international languages. It is not a matter of superficial or formal understanding but the ability to transform meaningful information into practical activity.

• The fourth task, according to our model, is related to coordinating criteria and procedures for assessing the efficiency of production and the quality of the product, its marketing parameters ("the task on identifying product marketing characteristics"), in short, here the partners agree on the best conditions for implementing the jointly produced product. Only a specialist can act as a real expert of quality and it is now required to find the most convincing and effective ways to express verbally the market characteristics of the product. And not only to sell it but also to attract investment for its manufacturing.

• And finally, the fifth task included in the basic communicative situations is the task on identifying and assessing cultural and business characteristics of partners, developing mutually acceptable norms of cooperation ("the task of the dialogue of cultures"). The practice of cooperation between specialists shows the importance of their cultural adaptation. The solution to this problem requires the highest level of language proficiency.

Possibility of realizing the presented model in the system of corporate education

Guided by the tasks in the structure of the presented model, it can be assumed that this model can be implemented in a relatively recently appeared in the educational sphere a new type of university - electronic corporate university, as a form of corporate education. The main reason for creating corporate universities was the intention to combine the theoretical foundations of professional training with the needs of the business. The changes that began in Russia in the early 90s were so profound that they put forward fundamentally new requirements for business education. Other reasons that contributed to the renovation of the Russian system of vocational education were: the transition to the market economy, which caused an urgent need to change outdated methods of doing business, the lack of managerial and professional skills of the workforce of the 90s, the growing demand for a new type of specialists (Mechitov & Moshkovich, 2004).

The educational process at the corporate university includes a complex of information and communication technologies of software and technical, organizational and methodological nature. Foreign language teaching is becoming an integral part of a university program and involves organizing the teaching process based on the integration of foreign language experience in the structure of professional activity and has the form of group or individual training in line with special programs and courses; testing students ' knowledge; foreign language training in the form of various online courses, video conferences and forums in a foreign language, etc.

Also, within the framework of industry orientation, and taking into account the typological characteristics of formal, informal and non-formal education, the proposed model can be implemented as a component of corporate formal, informal and non-formal education. There are already the first attempts to implement this model of foreign language training in the system of corporate education of technical specialists, and its application for training employees of various industries, for example, the oil and gas industry. Short-term compulsory training of employees is carried out both at the enterprise and in specialized educational institutions and is based on solving problems specific to a particular organization with the involvement of internal or external teachers. Depending on peculiarities of the professional environment, the model is supplemented by the whole system of educational, certification and certification activities, among which a significant place is given to the integration of a foreign language into the professional environment using business strategies of foreign language communication. These are only the first steps towards the modernization of corporate education. Basically, such a system is in the process of testing in line with theoretical developments and is an actual topic for discussions and seminars.

Status and prospects of development of corporate education in the Volgograd region

In Volgograd region, there are many problems in the field of vocational education, among which one of the most crucial is the mismatch of the structure of vocational education to the needs of the regional labour market. More than half of students in vocational educational institutions are university students, while there is a sharp shortage of skilled workers and employees with secondary technical education, able to work with modern technologies. Even the small number of workers and employees, who graduate from secondary technical institutions of Volgograd and Volgograd region, do not demonstrate high-quality training. Among the educational programs of such institutions, there is only a small number of programs that provide applied qualifications. Students who seem to get fundamental knowledge in a particular subject area are not qualified enough to work with complex technologies. Correspondence and part-time (evening) form do not solve these problems. Besides, in the region, there is a low level of participation of the adult population in additional vocational education. The reason for this fact a lack of a coherent system of continuing education. A special place among the unsolved problems is occupied by the almost complete absence of programs aimed at foreign language training of qualified personnel. All these problems can be solved by forming an integrated system of corporate education, the purpose of which is to adapt the staff to the working process and obtain a set of professional skills and competencies necessary to improve their professional level.

At the same time, there are enterprises in the region that pay considerable attention to the continuous process of retraining existing personnel and training new ones. Among them FGAU "National medical research center" Interdisciplinary scientific and technical complex "Microsurgery" of "Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (Volgograd branch); JSC "CAUSTIC" Volgograd; Sberbank Corporate University ("Sberbank of Russia»); Volzhsky pipe plant (VTZ), RUSHYDRO Corporate hydropower University (Branch of JSC "RusHydro" - "Volga hydroelectric power station" etc. These companies are closely associated with universities, colleges, vocational schools of Volgograd and other regions of Russia. As a rule, they provide the organization of introductory, production and pre-diploma practice according to the specification of an enterprise, providing students with bases for writing term papers and theses. Among other areas of cooperation, it should be also noted joint events in the form of meetings and round tables, in which issues of cooperation development are discussed, and the provision of opportunities for teachers of educational institutions to undergo training at the enterprise, to get acquainted with technologies and equipment.

However, as surveys show, only Volzhsky pipe plant (VTZ), a part of the Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) has organized a special training course on the basis of the Volga Polytechnic Institute (branch) VSTU "Business and technical English". The educational process is organized in the way that learners will be able to study a foreign language and to get skills of free reading technical literature in the foreign language. Unfortunately, it should be noted that not always foreign language training in such courses is effective, because often foreign language teachers not being specialists in a particular production area, have difficulties in presenting this area by means of a foreign language, as a result, the educational process is not filled with situational and communicative content necessary to achieve the desired result. The proposed model of five professional language tasks can help to solve this problem.