Developing the Potential of Student Youth in the Post-Industrial Society

Elena V. Luneva ,
Elena A. Khomutnikova ,
Olga N. Bryzgalova ,
Natalya D. Bobkova ,
Olga G. Khripunova ,
Konstantin A. Fomichev

Abstract

The article considers the problem of developing the human potential of a young person within the professional training in the post-industrial era of society. The authors reveal the peculiarities of youth potential development relying on the research of domestic and foreign scientists. The article pays special attention to the requirements for a young person in post-industrial society. It identifies the special role of education in developing human potential, presents the main practices of the human potential development of students studying in the social sphere in FSBEI HE "Kurgan State University". Modern vocational education aims to form a young person's professional competence, creative abilities to independently replenish knowledge, abilities for self-development, self-improvement, self-education and continuous education in the course of his life. We need to support and encourage youth social engagement in communities and regions. This contributes to the social integration of young people by showing them the way to confront difficulties and to meet the requirements of modern society. In the future, the social activity and mobility of young people will predetermine the social and economic condition of society.

Keywords: Post-industrial societyprofessional trainingstudent potential

Introduction

The modern stage of society's development can be described as post-industrial or informational, where intellectual technologies, information and knowledge processing become one of the driving forces. In the scientific study of human development in young people, Malin (2012) singles out the main characteristics of the information society, which primarily include:

  • predominant role of developing human creativity;

  • formation of personal priorities focused on free creative development;

  • creative and intellectual activity in the production and work life.

In the changing conditions of Russian society, the development of the country depends largely on the "youth factor"; demographic and psychosomatic characteristics of young people; the level of education and professional training of young people; moral and civic maturity.

These circumstances also change the requirements for young people to learn how to live in society on their own and be prepared for various kinds of transformations.

The research material included scientific sources revealing the essence of youth potential development in post-industrial society, as well as curricula for training social sphere specialists in three areas: "Sociology", "Social work", "Organization of work with youth" in FSBEI HE "Kurgan State University".

Problem Statement

Tasks of research include the following:

  • to study scientific approaches to the peculiarities of the influence of post-industrial society on the youth potential;

  • to consider the theoretical aspects of student capacity development in today's post-industrial society;

  • to describe the peculiarities of developing the potential of students studying in professions related to the social sphere.

Research Questions

Russian and foreign researchers are actively discussing the development of students' potential during the post-industrial society.

Scientific approaches to the peculiarities of the impact of post-industrial society on the youth potential

A number of domestic and foreign authors (Bek, 2000; Diligenskiy, 1991; Hodgson, 2001; Mkrtchan, 1999; Petrov, 1999) highlight the main tendencies and trends in post-industrial society, which primarily affect young people and thus impose certain requirements on them:

  • loss of the significance of class and family contexts;

  • responsibility for the direction of future life;

  • individual risk management strategies;

  • culture of consuming goods and resources;

  • socialization of youth in the context of global transformations;

  • mistrust of established patterns of behavior;

  • socially-oriented behavior of young people;

  • space for expressing human individuality;

  • accelerated development of the latest professional, scientific, technical, intellectual and territorial environment.

To meet these challenges, a young person needs to develop his or her human potential. The World Programme of Action recognizes young people as the primary resource for achieving development goals and the primary agents of social change, economic development and technological progress (World Programme of Action …, 1996).

According to Gil (2004, p. 65), youth is the main innovative potential of society, having great importance for social and economic development of society.

Russian and foreign researchers are actively discussing the development of students' potential during the post-industrial society.

We note that foreign sources are interested in studying the potential of students in such areas as the development of youth mobility in post-industrial society. So, in the article “Youth, Mobility, and the Emotional Burdens of youxue (Travel and Study): A Case Study of Chinese Students in Italy» Shanshan (2019) writes: «However, due to the limitations and pitfalls in international education policies in both the sending and the receiving countries, Chinese students' youxue experiences in Italy are marked by notable contradictions between mobility and immobility, hopes and frustrations, self-appreciation and self-reproach» (par. 1, p. 163).

Scientists are also looking at the problem of interdisciplinary links in developing the professional potential of students. For Example, Ashford and Lateef (2019, par. 1, p. 1) write the work "Field Note-Serving Miller youth: An Interprofessional Initiative for Educating Law and Social Work Students" where they note: "The Miller v. Alabama decision found mandatory juvenile life sentences without the possibility of parole unconstitutional and extended the Graham v. Florida requirements to offenders convicted of a homicidal offense. This development in case law provides law and social work students with opportunities for learning to work together in addressing the needs of serious and violent juvenile offenders». In the article "Health and environment interdisciplinary education practices in the youth and adult education: students perception", researchers Guedes et al. (2019, par. 1, p. 1030) have drawn attention to interdisciplinary relationships as a way of developing the potential of young people.

Scientists pay special attention to the development of students' potential in the sphere of healthy lifestyle. The work of scientists such as Zhamardiy et al. (2019, par. 2, p. 19).

Santos et al. (2019, par. 1, p. 1002) also touch on this topic in the article "How to Promote Positive Youth Development in Physical Education? The Experiences of a Physical Educator and Students Through the Delivery of Project SCORE!" They point to the need to promote the positive development of young people's capacities in physical education.

Various public associations play an important role in the development of youth potential. In the article “The Elephant in the Room: Youth, Cognition, and Student Groups in Mass Social Movements", Johnston (2019) notes: "student and youth groups are often vanguard actors in turbulent times" (par. 2, p. 201). The problem of youth volunteering is quite closely connected with the development and analysis of problems of youth involvement in public associations, as in a post-industrial society volunteering can effectively contribute to the development of youth potential.

In the paper "The problem of youth volunteering is quite closely connected with the development and analysis of problems of youth involvement in public associations, as in a post-industrial society volunteering can effectively contribute to the development of youth potential" Shutenko et al. (2019, par. 2, p. 201) note that volunteer work is an important pedagogical resource, an effective tool in socializing students in modern society. This research allowed to identify the motivational components of students' volunteer activities - self-realization and social recognition.

Shutenko et al. (2019, par. 1, p. 43) note that the educational environment itself should be attractive for the development of youth potential and its self-realization in the article "Intentional modalities and value attractors of student youth self-realization in the university educational environment". The authors have formulated the concept of value attractors for students' self-realization, consisting of seven interrelated resources of socio-cultural experience (sociocentric, theocentric, anthropocentric, ethnocentric, natural-centric, culturally-oriented, knowledge-oriented).

Youth leisure time is also a means of developing capacity. Ryleeva (2019, par. 4, p. 256) investigated the forms of leisure time of the students of Kurgan State University in the Internet space and came to the conclusion that young people devote quite a lot of time to development and self-education.

We should separately mention the works that touch upon the environment of higher education institutions as a place of students' capacity development. For exemple, in the work "What Do University Students Know about Sustainable Development Goals? in the work "What Do University Students Know about Sustainable Development Goals?", Zamora-Polo et al. (2019, par. 1, p. 34) indicate that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a working agenda for the international community that aims to ensure a better world for future generations. The authors believe that competence development related to sustainable development goals will contribute to student capacity development.

The development of human potential is an important condition for social and economic development of society. We consider the development of a young person's potential as a set of two processes. The first is the process of accumulating knowledge, experience, skills, health, level of physical development and other characteristics of the life quality of any person. The second process consists of the socio-economic conditions for the formation, development, and use of the human potential formed in a given place or time. In the opinion of Sinitskaya (2004, par. 3, p. 49) assessment of human development considers "not only the economic aspect of investing in a person, but also the characteristics of the social environment, which forms the personality of this human being, the system of his values and preferences, the structure of his interests, the degree of activity, etc., and the life quality of the population, which together with the level of health care and education is characterized by such socio-economic indicators as the degree of employment, ability to pay, access to political participation".

Traditionally, a measure of the society's perfection and a measure of its social and economic development is the provision of opportunities for self-realization, self-development and potential development of each citizen. Among the main indicators, there are three main criteria in the Human Development Index:

1)level of longevity, measured as life expectancy at birth (this is the main indicator of public health);

2)achieved level of education, measured as the combination of the adult literacy index (with a statistical weight of 2/3) and the proportion of the citizens under the age of 24 studying in primary, secondary and higher educational institutions (with a weight of 1/3);

3)welfare level, measured on the basis of real GDP per capita.

This index gives equal importance to the country's economic condition and the effectiveness of its social institutions of education and health care.

Education is primarily a tool for pragmatic human activity, providing for a prompt return on investment and resources and their reproduction in the interests of the customer as the consumer of trained personnel. In our opinion, an important means of developing young people's potential is their quality professional education. Vocational education is a factor in improving the quality of human resources, increasing the innovative potential of society and developing other levels of education.

The current global social and economic changes put forward fundamentally new requirements to the vocational education system. One such approach is to address the problem of realizing human potential in education. The main task of educational institutions is to improve the quality of a future specialist with creative thinking, the ability to adapt quickly in changing conditions, motivated for activity and improvement of work results, active and mobile, able to act quickly and make decisions in non-standard situations, ready to improve professional skills and self-development. The strategic goal of the state policy in the educational sphere is to increase the availability of quality education that meets the requirements of innovative development of the economy, modern needs of society and each citizen (The development of the youth capacity …, 2010).

Features of developing the potential of students studying in specialties related to the social sphere. In our works, we have frequently addressed the problems of developing the potential of students in professions related to the social sphere (Khomutnikova et al., 2019; Luneva et al., 2019).

FSBEI HE "Kurgan State University" trains specialists in the social sphere in three directions: "Sociology", "Social work", "Organization of work with youth".

Federal state educational standards for higher education define the main characteristics of the professional training of social sphere specialists and include the formation of the following competence groups (Table 1 ).

Table 1 -
See Full Size >

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to consider the problem of developing young people's potential within the process of professional training in the post-industrial era of society development.

Research Methods

Research methods include content analysis, descriptive method, analysis of scientific literature.

Findings

Federal state educational standards have a set of competencies that define the main professional qualities of social sphere specialists for the group of specialties "Sociology and social work". These qualities include:

  • ability to apply acquired knowledge in professional activities;

  • organizational skills; ability to work in a team;

  • organization of project activity; ability to make managerial decisions in non-standard situations;

  • readiness to take responsibility for decisions made;

  • capacity for innovation and creativity;

  • analytical capability;

  • ability to develop professionally;

  • ability to interact with individual citizens;

  • social groups; social institutions; comprehensive solutions to customer problems.

To develop these qualities, and therefore to develop the potential of the young person, the training process uses the following practices:

  • involvement in professional training of practitioners from institutions and organizations of social sphere, sphere of work with youth;

  • organization of career internships;

  • organization of practices in institutions and social sphere; authorities and institutions implementing youth policy in the region;

  • engaging employers in research work;

  • organization and conduct of educational fees, case studies, foresight sessions;

  • organization and participation in professional skill contests;

  • project training and participation in the implementation of social project activities of organizations and institutions of the social sphere;

  • evaluation of the quality of services provided by social institutions.

The implementation of such educational practices in the professional training of social sphere specialists is very effective while developing the potential of a modern student.

In modern post-industrial conditions, the majority of young people studying in higher education programs are aimed at obtaining high-quality professional training that promotes the comprehensive development of student youth, increasing their competitiveness in the labor market, promoting the establishment of professional and social contacts to increase the social, educational and research activities of student youth.

Introduction of such educational strategies of professional training of students of social sphere in FSBEI HE "Kurgan State University" visually shows the level of increasing educational and research potential of students; the demand of university graduates on the labor market not only their own, but also neighboring regions. Many graduates continue their higher education through master's programs at leading universities of the Russian Federation.

Reforming the higher education system according to the needs of the post-industrial society implies a new higher level of professional training of university students, introduction of high-quality advanced models for training of a modern university graduate qualified for high-quality professional activity.

The forward character of developing professional training of specialists in the social sphere, implemented in a university, presupposes the ability of professional education to develop the natural data of a person in a certain way and in a given direction, to increase the degree of its self-actualization, to develop innovative qualities of the personality of students, giving it the opportunity to use the already existing educational potential for the purpose of continuous self-development, self-actualization in practical activity, primarily manifested in the constant cooperation with the university.

Conclusion

In this way, human development requires specially created conditions. We need to support and encourage youth social engagement in communities and regions. This contributes to the social integration of young people by showing them the way to confront difficulties and to meet the requirements of modern society. In the future, the social activity and mobility of young people will predetermine the social and economic condition of society.

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Publication Date

28 December 2020

Article Doi

https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.12.04.66

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Multicultural context, learning environment, modern society, personality formation, informatization of the society, economics and law system of the region

Cite this article as:

Luneva, E. V., Khomutnikova, E. A., Bryzgalova, O. N., Bobkova, N. D., Khripunova, O. G., & Fomichev, K. A. (2020). Developing the Potential of Student Youth in the Post-Industrial Society. In N. L. Shamne, S. Cindori, E. Y. Malushko, O. Larouk, & V. G. Lizunkov (Eds.), Individual and Society in the Modern Geopolitical Environment, vol 99. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 571-578). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.12.04.66

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