Flerov O.V. Psychological and Pedagogical Peculiarities of Professional Orientation Activities at Universities in the Period of Commercialization of Education and Socio-Economic Uncertainty

Abstract: Trends in the development of higher school in contemporary Russia is one of the most discussed issues in our modern age. Apart from discussing traditional psychological and pedagogical issues, nowadays higher education is also discussed in terms of politics and whether the transfer to the European system of education is reasonable or not. In addition, education of economics is becoming quite popular as the branch of science where practical researches are aimed at increasing cost efficiency of education but not pedagogical or social efficiency. The object of the present research is the professional orientation activities conducted with university students. The subject of the research is peculiarities and challenges of such activities under the current socio-economic conditions. Today a student (graduate) is not only a subject of the educational process but even more often a subject and a consumer of educational services on the education market. In this article Flerov suggests that we should look at the professional orientation of graduates taking into account that with the economic recession in the background, we cannot guarantee that even a good student will be successful (meaning that he will find a good job with good prospects) after professional orientation and training. The research methods used by the author in his article include the analysis of scientific references on the matter as well as empirical data obtained by the author as part of his own experience with graduates. The main conclusion is that at this age of information availability, including information about the labor market, professional orientation should be based on age peculiarities of young people but cannot be limited to fact-finding. Today when we are witnessing the economic recession and dependence of the economic development of a university on the number of attracted graduates, universities should, on the one hand, provide the best choice of training courses and on the other hand, be rather reserved and decent in their promises. Professional development should be viewed not only as a contribution to his career and wealth success but also as an inherently valued milestone which influences the overall personal growth. The novelty of the article is caused by the fact that taking into account current socio-economic conditions, it is necessary to base working with graduates on psychological peculiarities of the youth, which remain the same at all times. 

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