Could practice be successfully integrated into educational process?

December 25, the USUE Department of Labor Economics and HR Management held an extended meeting on the results of the year. Together with the staff of the Department, personnel directors, heads of specialized departments and divisions of the largest enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region discussed the areas of cooperation and outlined further steps to implement joint activities.

The event was opened by the USUE Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Sergei Rogozhin. He supported the format of the open meeting of the Department, indicated that the best contact point of the University and enterprises could be applied master courses, which would allow employees already working for the companies to be trained in compliance with the seventh qualification level.

Maria Plutova and Natalia Tonkikh, faculty members of the Department being responsible for educational and scientific activities, presented the results of 2017. This year the Department worked steadily, showed good indicators of publication activity, provided training for a large number of students, and conducted research.

Following the report, the moderator of the meeting Ruslan Dolzhenko, acting chair of the Department of Labor Economics and HR Management addressed the audience with questions, "What prevents practitioners from integrating into the implementation of key activities of the Department? Do not they want to write scientific articles interesting to the market? How many master classes can each of them hold during the year? Are there any problems and projects of their enterprises that could be implemented with the involvement of the academic staff and students of the department? "

While the participants of the meeting pondered the answers and reflexed over the indicated opportunities, the professor of the Department Inna Kulkova presented the project of updating the master's program in Personnel Management. The program is intended young people who do not have experience or education in this area. World statistics showing that no more than 25% of graduates of the master's degree courses work in one’s degree field after graduation from the university was confirmed by one of the participants in the meeting - director of the Department of Labor and Employment of the Sverdlovsk region Dmitry Antonov. He also shared the results of the department's research: about half of the graduates of the master’s courses of Sverdlovsk region universities work within their specialties. The updated program, supported by practitioners interested in hiring promising young employees, is designed to solve this problem with respect to HR managers. As a result, an agreement was reached on the development of the activity of the specialized department of labor and employment of Sverdlovsk region residents at USUE. 

The culmination of the event was the presentation of the project of the applied master courses "Economics of Human Resources" under the targeted request of the enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region. Ruslan Dolzhenko described the current trends in education, substantiated the need for a radically new approach to master courses, and introduced the concept of a new program. From his point of view, the responsibility for the current situation with a real demand for graduates of universities should be divided between universities, employers, and students. "Only together we can design such an educational program that would be in demand, bring an economic effect to enterprises, and positively influence the image of the university as an innovative educational institution. The curriculum of this program should be formulated by the university and enterprises taking into account the requirements of the future professional standard "Specialist in Labor Economics". Representatives of companies must be mandatorily involved in the educational process. The volume of lectures should be transformed into the applied interaction of students and experts, aimed at solving specific problems and tasks through the request of enterprises. In the proposed master's program, each master student must necessarily undergo additional training related to his/her professional, research, and pedagogical development. The core course should be a project seminar for master students, where they, under the order of practice, will be engaged in the implementation of specific projects for the requests of customers. "

Despite the complexity of implementation, the idea of an applied master courses aroused great interest. After the presentation, one of the moderators of the meeting, the head of the USUE Human Resources Department Svetlana Dolzhenko, asked the invited practitioners to give their opinion on the project. 

The first to support the project and to express their readiness to participate in the educational process and to select their employees for training in applied master courses were Deputy Director General for Personnel and Social Policy of NPO Automatics Alexei Glazkov and Deputy General Director for Personnel of M. I. Kalinin Machine-Building Plant Sergei Svinin. Aleksei Glazkov said, "We will support your initiative with great pleasure, it is necessary to combine theory and practice, this is necessary to ensure the growth of labor productivity both at the enterprise and in the whole region."

The event ended with a joint discussion of possible ideas on other activities of the Department. Following the meeting, the Director for Personnel and Social Policy of the Nizhny Tagil Metal Structures Plant Alexandra Grinkova agreed with Professor Dmitri Yadransky on conducting a research at the enterprise with the help of involved observation.

On behalf of the Department and University, we thank our colleagues and partners for participating in the open meeting and their readiness for cooperation in the implementation of new activities. We express special gratitude to Deputy General Director for Personnel of M. I. Kalinin Machine-Building Plant Sergei Svinin, Deputy Director General for Personnel and Social Policy of NPO Automatics Alexei Glazkov, Director of the Department of Labor and Employment of the Sverdlovsk region Dmitry Antonov, head of the Development and Staff Recruitment Department of the Sinarsky Pipe Plant Sergei Kashirin, head of Personnel Management of the Ural Division of the Federal retail chain “Pyaterochka” Veronica Koptelova , Director of Personnel and Social Policy of Nizhny Tagil Metal Structures Plant Alexandra Grinkova , head of HR Department of Sinara Group Svetlana Smirnova, Personnel Director of SKB LAB Elena Ponomareva, and adviser to the Director for personnel of UMMC-Holding Yevgeny Karaman.

The press release was prepared by the USUE Department of Labor Economics and HR Management.

December 25, the USUE Department of Labor Economics and HR Management held an extended meeting on the results of the year. Together with the staff of the Department, personnel directors, heads of specialized departments and divisions of the largest enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region discussed the areas of cooperation and outlined further steps to implement joint activities.