Keyword: «гибкие навыки»

The relevance of the article is due to the obvious current need in the conditions of modernization of higher education to find new productive forms, methods, and learning tools that meet the requirements of the modern student-centered educational paradigm, among which facilitation technologies play a significant role. The teacher-facilitator's knowledge of algorithms for organizing various types of facilitation, in particular basic and developmental ones, understanding the differentiating features of team and collaborative group work of students, the ability to use effective student-centered facilitation techniques (Work Out, Future Search, Open Space, Polarization of opinion, Brainstorming) in the process of a group work facilitation are mandatory components of pedagogical and professional skills of a modern university teacher. The purpose of this study is to examine the functionality of facilitation technologies in their implementation in the group work of students. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the authors explore the functional potential of using facilitation technologies that have already successfully shown their effectiveness in practice in organizing group work of students at the university. The authors define the characteristic features of team and collaborative group work of students, when implementing facilitation technologies in it, noting the wide educational and formative potential of such activity, possible formats of its organization. Two types of facilitation can be distinguished at the current stage of the development of theoretical research in this field: pedagogical and social. The first one considers increasing the productivity of education and the development of subjects of the professional and pedagogical process due to the communication style and personal characteristics of the teacher. While the second focuses on increasing efficiency in terms of speed and productivity of a person's activity through the actualization of the image of a rival person or a human observer in a person’s mind. The study makes an attempt to assess the advantages of collaborative group work of university students, as well as to reveal the process of facilitative interaction not only between the teacher and university students, but also within the group itself. The article justifies the idea that proper communication is one of the important key life skills and it is necessary for group work of students. The main requirements for improving communication skills among the students of the group, knowledge of which is necessary for the teacher-facilitator, are clarified. The authors come to a logical conclusion about the wide functional potential of facilitation technologies in organizing group work with students. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the authors' expansion of scientific ideas about the prospects of facilitation technologies in the higher education system. The results of the study can be used by teachers of higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation in practical work when organizing various types of group work of students in project-based activities, lectures and practical classes.

The relevance of the research is due to the fact that most of the university courses today are aimed at developing hard skills of prospective specialists without taking in consideration soft skills formation in training. Even if there are some courses to improve students’ soft skills, they are planned, as a rule, without taking into account the current employers’ demands. It is worth noting that soft skills development today is very important in the professional field in general, and in the IT area in particular. The purpose of the study is to identify an optimal combination of soft skills that are required of the candidates for IT positions and make the applicants competitive in the labor market. The paper is based on a theoretical review and analysis of national and foreign scientific works on the subject of research. A questionnaire was chosen as an empirical research method. The scientific novelty of the results, in contrast to the results of foreign and domestic researches on the issue, is the following: 1) technical knowledge does not always contribute to professional success in the IT area because it largely depends on how well a specialist is able to work, listen and interact with others to promote a project or solve a problem in a team, 2) soft skills are additional values of IT specialists but only on condition that they realize what kinds of specific soft skills will be required and will be able to develop them, 3) university can become a suitable area for developing a currently important set of graduates’ soft skills. The theoretical significance of the research lies in advancing knowledge on the students’ soft skills development in higher educational institutions in order to improve their professional ways. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that the authors identified and described an up-to-date combination of soft skills based on the results of interviews in Russian IT companies: curiosity and willingness to learn, interpersonal communication, customer-oriented mentality, collaboration, problem-solving ability, adaptability, prioritization and mentoring. The reliability and validity of the results were ensured by a comprehensive analysis of national and foreign academic literature on the research issue taking into account the fundamental methodological principles and the use of methods appropriate to the study.