Keyword: «university graduates»

The quality of education and its evaluation is one of the urgent problems of higher education, as the problem of reducing the quality of education today affects the education system as a whole. The introduced federal state educational standards of higher education, in the section "Evaluation of the quality of basic educational programs learning", contain requirements that employers should be given the opportunity to evaluate the content, organization and quality of the educational process as a whole. Because of this, the research of the labor market in terms of the demand for key competences of graduates and young specialists who come to work immediately after graduation from higher education institution is rather relevant. The purpose of this article is to analyze the most popular expectations of the labor market in rural areas of the South of Russia regarding University graduates – young specialists in various fields of agriculture. The main method of research is a sociological study (questionnaire), an additional method is an interview. Quantitative processing of the received data was made with the help of Excel program in relative (percent) and arithmetic mean values (average score). The sampling method (quota sampling method, taking into account the profile of training/specialty) provides the necessary level of representativeness of the study results. The article considers the leading theoretical approaches to the study of competence-based approach issues in education, evaluation of the quality of educational work, as well as various criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of higher education institutions proposed by the world's leading rating systems available in the foreign and domestic pedagogical literature of recent years. On the basis of the results of the theoretical review of the literature, it is possible to make conclusions about the problems in the sphere of graduates’ training, manifested in the lack of a number of universal core competences formation and non-cognitive "soft" skills. It is shown that monitoring the quality of teaching at the University on the basis of feedback from employers is important for the effective management of the educational process, as it allows us to identify more clearly the strong points of this process and the areas for its improvement. The results of the study showed that there are no uniform universal requirements for graduates training among employers. The ideal graduate – a young specialist from the point of view of the employer may be described as a ready professional with project thinking and capable of using the full range of information technologies. However, employers in general, taking as a fact the lack of some competences and professional experience, and in particular – a significant lack of practical training of graduates, expressed a desire to see among young specialists a wish for career making and professional development, the ability to work in a team, make management decisions, bear responsibility for them, as well as to have physical and mental health, psychological stability, high cultural level. The theoretical and practical significance of the study is in the development of diagnostic methods and questionnaires for monitoring the quality of education, as well as practical recommendations for the correction of educational work in the engineering University.

The article discusses the features of university graduates as participants in the labor market: their main characteristics and the problems they face in finding employment. It is noted that diverse issues can be divided into two groups, due to social and economic factors and socio-psychological characteristics of graduates. A survey of students at Smolensk State University confirmed the potential presence of both groups of difficulties that they can expect after graduation. Various measures have been proposed to promote employment, including those carried out by the University to solve these problems.