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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Employment of higher education graduates in Russia

subject

description

Given the influence of two trends (a transitional character and the influence of a knowledge-based economy), it is of interest to study what demands places the current labour market on higher education graduates. The main objective of our study is, therefore, to shed light on the two key questions:In the context of transitional economy influenced by the global move towards a knowledge-based society what demands face graduates while entering and operating on the labour market and what competencies are they required to possess? To what extent does Russian higher education prepare young people to face these demands?We will first describe global trends on graduate labour markets in Europe, aiming at to reveal what competencies European graduates are required to possess. Afterwards, we will focus on the economic situation and particularities of the Russian labour market. The economic crises, political and ideological changes, occurred in the 90th, modified the society in its integrity. In order to understand the context in which young specialists live in at present, it is inevitable to make an analysis of the recent economic and social transformations. This is what we do in the second chapter. The third chapter deals with transformations and evolution in the system of higher education. In the fifth chapter, we describe the current graduate labour market in Russia. The sixth chapter aims at providing empirical evidence on competencies demanded on the labour market through the analysis of data obtained by a survey of 3,500 Russian higher education graduates in the capital and province regions of the country. In this part of our work we seek to found out what competencies are demanded and how they are rewarded on the Russian transitional labour market. We also seek to find out to what extent higher education studies contribute to development of these competencies. Further, we study what competencies are required on the labour market and how they are rewarded. We will also examine what factors on the side of labour supply, labour demand and job match appear to have an impact on graduate current income. It is of interest to consider in more details how professional mismatch influences graduate income. The phenomenon of professional mismatch has appeared on the Russian labour market in the yearly 90s and till now, no thorough research concerned the impact of professional mismatch on graduates' success on the labour market. In this chapter we also considerer differences between the private and the public sectors in terms of competencies required. We end up the last chapter by exploring the role of higher education in developing the required skills. We suppose that Russian higher education does manage to provide deep knowledge in a particular field and analytical thinking abilities, but it does not contribute to a sufficient extent to producing other essential qualities, like computer and Internet literacy, capacity to work in group and others.