Role of Career Guidance in the University Applicants

Self-determination in the Context of Sustainable Development

Evgenia S. Rychkova

and Marina S. Baltsezhak

Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia

Keywords: Career Guidance, Digital Technologies, Self-Determination, Personnel Potential, Electronic Educational Ser-

vices, Information Resources.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the assessment of the career guidance role in the applicants professional self-deter-

mination in a regional university. The authors reveal the tasks, forms and types of career guidance work, both

traditional and pmes with the use of modern information technologies. Special attention is paid to the analysis

of works devoted to the theoretical understanding of career guidance, including the use of digital technologies,

and its role in the individual professional self-determination. Based on the study of the applicants opinions on

the choice of educational institution, areas of training (specialties), as well as the career guidance methods

that influenced their professional self-determination, the factors that strengthen the role of the regional uni-

versity involvement in the process of applicants professional self-determination were identified; the reasons

for decline in the level of school graduates in the region professional self-determination; the impact of the

digital technologies usage in career guidance work on the self-determination of the regional university appli-

cants.

1 INTRODUCTION

There is a large number of studies aimed at studying

the factors of career choice by applicants from

different regions of the country. There the fact of

close connection and career guidance measures

mutual influence and schoolchildren professional

self-determination is recognised. However, each

region has its own specifics, due to the socio-

economic situation and priority areas of development.

In this regard, the factors of schoolchildren

professional self-determination and their preferences

in relation to the higher education institutions career

guidance methods should be determined and taken

into account in the work of all the regional career

guidance system subjects.

It is obvious that the regions that are

geographically remote from the center have an

increased need for the career guidance main subjects

close and effective interaction for the human

resources formation. One of the reasons is the high

level of educational migration. It negatively affects

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8452-7373

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1965

the recruitment rates in regional higher education

institutions. In this regard, the professional

orientation activity of universities is becoming

particularly relevant in order to increase the fields of

study attractiveness and specialties necessary for the

regional labor market and the demand formation.

The career guidance system in the region includes

a wide range of activities at the national and regional

levels, some of which help attract applicants to the

fields of study and regional universities specialties.

Some of the events are at the implementation stage,

and some have already proved their effectiveness:

"Quantorium", "Sirius", "Kosmofest", the "Young

Professionals" system of Worldskills, the technology

platform "20.35", the roadmap "Personnel for the

Digital Economy", the network "Boiling Point", the

venture system "Seven", the school program "5*5",

the circle movement, mentoring.

At present, the regional universities career

guidance work practice is based on a combination of

various methods of career guidance initiated by the

state and the institution of higher education itself. At

730

Rychkova, E. and Baltsezhak, M.

Role of Career Guidance in the University Applicants Self-determination in the Context of Sustainable Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0010596707300736

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 730-736

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

the same time, the university career guidance work

effective practices choice is not always supported by

empirical data that proves their effectiveness.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In modern conditions, the future applicants

professional orientation problem is very relevant for

universities. Regional institutions of higher education

are actively involved in the students professional self-

determination process in the career guidance

framework. The applicants professional self-

determination problem is particularly acute in the

conditions of development of remote regions from the

central part of Russia. The essence of the problem lies

not only in the need to change the emerging

professional aspirations of young people to meet the

region existing needs in a balanced personnel

structure, but also in choosing the most effective

forms of career guidance that allow managing the

labor resources distribution system in the region

(Stepanova, 1978; Starikova, 2009).

The importance of forming and managing the

applicants professional self-determination system in

educational organizations at the federal and regional

levels is identified as a priority in many regulatory

documents. For example, in The Fundamentals of the

State Youth Policy of the Russian Federation for the

period up to 2025; in the Federal Law "On Education

in the Russian Federation"; in the Federal State

Standard of Secondary (Comprehensive) General

Education (Pak and Aytupov, 2019); in The Strategy

for the Development of Education in the Russian

Federation for the period up to 2025, approved by

Order of the Government of the Russian Federation

No. 996-р dated 29/05/2015; in the Decree of the

President of the Russian Federation "On National

Goals and Strategic Objectives for the Development

of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024"

dated 07/05/2018 No. 204, regarding the formation of

an effective system for identifying, supporting and

developing the abilities and talents of children and

young people, based on the justice and universality

principles and aimed at self-determination and

professional orientation of all students.

Currently, the issues of developing and

implementing effective youth career guidance models

at the regional, municipal and educational levels are

being actively discussed (Revyakina and Osetrin,

2015).

The topic of professional orientation is given quite

a lot of attention, both in domestic and foreign

scientific literature.

The works of Chistyakova, S.N. (Chistyakova,

2018), Merenkova, A.V., Mokerova, Y.V., Smirnova,

O.G. (Merenkov, Mokerova and Smirnova, 2015) etc.

are devoted to study of the process of school

graduates professional self-determination problems

from the positions of pedagogy, psychology, and

sociology.

The career guidance role in the professional self-

determination of young people and the specifics of its

implementation are actively discussed in the Russian

scientific literature. Thus, Pryazhnikova, E.Y.

(Pryazhnikova, 2006) examines the career guidance

historical and cultural prerequisites abroad and the

psychological reasons for its occurrence in Russia, as

well as the impact of career guidance on the person

professional self-determination development and

formation.

The analysis of recent works devoted to the

theoretical understanding of the career guidance

institute and its role in individual professional self-

determination (Dinner, 2017; Pryazhnikova and

Pryazhnikov, 2007; Starikova, 2009), shows a variety

of approaches to its understanding and areas of

implementation.

Recent publications focus on the problems of the

regional career guidance system influence on

migration processes in the regions (Polovinko and

Dinner, 2017), applicants with disabilities

professional self-determination, as well as the choice

of career guidance measures in an uncertain socio-

economic situation (Pryazhnikov, Pryazhnikova and

Sergeeva, 2018).

Many works of different authors (Titova, 2011;

Flerov, 2015; Mutyrova, 2010; Kurnaya, 2015;

Shafranov-Kutsev and Tolstoguzov, 2014) are

devoted to the career guidance issues in Russian

universities. In the English-language literature, there

is a number of works that reflect the results of

empirical studies on students attitudes to career

guidance at the university level (Ayçiçek, 2020), its

impact on students academic performance and further

success (Wierik, Beishuizen and Van Os., 2015).

In modern conditions, while managing career

guidance, universities implement various approaches:

client-oriented (Reznik and Ponomarenko, 2012),

"project approach" through interaction with schools

(Vinokurova, 2015), conceptual, competence-based,

acmeological, managerial and informational

(Mordovskaya and Panina, 2012).

The active use of the information approach in the

university career guidance is conditioned by the

growing interest in ICT technologies from the young

people side and the technologies relevance in all areas

of the economy in the sustainable development

Role of Career Guidance in the University Applicants Self-determination in the Context of Sustainable Development

731

context. Nevertheless, the question of the career

guidance activities effectiveness in higher education

institutions, including those using modern

information technologies, remains open.

In order to study the applicants opinions regarding

the choice of an educational institution, fields of study

(specialties), as well as methods of career guidance

that influenced their professional self-determination,

two Amur State University applicants surveys were

conducted: in June 2019 and in September 2020 with

sample volumes of 270 and 268 people, respectively.

Amur State University is the leading classical

educational institution of higher education in the

region, which provides training for specialists in 80

educational programs.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set:

 to review current theoretical and practical ap-

proaches to the university career guidance ac-

tivities and impact of these activities on the

school graduates professional definition;

 to identify the factors of choosing the field of

study (specialty), educational institution;

 to study the actual methods of career guidance

used by regional university applicants, includ-

ing the use of digital technologies, and to deter-

mine the most effective career guidance prac-

tices.

At present, the following career guidance

practices are distinguished (which were included in

the research tool (questionnaire)): the use of modern

up-to-date information resources aimed directly at

applicants; professions portals-handbooks;

information resources on the state of the labor market

in higher education institutions career guidance.

According to the data obtained during the survey,

the Amur region school graduates awareness level

about modern information resources is quite low.

Thus, not a single applicant used the data from the

portal for monitoring the graduates employment,

despite the fact that its main purpose was to provide

applicants and their parents with reliable information

about the graduates employment effectiveness. At the

same time, the key criterion for choosing a profession

for the majority of applicants remains the possibility

of employment in the chosen profession. It seems that

this situation, to a certain extent, was the result of

applicants low awareness about modern resources and

services. As a result, the productivity of such measures

for career guidance remains relatively weak.

The practice of higher education institutions

shows that, along with the use of common open

(nationwide, public) resources of the Internet

environment, each university demonstrates its own

solutions for career guidance and attracting applicants

and resorts to the use various IT tools. At the same

time, the determining factors in the choice of such

career guidance tools are the organizations internal

capabilities. In our opinion, in order to obtain a

comprehensive understanding of what happens in

practice when using ICT during the university

applicants career guidance, it is necessary to rely on

their preferences.

3 RESULTS OF RESEARCH

The structural relationships of the data obtained as a

result of the studies coincided. For modern graduates,

the priority and most important factors in choosing a

higher education institution remain following: high

chances of employment after receiving higher

education; the an interesting field of training

availability; the quality of teaching; the educational

institution prestige; the number of budget places. To

a lesser extent, its location is important for the

applicant when choosing a university. It is obvious

that the choice of the university by the applicant is

carried out under the influence of several factors at

the same time.

It should be noted that the importance ratings of

university selection factors among regional center

schools graduates (where all institutions of higher

education operate geographically) and other localities

of the region differ. Among the priority criteria for

choosing a university, the regional center secondary

schools graduates include: the possibility of further

employment; the presence of an interesting field of

study; the quality of teaching; the passing score of the

Unified State Exam and the number of budget

positions. As with the sample as a whole, friends'

opinions and university graduates opinions are less

important.

Applicants from schools in cities and villages in

the region, as well as schools graduates in the regional

center, are more focused on the possibility of further

employment. However, for this educational services

consumers segment, the second most important thing

is the presence of an interesting field of study in a

university. It is interesting that for nonresident

applicants it is not important to have dormitories.

In the process of making a decision about

choosing a university, the applicant relies on the

available and relevant content of the information

environment. The results of the survey showed the

most popular information sources used by school

graduates. The leaders included: information

obtained as a result of visiting the "University Open

Day" events; the position and opinion of a school

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

732

teacher; data presented on the Internet (websites of

higher education institutions and social networks).

Over the past five years, priorities for sources of

information needed for school children have changed

(Rychkova and Balcezhak, 2013). The active career

guidance policy of higher education institutions

contributed to the growth of students interest in

attending open days (both in person and remotely). At

the same time, the teacher opinion is authoritative for

almost every fifth applicant.

Serious awareness of the choice for the

professional study future direction occurs in 10-11

grades in 39% and 36% of cases, respectively.

Obviously, more significant factors in choosing a

future profession are compliance with aptitudes and

interest in the profession. School graduates are

focused on their own abilities, while the opportunity

to have a stable and reliable income remains an

important factor.

The vast majority of higher education institutions

future applicants are involved in career guidance

activities. Among the career guidance methods used

by applicants for professional self-determination,

such as, in the first place, consultation,

recommendations and additional information in the

university admission committee when submitting

documents; in the second place, the ability testing; in

the third place, thematic class hours at school.

In fact, 36.4% of applicants are ready to abandon

the initially chosen field of study (specialty) in favor

of the "passing" one according to the USE points. It

is obvious that the importance of university

employees career guidance activity in the admissions

committee at the time of admission to universities

increases.

The top career-oriented events that applicants are

ready to recommend to other applicants interested in

admission include open days, specialized classes at

the university, preparatory courses and informational

meetings at school with graduates who are currently

studying at the university (Table 1).

Table 1: The distribution of respondents preferences regarding career guidance activities.

Career guidance method Used Consider

romisin

Recommend

to others

Ability testing 11.6 5.6 2.6

Open days at the universit

7.2 5.6 11.8

Lectures and practical classes (master classes) conducted by university

teachers ("University Saturdays")

5.1 6.3 5.3

Pre

arator

courses at the universit

2.9 6.3 7.2

Informational meetin

s with universit

resentatives at school 5.1 7.0 3.9

Specialized classes, university lyceu

3.6 5.6 7.2

Conferences, forums, meetings for students at the universit

3.6 7.0 6.6

Universit

summer school 1.4 6.3 6.6

Subject Olympiads at the university 7.2 5.6 4.6

Informational meetings at the school with graduates who are currently

stud

at the universit

(

"Come to us to stud

!" cam

)

4.3 5.0 7.2

Project work under the university teachers guidance 2.2 6.3 5.3

Classes in additional education institutions

(

clubs, sections, studios, etc.

)

6.5 6.0 3.9

Consultation, recommendations and additional information in the univer-

sity admission committee when submitting documents

12.3 5.3 3.9

Remote counselin

and trainin

for remote re

ional schools students 2.2 5.3 6.6

Thematic class hours with teachers at school 10.1 4.6 5.9

ecialized classes at school 8.0 5.3 5.9

Meetings with professions representatives 6.5 7.0 5.3

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Role of Career Guidance in the University Applicants Self-determination in the Context of Sustainable Development

733

The most promising methods of career guidance

were meetings with real professions representatives,

participation in conferences, forums and meetings, as

well as informational meetings with universities

representatives at schools.

It is interesting that there are no significant

differences in recommendations among the regional

center schoolchildren and other regional cities and

villages. All students are unanimous about the "Open

Day" action. It is noteworthy that against the

background of actually low involvement of rural

schools graduates in participating in conferences,

meetings and forums, there is a high level of trust and

a desire to recommend other students to participate in

such events for professional self-determination.

26.2% of applicants attributed the lack of an

opportunity to see how they work in specific

professions to the factors that make it difficult to

choose a future profession. 18% of respondents are

not sure about further employment in their chosen

profession. The share of respondents who believe that

the information provided about professions is

insufficient was 15%. The proportion of respondents

who did not face difficulties in choosing a profession

was 14.8%. 18% of school graduates lack a clear

vision of their place in the labor market.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The main reason that reduces the level of professional

self-determination is the limited opportunity to get

acquainted with the profession and understand its

internal specifics. This indicates the relevance of

using the network interaction of the classical

university with the region enterprises and general and

secondary professional education institutions. In

favor of a systematic approach to university career

guidance activities is the universities in other regions

successful experience (Chuvash State University,

National Research Lobachevsky State University of

Nizhny Novgorod) (Troyeshivova and Vasilieva,

2017). The school graduates professional self-

determination low level manifestation creates a

number of problems of a quantitative and qualitative

nature for higher education institutions, both at the

applicants recruitment stage and the specialists

release (employment). These circumstances are the

actual confirmation of the importance of involving

universities in the schoolchildren professional

guidance process.

Probably, one of the measures to partially resolve

this problem may be the implementation of the

federal project for schoolchildren early career

guidance "Tickets to the future" (introduced in

schools in Blagoveshchensk in a pilot mode)

(Government of the Amur Region, 2020). However,

the interest formation in the profession does not solve

the migration outflow problems and the choice of a

regional higher education institution for its

development. In this regard, the importance of higher

education in the career guidance regional system

increases.

Thus, the results of the study allow us to draw the

following conclusions:

1. The regional university involvement role in the

process of applicants professional self-determination

is increasing.

2. The priority of budget education in regional

universities changes the trajectory of the applicant's

behavior when enrolling the university, which

significantly increases the importance of career

guidance at the documents submission time. In this

regard, the importance of career guidance measures

within the framework of the admissions committees

activities increases. It provides for the need for

additional measures on the part of the university to

form the admissions committees personnel and

additional information support for applicants.

3. With the high importance of different subjects

involved in the vocational guidance activities for

schoolchildren implementation (school, university,

employers), their interrelated work is necessary

within the framework of original activities at the

regional level. One of the measures contributing to

this can be the of patronage institution revival and the

social partnership development.

4. Based on the generally accepted fact that school

positions determine the proportion of students

entering universities and the students confidence high

degree in teachers opinion (according to the survey

results), a joint approach of schools and universities

to career guidance is important.

5. The relationship between career guidance and

professional self-determination among school

graduates in the Amur region can be traced to a

greater extent in such events at the federal level as

"Quantorium" and "Kosmofest". It indicates the need

to intensify career guidance events of such format and

the interaction effectiveness at the school-university

level.

6. In the context of dynamically implemented

federal projects on career guidance and career choice

changing factors, there is a need to monitor the

relationship and mutual influence in career guidance

measures and professional self-determination of

schoolchildren in a regional university.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

734

7. The problems of information support for career

guidance activities for higher education institutions

remain, i.e. the lack of a systematic approach to

providing access to a digital platform that integrates

information about the labor market and the

educational services market; the low level of

applicants awareness about existing information

systems and services that promote professional self-

determination, which makes it difficult to solve the

information asymmetry problem. It is paradoxical

that the current problem manifests itself in the

conditions of increasing education system

information openness (Mertsalova, 2015), due to the

ICT development and state support (Consultant.ru,

2020).

8. University websites weak integration, as the

most popular tool for information interaction, with

information resources containing information about

the graduate employment effectiveness, the

universities effectiveness and rating (rating system

importance is noted by many authors (Mertsalova,

2015)).

5 CONCLUSION

The conducted empirical studies results, confirming

the existence of a relationship between the regional

universities career guidance activity practices and the

applicants professional self-determination, can be

used for practical purposes. A conscious choice of the

most effective practices will permit to optimize the

improving the vocational guidance system costs not

only for higher education institutions, but also for the

vocational guidance system in the region as a whole.

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