Development of a Highly Adaptive Higher Education System for

Satisfaction of the Labor Market Needs

Islam O. Sulumov

, Zulay K. Tavbulatova

and Vozkaev Said-Umar Said-Alievich

Chechen State University, Grozny, Russia

Keywords: Labor Market, Higher Education, Innovation.

Abstract: In the modern market of skilled labor, various transformational processes are clearly observed, which are

manifested in the presentation of new requirements for the skills of employees, in the emergence of completely

new professions and the obsolescence of existing ones. In addition, non-traditional forms of working

relationships are developing, such as remote work, freelancing, outsourcing, and many professions are subject

to automation. These changes are caused both by the natural course of scientific and technological

development, and by the increasingly complex socio-economic relations in the world. The Institute of Higher

Education plays a key role in the formation of relevant competencies, but in the context of the accelerating

pace of changes in the labor market, it does not effectively cope with this task. We see the reasons as excessive

state regulation of this sphere and insufficient influence of market mechanisms on the formation of educational

activities. The purpose of the article is to formulate the basic principles of the higher education system

reorganization that most adequately meet the needs of employers in the labor market. At the first stage, it is

necessary to identify the key problems of education and find their causes. The next task is to find ways to

eliminate these problems based on the analysis of tendencies in the labor market and in the innovation sector.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the root problems of the modern higher

education system is its inertia and inability to adjust

its activities in accordance with global changes. Most

of the basic principles laid down in it at the stage of

formation are still unchanged. For example, in

disciplines where the speed of updating knowledge

varies significantly, similar approaches to learning

and teaching are used. Many educational programs

that are developed for a period of 4 years or more may

be completely irrelevant by the end of it.

The resulting gaps in knowledge are more often

filled by specialists due to private educational

courses, which became particularly popular during

the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, higher

education is indispensable in the formation of

complex competencies that require comprehensive

training of specialists in the innovative and

technological fields. Thus, it can be stated that private

courses solve their tasks more effectively than the

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9149-2439

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1461-2150

higher educational system. The reason for this, as we

see it, is the absence of strict regulatory and other

restrictions in the system of private education, and,

accordingly, a more pronounced role of market

mechanisms in its formation.

Higher education establishments play a key role

in the innovation activity of enterprises by cultivating

appropriate competencies for the labor market, and,

therefore, they should be considered as full-fledged

participants in market relations, including the process

of creating the added value of innovations. From this

we come to the conclusion that the most important

transformational processes and tendencies taking

place in the field of innovation should also take place

in the field of education, but these problems are a

deterrent factor. The analysis of private educational

courses field is an important source of knowledge

about how and in what form these changes should

occur in higher education.

Sulumov, I., Tavbulatova, Z. and Said-Alievich, V.

Development of a Highly Adaptive Higher Education System for Satisfaction of the Labor Market Needs.

DOI: 10.5220/0010671200003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 519-523

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

519

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

At the first stage, it is necessary to identify the

problem areas of higher education, to determine their

causes. To do this, it is necessary to explore and

analyze the scientific literature on the problems of

education.

Next, it is necessary to identify the most important

tendencies that take place in the labor markets and in

the field of innovative business, as well as to

formulate some tendencies independently. To solve

the first part of this problem, a review and analysis of

the relevant literature will be carried out in the same

way. In order to formulate tendencies, the method of

inductive and deductive reasoning is the most

relevant.

At the final stage of the research, the main place

is occupied by the method of analogy. The ways and

possibilities of transferring the identified tendencies

to the field of education will be explored. Taking into

account the mutual influence of tendencies, some

specific forms of this combination will be predicted

using the synthesis method. Research at this stage will

proceed in line with the solution of the identified

educational problems.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

So, we will highlight the following main problems of

higher education:

Lack of strategic planning. The development of

educational programs is most often based on the

current demands of the labor market. The duration of

training in these programs is on average from four to

six years, and by the end of this period, the knowledge

gained may be significantly outdated. To solve the

problem, it is necessary to develop a mechanism for

analyzing the state of the labor market and various

tendencies in order to make prognoses about its future

condition and develop programs taking into account

the future market needs (Yaakob, M. F. M. et al,

2019).

Lack of flexibility in the educational process.

Educational programs, as a rule, do not involve

making adjustments as the requirements of the labor

market are updated. This applies both to the choice of

disciplines and to the knowledge taught in each of

them. There is an obvious need for new standards for

the development of these programs, which include a

more flexible and targeted approach to different

subjects, given that the pace of knowledge updating

in different disciplines varies significantly.

Poor feedback during training. Students do not

have sufficient opportunities to influence the

educational process. Among the main problems,

students highlight the bias of test and exam scores.

There are often complaints related to the

insufficiently high level of teaching staff training.

They affect the following aspects: accessibility of

presentation; the culture of teacher communication;

sufficiency of knowledge volume; relevance of the

material; visibility of the lecture material. This

problem is complicated by the fact that students can

not formulate exactly what competencies they want to

get, since they do not have practical experience in

implementing knowledge during the operation at

enterprises. This leads to the following problem of

education (Evans, 2013; Yaakob, M. F. M. et al,

2019).

Poor integration of the educational process with

business and innovation. This problem is particularly

acute in Russia, while the United States, Japan and

European countries are implementing quite effective

practices for the development of innovative activities,

starting from the stage of basic research and ending

with commercialization. This requires a

comprehensive integration of research universities

with innovation infrastructure, including business

incubators, technology parks, as well as enterprises,

including venture funds and tech-companies (Minmin

and Petruk, 2017).

Lack of access to quality education in remote

regions and provinces. Studies show that in

developing countries, the gap in the quality of

education between the central and remote regions of

the country is more distinct. In Russia, this problem

is compounded by the underdeveloped transport

infrastructure and the geographical features of the

country (Beeby, 2013).

Due to these features of the country, as well as

many other reasons, a significant proportion of the

population has difficulty in accessing educational

institutions in the regions. The level of education in

remote regions is often quite low.

In one of the researches, we identified and

described the tendency of innovation activity

specialization, the essence of which can be described

as follows: various industries and spheres of activity

are subject to fragmentation of their activities by

product components or business processes as they

develop. In other words, in each of the industries,

large manufacturers or service providers tend to

delegate the development of various components of

their products or the execution of business processes

to specialized companies that demonstrate the best

quality and efficiency in these aspects. Thus, the

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organization's resources are focused on more

promising areas (Magomadov et al, 2020).

This tendency is directly related to the fact that in

the modern world, monolithic organizational

structures are giving way to more flexible and

adaptive structures (network and virtual), since in a

dynamic environment, the success largely depends on

the ability to quickly establish temporary interaction

with external counterparties, and advanced IT

technologies with decentralized management

practices play a key role in this.

Implementing network management in the

training of specialists can also improve the

effectiveness of the educational process. To do this, it

is necessary to abandon the traditional approach,

according to which the training of students is linked

to certain universities. Faculties and institutes should

acquire independence from centralized university

management, independently establishing interaction

among themselves and providing students with the

entire cycle of educational services. Thus, education

should take place in various educational structures

specializing in a narrow range of disciplines.

As in the case of network structures, such forms

of interaction will be temporary, and as requests for

new competencies appear in the labor market, higher

educational establishments will quickly build new

associations in order to train students in the

appropriate set of disciplines. This solution can

largely eliminate this problem of flexibility lack in

education.

One of the global tendencies that have

significantly transformed economic relations is the

process of the economy transition to online platforms

is called "uberization". According to E. Mcafee and

E. Brynjolfson, platforms are network environments

that take advantage of a free, perfect, and instant

economy. More precisely, the platform can be defined

as a digital environment that provides access,

reproduction and distribution with marginal costs

close to zero (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2017).

An example of such platforms are online

marketplaces – e-commerce sites that connect sellers

with buyers. It is often referred to as an electronic

trading platform, and all transactions are managed by

the website owner. Such platforms allow sellers to

avoid a lot of marketing and transaction costs, and

provides buyers with a single catalog of products

from different manufacturers (Hultmark, 2002).

Other platforms work in a similar way: taxi

search, call and payment services connect private

drivers with a uniform customer base; real estate

rental services connect real estate companies and

property owners with clients; social networks serve as

platforms for posting information from various news

publications, providing access to it for all users.

So, it is necessary to distinguish the following

features of platforms: a uniform digital platform; a

uniform base of service providers (products) and

users (buyers); transfer of marketing and transaction

costs (search, payment, delivery) to the service due to

automation; cooperation of suppliers as independent

contractors, rather than full-time employees;

elimination or weakening of the territorial binding of

business to a certain area, which is provided by

digitalization and a uniform logistics system.

Today, distance learning technologies are actively

developing. As a result of these tendencies

interweaving, as well as a radical revision of the state

regulation policy of this sphere, online platforms

should appear that provide a full range of services for

the provision of higher education. These platforms

should represent a new format of online universities,

the main functions of which will be the development

of educational programs, planning of the educational

process and ensuring its continuity for students.

Unlike traditional universities, teachers with the

necessary competencies will be involved in service

contracts, and not as full-time employees. For

teachers of traditional higher educational

establishments, this can serve as an alternative job, or

as an additional source of income. The absence of a

geographical link to the place of work will ensure an

increased demand for appropriate places and,

consequently, a high level of competition between

potential teachers. This will allow to select the most

competent and promising candidates, and, if

necessary, will allow to replace some teachers with

others as soon as possible. This will ensure the

continuity of the educational process.

Due to the development of online technologies,

the need for maintaining lecture halls, classrooms and

libraries is gradually disappearing, which should

significantly reduce the cost of training services. The

effectiveness of private online education courses and

web conferences that adhere to this approach also

confirms the viability of this tendency. Also, research

shows that the effectiveness of remote education is

steadily increasing over the time (Kariya, 2003;

(Kebritchi, 2017).

So, such a structure can largely serve as a solution

to the problem of access lack to education in remote

regions of the country, due to the affordability of

education and the lack of geographical reference to

places of education. Moreover, it will introduce a

competitive factor in the aspects of pricing and

quality of education in the activities of regional

Development of a Highly Adaptive Higher Education System for Satisfaction of the Labor Market Needs

521

higher educational establishments that occupy a

monopoly position in their territorial segments.

The platforms will be more effective in forming

new professions and competencies requested in the

labor market, as they do not involve the training of

appropriate staff in their faculties, but attract ready-

made specialists from traditional higher educational

establishments. It also solves the problem of creating

a flexible system of higher education.

As it has already been noted, the effectiveness and

demand for private educational courses is partly due

to the fact that market mechanisms play a more

prominent role in this area than in the field of higher

education. Accordingly, those courses that better

meet the needs of the labor market become more

popular. Obviously, the ability to meet the current

demands of employers is directly related to the fact

that the knowledge taught in the courses is directly

related to the practice of business and other activities.

Often, teachers have a certain work experience in the

relevant organizations, or experience of cooperation

with them. Often, the courses are formed by the

enterprises themselves in order to train potential or

working staff.

Attracting representatives of private education to

the academic environment for presenting lectures and

seminars can largely solve the problem of integrating

education and business. The remote educational

format is the most suitable for this task. It is

reasonable to apply this practice within the

framework of the platforms described above, which

provide for the conclusion of contracts for the

provision of services with teachers, rather than

enrolling them to the staff. This will allow private

entrepreneurs to simultaneously conduct the usual

practice of training with their own audience.

The idea of participation of the business or

innovation spheres representatives in the educational

process is not new, but there are difficulties with their

involvement in it, often they are of a material nature,

since the level of remuneration in the academic

environment is noticeably lower than the level of

income in the business environment.

This problem is also relevant for the field of

private training courses, in which a high level of

teaching and reputation are associated with the

corresponding cost of services. Its solution requires

a comprehensive approach, involving the

introduction of new educational standards and the

launch of state programs aimed at attracting relevant

specialists in the field of higher education. Such

measures can significantly transform the private

training market, as the increased demand for such

services will increase the supply. Active competition

for a new market will lead to a gradual reduction in

prices for the services of private teachers, as well as

the adaptation of their activities to the requirements

of higher educational establishments. The possibility

of concluding long-term contracts with universities

will also be a factor in reducing the prices for these

services, which will ultimately have a positive impact

on the availability of quality education for various

segments of the population.

4 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The proposed measures represent the general

principles of the higher education system

restructurization, aimed at accelerating the

preparation of graduates for the changing conditions

of the labor market. In other words, the formation of

an adaptive market-oriented educational system.

The implementation of appropriate measures

should be carried out at the state level by revising

some aspects of regulation in the direction of their

weakening, as well as taking measures of an incentive

nature for higher educational establishments that are

ready to transform their activities. Thus, the primary

role of the state should be to create the appropriate

conditions, including incentives, for the

transformation of this sphere.

Directly decisions on the reorganization of the

higher educational establishments activities, as well

as on the foundation of new establishments based on

the described principles, should be made at the level

of the higher educational establishments'

management. For example, when implementing a

network approach to ensuring the educational

process, it is necessary to provide the faculty

management with the opportunity to leave the

subordination of universities, forming independent or

autonomous educational establishments, to conclude

associations with other higher educational

establishments in order to form certain professional

competencies of graduates.

Finally, these measures should contribute to the

partial withdrawal of higher educational

establishments from the guardianship of the state and

the transition of their activities to market

mechanisms, including in the aspect of financial

support. Thus, the cost and attractiveness of education

at higher educational establishments will directly

depend on how much their graduates are in demand

among employers.

These measures will inevitably lead to serious

shocks in the field of education, as due to natural

selection, inefficient establishments will be at risk of

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closure. Students of these higher educational

establishments will find themselves in a vulnerable

position, and the protection of their interests is also a

function of the state. In general, the higher education

system in all developed and developing countries is

arranged in a similar way, and the described problems

occur in each of them. Therefore, the relevant

changes are already overdue, and the state, which has

been a pioneer in reforming the education system,

will be able to go through the transformation stage

less effortlessly, and improving the overall level of

graduates' qualifications will have a beneficial effect

on the state of its economy and other areas.

5 CONCLUSION

The authors formulated the following measures for

the radical transformation of the higher education

sector:

Introduction of a network approach to the

organization of the educational process. Students can

take part in various educational establishments, each

of which specializes in a narrow range of disciplines.

This involves establishing temporary cooperation

between independent higher educational

establishments, each of which has the necessary set of

disciplines for the formation of certain competencies

of graduates, for the period of their training.

The creation of higher educational establishments

- platforms based on remote education, which contain

the following differences from online universities:

absence of their own staff of teachers and their

training programs; involvement of teaching staff from

traditional universities on the basis of service

contracts; absence of lecture halls, seminar classes

and other facilities for conducting educational

classes, since all classes are held in online mode only.

Attracting leading private educational courses to

work in universities. The knowledge taught should be

part of the competencies required to train the relevant

specialists. The objective is to provide graduates with

the knowledge that is most in demand in the labor

market.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research was carried out with the financial

support of Russian Foundation for Basic Research in

the framework of scientific project No. 20-310-

90066.

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