During the fair "Uchsib-2019" the stand of NSTU and the stand of Novosibirsk Oblast Ministry of Education will provide a mass testing of secondary school students to determine the individual aptitude profile in the digital economy. The algorithm and software were developed at the Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering of Novosibirsk State Technical University. The program builds an individual educational trajectory for a student in the digital economy of Novosibirsk Oblast with the view of the region's peculiarities. As a result of testing, every one will receive their maps of competencies and individual educational trajectories. In time, the program can be easily adapted for any region of Russia.
Overall, 10 thousand students of Novosibirsk Oblast are to take the test, with "Uchsib" involving about 1-1.5 thousand.
- The questions about what to become, how to choose a proper profession and the like are among the most pressing issues at the graduation of school or college. And they become especially important in conditions of economy digitalization: automation, development of artificial intelligence, new cognitive systems, etc.", — says Sergey Chernyshov, the project manager and the Department of Sociology and Mass Communications of NSTU employee. — "We held four strategic sessions to address these issues in December and January, with more than 50 experts "brainstorming" and forming the first large competence map for professionals in the field of digital economy of Novosibirsk Oblast. It is important that if we follow this map, not only IT professionals, but also people with a humanitarian mindset, managers, lawyers and other engineering professionals will find the job of their dream in digital economy. The participation of the leading Novosibirsk universities in the project will show schools and colleges graduates that one can get promising vocations in Novosibirsk Oblast.
— The aim of the test algorithm is to accurately identify the preferred profile and determine the possessed level of the competences included in the basic and additional profile, — says Ivan Tomilov, one of the software developers, the head of the department. - An individual educational trajectory will be formed on the basis of the test results. Recommendations and activities will be proposed for those competencies where the level is insufficient in order to achieve the required one. The complexity of the testing algorithm is due to the fact that the test is hierarchical. And if we choose the wrong additional profile at the first stage, the educational trajectory will be formed incorrectly. The second factor is the requirement to determine the level of competence as accurately as possible with a relatively small number of questions in the test. Another nontrivial aspect is the interdependence of competences. This is the situation when the possession of one competence implies a non-zero level within another competence. Such relations exist both within groups and between the competencies of different groups. Therefore, experts in the relevant fields of knowledge are involved in the test development in addition to the specialists who developed the formal technique.
The testing will be held at the "Professionals of the future for the digital economy" project that will be presented at "Uchsib-2019" (Novosibirsk Expocentre, ul. 2-ya Stantsionnaya, 104, Hall C). The beginning of the testing is on March 14 at 10:00 at the stands of NSTU and Novosibirsk Oblast Ministry of Education.
- The project "The professionals of the future for the digital economy" is a socially significant and relevant expert initiative that implements innovative educational practices in Novosibirsk Oblast, — says Sergey Fedorchuk, the Minister of Education of Novosibirsk Oblast. - We expect to acquire a modern system of students’ professional self-identification and to develop workforce capacity in Novosibirsk Oblast by implementing individual educational trajectories based on the recommendation algorithms, by forming "sample space", by developing integrative projects which involve transition from school to university and to a workplace.
The project " Professionals of the future for the digital economy" is implemented by the "SMART Concept " Association in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Novosibirsk Oblast, leading Novosibirsk universities (NSTU, NSUEM, SibSUTIS and others)," University 20.35 " with the support of the Presidential Grant Fund (PGF). The project is aimed at the formation of students professional self-identification system in the developing digital economy considering the regional specifics of Novosibirsk Oblast. At the first stage, a competency map was formed: a list of knowledge and skills, which, according to experts, are necessary for successful professional activity in conditions of digital technologies development. Then, the experts from the Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering of NSTU created an IT-platform based on generated maps where secondary school and college students of Novosibirsk Oblast will be tested on their basic competence in digital economy, They will also have access to the "sample space", i.e. the system of activities proposed by the project partners (leading companies and universities of Novosibirsk Oblast) which will enable the graduates to understand if they want to develop within the chosen competence framework further. Moreover, everybody will have their own lists of activities, since the IT-platform will form an individual trajectory of career guidance on the basis of incoming testing. The IT-platform will start working in February 2019.
For the reference:
The digital economy is one of the key modern technological and economic trends in Russia. The national program "Digital economy of the Russian Federation" was approved by the Russian Government in July 2017. According to the program, more than 800 thousand Russians should be trained in the digital economy.
The project "Professionals of the future for the digital economy" is implemented by the "SMART Concept" Association in partnership with Novosibirsk Oblast Ministry of Education, the Agency for the formation of innovative projects "ARIS", leading universities of Novosibirsk Oblast and with the support of the Presidential Grant Fund of the Russian Federation. The project is aimed at creating a platform for professional self-identification of 8-10 grade and college students of Novosibirsk Oblast within the "professions of the future", necessary for the development of the digital economy in the region. As part of the project, secondary school and college students of Novosibirsk Oblast will take initial online test which will help identify their professional aptitude. After that, they will take part in professional sampling and master classes together with employers of large organizations, and in the end they will be able to determine the promising field of training in Novosibirsk Universities.
