Digitalization of Education to the Employer

The second half of summer is a hot time for the University graduates to find jobs. Each of them wants to apply their knowledge in practice and find a job in their specialty. Many universities strive to help their young professionals in this matter, establishing contacts with potential employers and creating new employment opportunities for graduates. So does the Technological University named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut A. A. Leonov, located in Korolev.

Every year, the Technological University has a high rate of demand for its graduates in the labor market. For example, this year already 91% of young specialists of the University, studying on a budget basis, have been employed. And this is despite the fact that the young people received their diplomas only a couple of weeks ago.

Such a demand for the graduates is mainly due to the fact that all the activities of the Technological University is focused on meeting the needs of potential employers. The University trains qualified specialists based on the needs of the industrial enterprises and organizations located in the Moscow region.The University has built a long-term and fruitful cooperation with them through the creation of joint basic departments, involving the enterprises employees in the process of practice-oriented training of students and the University scientific activity. The employers have the opportunity to" grow " personnel for themselves. As a result, some of the students receive job offers from them already in their senior years at the University.

Recently, building a professional “graduate-employer” relationship has become even easier thanks to new technologies. The specialists of the Technological University have developed their own information platform that allows employers to independently search online for the necessary specialists among the students and graduates of the University according to the specified parameters.

This digital system is an electronic ranking of all students and graduates of the Technological University by year of graduation and course, posted on the official website of the University in the "Employer" section. In this rating, each student has a portfolio, which consists of a student  business card  indicating his field of study, data on academic performance, as well as achievements in scientific, practical and extracurricular activities, presented in points from 0 to 100.

- The system is available to all employers, not only our partners, and the search for the necessary candidate is very simple and convenient, – says Alexey Shchikanov, the first Vice-rector of the University, PhD in Technical Sciences. - For example, an employer is looking for a competent IT specialist. He goes to our rating, input search parameters for the form of study, year of graduation and field of study, for example, "Applied mathematics and computer science", and the system shows him the data of students who meet the request.The employer, based on the points scored by students, chooses, in his opinion, the best one and using the system can send a nominee a personal message with an job offer .In the future, we think that our rating may become a kind of analogue of the well-known job search resources, where employers from all over the country will be able to find the best specialist among our students and graduates.

It is important to note that this information platform does not violate the rules on personal data protection. All information presented in the rating is published with the consent of the students and within the established legislation. At the same time, the users authorized in the system (students, teachers, employees of the University) see additional information about the achievements of students – grades for exams in all disciplines, specific victories of students in science and creativity. A third-party user can judge the progress of students only by rating points. And the student decides whether to open access to more detailed information about himself or not in personal correspondence with a potential employer.

All data in the information system of the Technological University is constantly updated. The information about students is provided by specialists in educational and methodological activity at the University departments, as well as by the students themselves.

- We can say that our system lives on its own, - notes Alexey Shchikanov. - In it, the students themselves work on creating their own portfolio.They are interested in this, because the more information about their achievements they upload to the system, the higher their rating will be and the higher the chance that employers will pay attention to them. Of course, we monitor the accuracy of the data provided by students, all their victories must be confirmed by appropriate documents. So employers can be completely confident in their future employees.

The information system of the Technological University has shown its effectiveness, especially during a pandemic, when the whole country was forced to switch to a remote work format. It helped to conduct online interviews initiated by employers. Thanks to this system, despite all the restrictions due to the difficult epidemiological situation, the graduates of 2020 were able to find a job, and enterprises and organizations in Russia were able to hire the high-class specialists with impressive portfolios confirming their professionalism, communication skills, and ability to work in a team. Once again, the current situation has proved that information technologies are the future.