Areas of training of young specialists through professional development of academic staff in the field of education

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Areas of training of young specialists through professional development of academic staff in the field of education

Yurynets Z. V., Snovydovych I. H., Denysenko M. P., Panchenko V. A.

Areas of Training of Young Specialists Through Professional Development of Academic Staff in the Field of Education

The purpose of the article is to study the direction of training young specialists through the professional development of academic staff in the field of education. The areas that require regular research, updating and professional development from specialists based on the analysis of the areas of work of teachers of higher education institutions were identified. The main key competencies for lifelong learning have been identified. The training courses offered to teachers and academic staff at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv were presented. Skills are proposed for mastering as the main learning outcome for the academic staff of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The training courses and programs offered by SoftServe have been identified by the monitoring of opportunities for practical training of teachers. For higher education institutions, professional development for academic staff is a mandatory element of the education quality assurance system and can take place through participation in master classes, seminars, trainings, webinars, and workshops. It has been established that academic staff, given the workload and challenges they face in terms of professional development and maintaining mental and emotional health, should receive professional help and support. Professional supervision can be helpful, which can help both individually and within the university. We believe that for academic staff to perform their tasks effectively, higher education institutions should provide them with quality material and technical support, and opportunities for continuous learning and development. A well-designed educational program will be the key to success for its developers, higher education institutions, students, and employers. It is necessary to create an environment of periodic discussion with employers of existing educational programs and their main components, which will allow timely making of important adjustments in response to important problems and topical issues. The principles by which the educational program is developed have been identified. The criteria for self-assessment and accreditation of educational programs have been formed.

Keywords: academic staff, young professionals, students, higher education institution, education sector

Юринець З. В., Сновидович І. Г., Денисенко М. П., Панченко В. А. Напрями підготовки молодих фахівців через підвищення кваліфікації науково-педагогічних працівників у сфері освіти

Метою статті є дослідження напрямів підготовки молодих фахівців через професійний розвиток науково-педагогічних працівників у галузі освіти. Виділено керунки, що потребують від фахівців регулярного дослідження, оновлення та підвищення кваліфікації на основі аналізу напрямів роботи викладачів. Визначено основні ключові компетентності для навчання впродовж життя. Представлено навчальні курси, які пропонуються викладачам, науково-педагогічним працівникам у Львівському національному університеті імені Івана Франка. Запропоновано для освоєння навички як основний результат навчання для науково-педагогічних працівників Львівського університету. Виокремлено навчальні курси і програми, які пропонує компанія SoftServe відповідно до моніторингу можливостей для практичного навчання викладачів. Для закладів вищої освіти підвищення кваліфікації науково-педагогічних працівників є обов'язковим елементом системи забезпечення якості освіти і може відбуватися через участь у майстер- класах, семінарах, тренінгах, вебінарах, воркшопах. Встановлено, що науково-педагогічні працівники, враховуючи навантаження та виклики, які вони долають у рамках підвищення кваліфікації, збереження ментального та емоційного здоров'я, мали б отримувати професійну допомогу й підтримку. У нагоді може стати професійна супервізія, яка може допомагати як індивідуально, так і в рамках університету. Вважаємо, щоб науково- педагогічні працівники ефективно виконували свої завдання, ЗВО повинні надавати їм якісне матеріально-технічне забезпечення, можливості для постійного навчання та розвитку. Освітня програма, яка буде якісно розроблена, стане запорукою успіху, як для її розробників, ЗВО, студентів, так і для роботодавців. Необхідне формування середовища періодичного обговорення з компаніями-роботодавцями діючих освітніх програм, їхніх основних компонентів, що дасть змогу своєчасно вносити важливі корективи, реагуючи на важливі проблеми й актуальні питання. Визначено принципи, за якими розробляється освітня програма. Сформовано характеристику критерії для самооцінювання та акредитації освітніх програм. academic staff young professional

Ключові слова: науково-педагогічні працівники, молоді фахівці, студенти, заклад вищої освіти, сфера освіти.

Statement of the problem in general and its connection with important scientific and practical tasks

Educated citizens are a strategic and key resource for improving the overall situation of society and ensuring and preserving national interests. For strategic development along with implementation of innovative changes, the higher education system needs to improve the professional development of the academic staff of higher education institutions. Academic staff are among the main stakeholders and participants in the educational process who make a significant contribution to the training and professional development of young specialists. They play a vital role in shaping the minds of the next generation of leaders and innovators.

To be effective, academic staff must have a strong understanding of their subject matter, as well as excellent teaching and communication skills. They must also be capable to keep up with the latest research in their field and be willing to adapt their teaching methods to the changing needs of students. Therefore, the topic of this research is relevant.

Analysis of recent research and publications

Many scholars have been working on the development of young professionals and academic staff of higher education institutions. Kukharskyi V. [2], Oseredchuk O. [2], and Mazurkevych M. [2] consider the development of the quality assurance system in Ukraine based on European standards and recommendations, study methods of training young specialists and professional development of teachers working in higher education institutions. Radkevych V. O. [5], Pukhovska L. P. [5], Borodienko O. V. [5], Radkevych O. P. [5], Bazeliuk N. V. [5], Korchynska N. M. [5] consider the elements of improving vocational education and training taking into account the requirements of both the European and the national strategies for sustainable development, substantiation of modern approaches to improving the quality of vocational education and training taking into account the provisions of the strategy of sustainable development. They study the peculiarities of labor and professional education and the research environment of students, being one of the most important means to improve the quality of training and education of specialists with higher education, capable of creatively applying the achievements of scientific, technical, and cultural progress in practice.

These scholars highlight the previously unresolved parts of the general problem to which this article is devoted

The use of modern methods of advanced training of academic staff is an important factor in the formation of a long-term strategy for the development of higher education institutions and the improvement of the learning process of young professionals. However, some problems related to the in-service training of higher education teachers remain unresolved.

Formulation of the objectives of the article (statement of the task)

The purpose of the article is to study the areas for training young specialists through the professional development of academic staff in the field of education.

Presentation of the main research material

Academic staff are the main stakeholders and participants in the educational process, who make a great contribution to the training and professional development of young professionals. Academic staff are interested in continuous professional development and self-development, expanding their theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of their research interests, and acquiring new competencies that will be useful in the educational process and in the course of presenting material to students.

They are constantly seeking to improve their knowledge and skills to provide students with the best possible education.

There are several reasons why academic staff are interested in continuous professional development [7]:

¦ it allows them to stay up-to-date with the latest research in their field. This ensures that they are providing students with the most accurate and up-to-date information possible;

¦ continuous professional development helps academic staff to develop their teaching skills. This includes exploring new teaching methods and technologies, and learning how to better engage and motivate students;

¦ expanding their theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of their research interests allows academic staff to make a more significant contribution to their field. They can publish their research in scholarly journals, present their findings at conferences, and collaborate with other researchers;

¦ acquiring new competencies that will be useful in the educational process and in the course of presenting material to students can help academic staff improve the quality of their teaching. For example, they may learn how to use new technologies in the classroom, or how to develop more effective assessment methods.

If we analyze the main areas of work of teachers, we can identify the following important areas that require regular research, upgrading, and professional development from specialists:

¦ mastering new theoretical knowledge in the areas of the research and academic disciplines in which they teach;

¦ studying and analyzing international experience and practice of implementing new methods and recommendations in the field of scientific interests of the teacher;

¦ gaining experience, practical skills and professional competencies through advanced training and practical work;

¦ introduction of modern innovative teaching methods about distance and information and communication technologies;

¦ use of opportunities for cooperation and interaction with enterprises, institutions, and organizations that can provide recommendations and feedback on improving and filling the educational process from practical experience.

Forms of professional development and training for academic staff can be quite diverse and take into account the needs and capabilities of teachers. These can include developed lecture courses with relevant modules and blocks, training programs on specific topics, theoretical training , lectures, conferences, workshops, seminars, and master classes. Training methods can be delivered in several ways, depending on the capabilities of the teachers and technical equipment: stationary, face-to-face classes, online training, webinars, mixed format, work with practical cases, individual and group consultations, excursions to the company's office or production facilities. Individual assignments, practical and test papers, as well as independent work with educational material and self-education can be used in the course of training.

Modern higher education institutions are interested in continuous training and development of academic staff, as it affects the quality of education, the scientific component and the overall ranking of the institution, as well as participation in international and innovative projects.

For example, here are the training courses offered to teachers and academic staff at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In particular, in 2020, during the quarantine restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of distance learning, university teachers had the opportunity to take a training and professional development course on «Digi- tal Competencies in Education». The course helped teachers improve their knowledge and skills through the MOODLE environment, Office 365, the Dean's Office system, and several Web resources. The scientists also received competent recommendations on maintaining personal pages of teachers on the university portal, scientometric databases Google Scholar and Scopus, and managing programs that allow monitoring plagiarism. A large number of teachers joined several stages of such courses, and the organizers emphasized that the University will continue to promote the professional development of academic and teaching staff and expand their competencies, which, on the one hand, will increase the efficiency of the educational process, and on the other hand, will foster their work.

«Improving Teaching Excellence» is another course for the academic staff of Lviv University. The instructors, carrying out the course, are professional representatives not only from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, but also from the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the National Qualifications Agency, plus representatives of the National Higher Education Reform Team, employing companies, and international experts. The main learning outcomes of the course are successful mastering of the following skills:

¦ ability to develop modern academic disciplines by the requirements of the internal quality assurance system;

¦ ability to effectively communicate and interact with students;

¦ ability to form a modern educational program and fill it with the necessary practical competencies;

¦ ability to prepare materials for accreditation of educational programs;

¦ ability to use modern technologies, methods in the educational process, and communication.

«Project Activity» is a course for the Lviv University members related to international educational projects, where the participants can learn about grant opportunities, project creation and writing, communication, and potential implementation of successful applications. The main goal of the course is:

¦ to enable the University staff to learn more about grant opportunities, raising funds for their own cultural, educational, or scientific ideas;

¦ to show that writing and implementing a project is not an unattainable goal, but a very real thing;

¦ to inspire the participants without experience to create their projects, and the experienced participants to improve along the way.

Preparing a modern young professional who will successfully find a job and get a good start in building a career without additional training and mastering practical skills requires a lot of work on the part of the teacher in terms of a detailed analysis of the labor market and employers' needs. Employers are willing to contribute to the development and updating of educational programs so that after graduation they can hire a young specialist with high-quality professional knowledge and competencies so that the company does not have to spend additional resources and time on training and retraining. As an example, we can consider the training course «I-Tech teachers deep-dive to business» organized by SoftServe for university teachers and featuring active discussion and communication between educators and representatives of the IT sector. Representatives of the company revealed their vision of the specialists that the IT sector needs today, the challenges faced by the IT industry, and the opportunities that the IT industry offers to universities to integrate these needs into the educational process and promote the formation of a practical and competence component in the students' education. The lecturers shared their thoughts and suggestions and invited the company to join the cooperation and jointly develop educational programs, become stakeholders and coordinators of practical changes in education, and develop dual educational programs to cooperate with the IT industry. The main topics of the course included such areas as trends and challenges in the IT industry, the main benchmarks and products of the IT business in Ukraine, knowledge, skills and competencies required by the modern IT sector of IT professionals.

According to the monitoring of opportunities for practical training of teachers, it is worth focusing on the following programs offered by SoftServe [4]:

¦ internship at IT Academy: teachers are allowed to join with a group of participants and listen to the course curriculum, learn about new opportunities in the field of programming, and master new teaching methods;

¦ a full-fledged training course for teachers with the involvement of industry experts to learn new knowledge and acquire new skills and competencies in practice;

¦ educational grants for the development of a new training course that will be launched in the educational process with the involvement of the company's experts and the provision of educational materials;

¦ opportunity to receive educational materials developed by the company;

¦ opportunity to join a tour and meet with company representatives.

The company also offers specific areas of cooperation for university administrations and students.

In the context of ongoing training and development of academic staff, companies must be ready to accept internships and share their experience and practical details about the specifics of their operations, as this is their investment in young professionals who will soon join with their teams. Thanks to the teachers who filled the educational programs with high-quality and practical content, young professionals have gained considerable practical experience and real-life cases, allowing them to start performing their tasks and responsibilities in a short time. However, the issue of continuous learning and self-development remains relevant and applies not only to academic staff but also to most practitioners.

Therefore, continuous training, professional development, and development of academic staff is an important and necessary process that helps to master modern technologies, teaching methods, interaction, and communication. This is an opportunity to practically fill in the teaching materials, establish cooperation with employers, and analyze the labor market to prepare students for work on processes and tasks to the fullest extent. However, preparing for lectures and practical classes, research activities, such as writing articles, participating in scientific conferences, learning something new, and improving skills are only part of the workload that an academic employee has to deal with. It is also worth taking care of the emotional state of teachers and helping them in times of professional difficulties so that the quality of the tasks performed and the workload received by academics are within the normal range and at the appropriate level.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has launched a professional support program for teachers of the New Ukrainian School. On 18.10.2019, Order No. 1313 of the Ministry of Education and Science approved the introduction of a supervision system - professional support for teachers, which aims to help implement the goals of the NUS reform, overcome difficulties and grow professionally. This is a tool that should help teachers develop their professional skills and personal qualities. A supervisor is a mentor and consultant who will help, support, teach new things and share experiences. Supervisors can also be teachers [1].

In our opinion, academic staff, given their workload and the challenges they face in terms of professional development and maintaining their mental and emotional health, should receive professional help and support. This is where professional supervision can come in handy, which can help both individually and within the university routine.

To this end, it is worth reviewing the activities of the Ukrainian Union of Supervision and Coaching (USCC), which was founded in 2014, and in 2018 at the General Assembly in Budapest, the USCC was recognized as the only full member of ANSE (Association of National Supervision Organizations of Europe) from Ukraine, providing the certificate holders with recognition of their qualifications in 17 ANSE member countries.

According to the standards and definition of the USCC, supervision as a consulting profession primarily focuses on the interaction between people, work tasks, and organizations; provides sufficient space and time for reflection on professional functioning in complex situations; expands the repertoire of professional actions of individuals and teams by their roles in the institutional context. The primary function of supervision is also the development of individuals, teams, and organizations. In addition, supervision focuses on ensuring and improving the quality of communication between employees and on methods of cooperation in different work contexts, offers support in various reflection and decision-making processes, in difficult professional situations and conflicts; encourages clarification and elaboration of tasks, functions and roles; helps in implementing changes, finding innovative solutions to new tasks and measures to prevent mobbing and burnout [6].

We believe that for academic staff to perform their tasks effectively, higher education institutions should provide them with high-quality material and technical support, also with opportunities for continuous training and development. In addition to training, it is important to take care of the emotional and psychological state of a specialist. We believe that it is worth introducing the Institute of Supervisors to higher education institutions. Supervision of teachers can be conducted both individually and in a group. This will help the academic staff to overcome professional difficulties, prevent professional burnout; form interaction between people to solve professional problems that arise in work or at the start of a career through discussion of these problems; to organize the process of understanding and analyzing the situation or problem of the supervisee, and the supervisor, as a specialist, should help to make the right decision; to cover professional or work issues (relationships and communication with colleagues or management, performance of functions and tasks, and decision-making). In our opinion, such professional consultations with certified supervisors will be useful for the academic staff.

Self-education or informal education is a very valuable area of knowledge acquisition in the modern world. The formal and non-formal education system is acquired by educational licensed programs and educational programs of educational institutions and provides for the achievement of predefined learning outcomes and the award of educational qualifications by students. Informal education involves self-organized learning and the acquisition of certain competencies and knowledge by a person, in particular in the course of daily professional or social activities. Such training is not necessarily purposeful and structured, but it contributes to the expansion of professional knowledge and skills and is one of the key competencies of the individual. It is also important that the modern labor market is increasingly in demand for specialists who have mastered skills and knowledge and can work in related fields.

Modern educational programs are important areas of high-quality training for young professionals who will be ready to effectively interact with employers and perform their j ob duties without additional training. It is a modern educational program that will be developed in a quality manner that will be the key to success for its developers, higher education institutions, students, and employers.

Each higher education institution has approved methodological guidelines that regulate and describe the direction of work with educational programs. Ivan Franko National University of Lviv has formed «Methodological Recommendations for the Development, Approval, Monitoring, Review and Closure of Educational Programs at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The main principles for developing an educational program include [3]:

¦ consistency;

¦ continuity;

¦ innovation and integration of education and science;

¦ student-centeredness;

¦ formation of students' competencies as the main learning outcomes;

¦ taking into account the interests of all stakeholders;

¦ integration of the educational process into the European Higher Education Area;

¦ modularity - structuring the content of the educational program; balance and realism of the educational program;

¦ flexibility and mobility of the educational program;

¦ compliance of the educational program with the national qualification's framework.

When working on the issue of self-assessment of the educational program and the criteria for accreditation of educational programs, it is worth considering the characteristics of the criteria, in particular, the criterion of «determining competencies and learning outcomes» (Tbl. 1).

The main factors for the successful accreditation process of educational programs are the issues of interaction with stakeholders, professional competencies and learning outcomes, which are closely related, towards ensuring the quality of the educational process, employment of young professionals, their readiness for professional activities, and employer satisfaction with the competencies of young professionals.

Table 1