About school: future career and today’s education of Russian children

On October 24, 2023, a briefing “About school” took place at the press center of Moskovsky Komsomolets

During which the invited guests discussed the state of affairs in domestic education, and also spoke about the meaning and importance of innovations in the educational field. Experts gave examples of the positive effects of initiatives and shared information on how a unified educational environment is being created in Russia. The live broadcast touched upon such important topics as early career guidance at school, the possibilities of additional school education to broaden the horizons of children, and enable them to acquire additional skills and competencies for adult life.

Such an important component of the school educational process as psychological assistance to parents and children was considered.

Thus, since the beginning of this academic year, every Thursday in all schools in the country, students in grades 6–11 during career guidance lessons are introduced to the current state and prospects for the development of economic sectors, and are told about the regional and federal labor markets and in-demand professions.

“The children need to logically imagine their path, and at each point the child must understand what is happening to him now. It is necessary to rely on the formation of schoolchildren’s knowledge about the world of professions around them, about themselves, what they are interested in and where they would like to go, about skills. And the most important thing that can help children get their bearings is the opportunity to try different professions in practice, learn their content, look from the inside at what specialists face, in order to avoid a painful clash of “expectation-reality” in the future,” answered the question: “Will this help promote students’ early professional self-determination?” Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Partnerships of the Fund for Humanitarian Projects Liliya Ziborova.

Methodologist of the “Ticket to the Future” project, director of research and development of Profilum LLC Vitaly Altukhov emphasized: in order for children to begin professional self-determination from an early school period, it is necessary to engage in the comprehensive disclosure and development of the abilities of each child.

The development of creative, entrepreneurial, scientific and communication abilities is also facilitated by the Quantoriums, IT cubes, Growth Points centers and Sirius development centers created in the regions and successfully operating.

“Additional education is a very great resource for career guidance. “Growth Points” is a branded space with computers, equipped for classes in chemistry, physics or, for example, biology. Teachers come there and conduct programs of extracurricular activities and additional education – this is a whole educational process. “Quantoriums”, IT cubes, “Growth Points” are needed in order to revive interest in engineering education and technology. Currently, almost 18 million children are involved in the additional education system, and almost 3 million educational programs have been created for them. At the same time, in the first place (this is 47% of children who are engaged in additional education) are areas related to entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and ecology. Then come young traffic inspectors, journalism, volunteering and psychology. Next, the interests of children are distributed as follows: artistic creativity (theater, choreography, vocals, literary creativity, fashion, design, photography and cinema) and sports. After that come technical areas, which in recent years have made a leap from 4% of children to 20%,” said Oksana Goncharova, director of the All-Russian Center for Artistic Creativity and Humanitarian Technologies.

Each child will go his own way in the future, choose his own career and lifestyle. But at a young age it is sometimes difficult to cope with the burden of responsibility. Teenagers experience many emotions associated with a large number of factors: these are worries about school, and formation in society, and first love. Therefore, at school, the role of educational psychologists becomes important, helping both children and parents in solving difficult, conflict situations, in searching for self-determination, and establishing relationships within society.

“Today we are building a beautiful infrastructure of psychological services in the education system. It is represented by psychological services in educational organizations and our psychological and pedagogical social centers, which also work with students. The function of a psychologist in a school is multifaceted and is related to the needs that all participants in educational relations have. An educational psychologist not only accompanies the process of learning and education, but also helps socialization at all stages. Among other things, he is a link between teachers, parents and the students themselves. It helps teachers find an individual approach to each child, and parents understand and support their children in various difficult situations,” shared Olga Ulyanina, head of the Federal Coordination Center for Providing Psychological Services in the Education System of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education.

In addition, the invited guests touched upon the issues of choosing additional education, creating flexible training tracks, completing internships at enterprises, and gave valuable advice to students, parents and teachers.