Education as an instrument of human capital development
The research is done in the framework of the regional contest of interdisciplinary research projects held by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in cooperation with the Government of Krasnoyarsk region, the project “Polyparadigmatic and multiethnic approached to the population’s life quality assessment as an instrument of human resources management in the developing macro region of the Yenisei Siberia” № 18-413-242002.
Abstract: providing stable development of social economic systems and creating the conditions for the population welfare is closely connected to forming a development model oriented not only at the growth of financial economic parameters but also at achieving high living standards for each individual as well as efficient use of various kinds of resources.
An important role in forming stable social economic systems is played by the evolution of knowledge accumulation that results in human capital increase. To increase the human capital by means of accumulated knowledge and technologies education is essential. According to Raymond Kurzweil education is a transfer of information, forming images of the real world as well as forming opinions and beliefs.
A distinctive feature of the human brain is the ability to form and perceive images that are the results of education, independent learning (pioneers in discovering laws, phenomena, objects of wildlife and inanimate nature), etc.
Human capital is essential to develop 4 basic spheres that improve the quality of life and facilitate stable development of the society. These are the natural, technological, social and management environments.
It means that the lack of education or limited educational opportunities result in breaking the chain of stages that lead to improving the quality of life and stable development of the society.
To make the Russian system of education relevant and able to meet the needs of the human capital development significant changes and new approaches to the teaching – learning process are required.
In the authors’ opinion it is possible to define the following directions in the transformation of the Russian educational system that are able to set a new vector in developing the Russian human capital:
- Creating the system of life-long learning that will actually, not formally, support this idea and modernizing the system of supplementary vocational education;
- Reconstructing and developing the system of integrated learning that facilitates partnerships of universities with businesses and community;
- Forming the system of the global access to the leading educational resources, integrating formal and informal education to customize individual learning routes; reducing formalization of educational process.
The innovation vector in the Russian economy development causes the need for the life-long learning system that could assure high standards of living and maximum human capital development. Human capital development is impossible without highly efficient educational system that develops new competences and skills during the whole period of human life. Forming the basis for creating and distributing educational innovations used in the process of developing professional and interdisciplinary competences requires systematic modernization of the supplementary vocational education, that includes creating innovative educational environment, networking, forming networking research educational complexes, personalized learning based on the consolidation and continuity of formal and informal education, using interactive educational platforms , new technologies and methods of teaching that facilitate a high quality of education and its accessibility . A highly efficient system of engineering education is one of the important instruments of improving the quality of life and human capital development. The modernization of education needed to meet the demands of high technology industries is specified by the Federal Law on education in the Russian Federation, National policy in education in the Russian Federation and the federal program “Development of education in 2013-2020”. Integrated learning is one of the methods to assure high quality engineering education as the experience of the recent years and contemporary attempts to reconstruct this system in Russia show.
The access to the best global educational recourses, combination of formal and informal education will allow forming the system of teaching high quality professionals who possess not only professional competences based on the existing scientific and educational achievements and traditions of a certain university but also interdisciplinary skills based on the leading international experience. That is why the efficient system of taking additional educational resources into account and the procedures that will allow recognizing additional education programs as a part of the main academic curricular should be developed.
Thus, it can be said with confidence that education is a key instrument of forming stable social economic systems and human capital development and consequently facilitating the quality of life.
Kirko, V. I1,2., Kononova , E. S1.3., Lukyanova, A.A1,3., Razumovskaya V.A. 2
Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev, Russia1
Siberian Federal University, Russia2
Reshetnev’s Siberian State University of Science and Technology, Russia3