Additional vocational education as a resource of the humanization of the regional university’s educational environment

Abstract

The relevance of the following article is connected with the fact that, on the one hand, the growth vector of modern universities is shaped and modified by market demands and conditions and, on the other hand, – by the need to fulfill and expand universities’ humanitarian and humanist mission, to develop flexible educational environment against the background of knowledge-driven economy. The aim of the article is to analyze resource characteristics and functional load of additional vocational education which contributes to humanitarization of a regional university educational environment. The paper relies on the analysis of the current additional vocational education programmes implemented in the Udmurt State University with regard to their correlation with the common university humanitarian and humanist mission.

The article introduces the structure of the Institute’s additional vocational education of the Udmurt State University, analyzes the potential of this University functional unit through the prism of its contribution to the expansion of the university humanitarian learning environment. The development of the Institute of additional vocational education is regarded in the context of the lifelong learning concept. The paper illustrates that implementation of additional vocational education in the classical regional university improves its operating efficiency, creates conditions to involve it in the development strategy of the region, updates its influence on the preservation of sociocultural and scientific potential of the territory.

The author comes to the conclusion that additional vocational education proves to be a unique stage of professional development which meets citizens’ demands in terms of a set of competencies relevant to professional advancement and career growth, improves their cultural fluency and intelligence level taking into account socioeconomic and sociocultural development trends of the region, makes it possible to leverage individual competitive advantages.