Correspondence analysis of the competence level of graduates of IT specialties with employers’ requirements

Currently, Russia’s digital economy development is determined by the goals and tasks specified in the National Project “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation up to 2024”: the information technology industry has an important place in it. One of the factors contributing to its development is the availability of highly qualified IT specialists. Caused by scientific and technological achievements, the ongoing changes affect the production processes and, accordingly, have an impact on the increase of the requirements for competences that personnel in the information technology area should possess. The formation of the necessary competences takes place in educational organizations. The purpose of the research is to analyze the correspondence of the competence level of graduates of IT specialties of higher education organizations with employers’ requirements (the case of the Vologda Oblast). The information base of the research includes the results of a survey of the IT companies’ heads in the Vologda Oblast, conducted in 2020 by the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Based on the respondents’ answers, the author has obtained the information on the IT companies’ staffing, the level of correspondence to job requirements among IT specialists-graduates from the Vologda Oblast’s universities, the development level of various groups of professional competences among graduates, and opportunities for the participation of IT companies from the Vologda Oblast in dual education. In the closing part, the paper highlights the main correspondence problems among graduates of IT specialties of the Vologda Oblast’s higher education institutions with the labor market requirements, and it outlines the main directions for their solution. The scientific novelty of the work is to identify problems that hinder the employment of university graduates due to the discrepancy between the formed IT specialists’ competences and employers’ requirements. The materials of the study can be used by researchers, postgraduates, and students involved in the digital economy development, issues related to this industry staffing. In addition, the practical significance of the paper is that the proposals for solving the identified problems can be applied by federal and regional authorities, educational organizations when adjusting educational programs, as well as for the scientific justification of measures aimed at improving the training personnel processes.