Further education: priorities of students and employers

The article belongs to research category and is aimed at defining development trends for further education system on the basis of stakeholders' interests analysis. The reason behind writing this article is the need to identify stakeholders, potentially interested in developing further education system. Analysis of their opinion would help in understanding which changes should be made in further education management system in order to enhance its development at present. Methodological basis of the research is the human behavior determination theory. Empiric data was collected from the poll among Ural Federal University students, analysis of documents from universities participating in ТОР 5-100 and employers. Research results demonstrate that there is a gap between students' educational demands for further education and supply of existing further education programs. Students find it difficult to satisfy their educational needs in obtaining narrow specialized knowledge and skills in their specialization (40% of students have concrete educational needs). Further research in students' needs in further education can be directed, firstly at more concrete formulation of need for further education among students with experience in further education and monitoring changes of these needs with the help of relevant research. Another interesting area is the analysis of further education programs offered not only by higher educational institutions but also by other educational institutions offering programs of this kind. The article contains practical recommendations which can form the basis for measures aimed at involving different students groups into further education system, particularly bachelor, specialist and master course senior students. The value of the article is in the research into the needs in further education of such a social group as higher education students. On the basis of research results the author identifies development trends for further education system that should be used in managing higher educational institutions and other educational institutions offering further education programs.