Foreign language proficiency as a requirement for graduates

The current state of higher education with emerging trends in its development puts forward new requirements for professional training of graduates and their personal qualities. Among the significant ones are deep professional knowledge and skills, initiative, sociability, creative activity, capacity and willingness to lifelong self-learning [1].

To fulfill their potential, achieve professional success and improve career growth it is essential for university graduates to progress to that level of communicative competence which meets the requirements of employers.

Communicative competence does connect general cultural competencies and it is also important for developing professional ones, for instance, the ability to collect, process, analyze and systematize scientific and technical information on the theme researched, use modern achievements of science and technology; the ability to prepare design and technological documentation; the ability to conduct a preliminary feasibility study of projects and others.

Student communicative competence is developed in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards of the Higher Education. And teaching methods are chosen based on these requirements [2].

Educational programs of higher education in technical courses focus on developing the competency – the ability to communicate in the state language of the Russian Federation and foreign languages in oral and written forms in a business sphere.

Taking the direction of student training into account, teaching a foreign language is supposed to become a priority in updating engineering education in Russia. The specifics of professionally oriented language education considers the foreign language to be not only the subject and object of studying but also a means of learning, i.e. a tool for accumulating extended specialized knowledge [3].

Linguistic knowledge enables graduates to be aware of all new publications in their professional field and achievements in world science, and promotes their use in practice [1].

Currently, being proficient in a foreign language is an integral part of educational competencies for successful people. The graduates speaking a foreign language can make a more favorable impression on employers. Both personal development and professional growth of a person cannot do without communication skills in a foreign language. The ability to communicate with the representatives of different cultures contributes to the development of horizons and allows a person to move up the ladder and make useful networking. Most modern means of communications and interaction focus on people being fluent in a foreign language [4].

Modern society makes high demands on a specialist of any profile, computer literacy and foreign language skills being the most important for the successful professional activity of a graduate nowadays. It is the productive skills which play the most crucial role here. Encyclopedic knowledge fades into the background, and the ability to apply knowledge, skills and abilities for solving the tasks assigned are becoming primary now. In addition, information technology and the Internet allow students of technical universities to receive professionally relevant information in a foreign language. Thus, the requirements for a graduate of a technical university are high, but justified, because they allow him to be competitive in the labor market. Studying a foreign language at non-linguistic universities is an integral part of the professional training of a future specialist. A foreign language has enormous educational and upbringing potential, and successful knowledge of it contributes to the development of competent, mobile and competitive professionals capable of working at the world standard levels [5].

Employees of major international companies make reports mostly in foreign languages. Therefore, if Russian companies are planning to enter the international market, they need specialists speaking at least one foreign language, preferably English.

In cities of federal significance, it is a challenge for a job-seeker to get a job if they do not possess the language competency. It is a mandatory requirement for university graduates. In Novosibirsk, however, these requirements are not so tough, but the increasing number of employers requires a candidate to possess the foreign language competency in 30% of vacancies. The higher the position is, the tighter the language requirements for graduates are.

In the situation of the increasingly competitive labor market, there is a demand for highly skilled employees. The competencies developed in universities tend to become obsolete in the long run, thus, the employee im- proving their qualifications on a regular basis is considered to be a valuable asset. Now in telecommunications, basic knowledge gained at universities is becoming insufficient. Besides technical skills, the foreign language competency is of great importance, too. This fact is demonstrated by the requirements of some employers made for graduates of technical universities, in particular, for SibSUTIS (Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information Science) graduates and entirely confirmed by job search portals.

To understand what requirements for a specific professional activity the employers of Novosibirsk specify for their candidates, and if SibSUTIS students are aware of them, a thorough study has been conducted. It included a questionnaire for employers (19 persons) and the one for students (93 persons).

As a result of the survey, it has been found that 100% of respondents consider proficiency in the foreign language to be challenging in the sphere of telecommunications and recognize the importance of learning and mastering the language for their personal growth. Students almost do not miss classes in foreign languages and 35% of them believe foreign language skills to be absolutely necessary for their career advancement, 41% – the language competency to be essential in some areas of their future professional activity and 37% – the foreign language proficiency to affect the pay grade level which is sure to be an important constituent of the living standards.

As for employers, in most telecommunications companies the foreign language requirements for candidates are not considered to be an essential condition, but they are increasingly becoming a ground for refusal.

Thus, if students of technical universities care about getting a prestigious well-paid job and they are making efforts to build their careers, learning a foreign language has to be their clearly perceived need.