Formation of students’ professional identity at the university: sociological analysis

The study reveals a feature of professional identity, which influences the quality of labor capital, which in turn affects the efficient and competitive functioning of the economy. It is a subjective state of the individual’s sense of his/her professionalism, belonging to the professional community and the need to develop in this direction. The acquisition of the necessary qualifications and professional skills begins in the process of education; therefore, professional identity begins to form at the university. The results of a sociological study of professional identity state of university students in Ufa demonstrate an unsatisfactory level of its development: the majority of students give an average assessment of the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. They note their inadequacy for practical application; more than half of students regret choosing a specialty and/or university; about a fifth of the students do not plan to work in their specialty at all, slightly more than half of the respondents do not exclude such a possibility. Based on the analysis of the data presented, it was concluded that it is necessary to introduce a high-quality practice-oriented approach, innovative teaching methods, as well as special work with students into the educational process.