Young teacher: revisiting the concept

The role of a young teacher in the present and future life of the university is significant, but the criteria for referring to this group are not clearly defined. The difficulty of defining the «young teacher» category is tied to a number of factors: vagueness of the «youth» concept, absence of the formalized «young employee» and «young specialist» categories, difference in the criteria used, and the nature of professional scientific and educational activities. The article presents analysis of scientific literature and normative acts which give definitions of these concepts. The main criterion for recognizing young employees as such is age, which only partly coincides with the youth age accepted in Russia. Other criteria are work experience, level of education, term of employment, etc. To define the category «young teacher», it is important to distinguish this group from the category «young scien-tist», which is connected with the specificity of their scientific and pedagogical activities. Management of a modern Russian university is interested in attracting young teachers as bearers of the innovative potential and employees most responsive to innovations, who master the latest information and communication technologies. The retention of this type of employees is an important task of personnel policy, for this purpose various programs aimed at young people are used. These include provision of economic benefits when purchasing a flat or a house, additional payments, competitions aimed at improving and accelerating adaptation of specialists and their inclusion into research and educational activities.