Human capital formation problems in the research of the Vologda Research Center of RAS

The article deals with the study of human capital and the factors of its formation in the research of the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors pay attention to the history of the development in the VolRC RAS of such scientific areas as the assessment of the human and labor potential of the population, the study of the scientific and educational space as an institutional structure, and the conduct of practice-oriented research in the field of training scientific personnel. The paper notes the challenges of time that determine the formulation of scientific tasks (technological transformations, institutionalization of the educational space, digitalization, pandemic, etc.). The article highlights the research results of the VolRC RAS which develop the scientific tradition in the direction of studying the factors of human capital formation: new definitions, approaches, and models (including the theoretical model of smart education). The work separately considers the main scientific approaches and schools on which the research is based. The authors present the methodological developments currently used to collect empirical data on human development indicators. They include the methodology for assessing the human potential reproduction of rural territories and its determining factors; the methodology for analyzing individual skills and competencies of population; the methodology for assessing the level of development of the education system at the level of individual regions; methods of rating preschool educational organizations according to the criteria of population’s satisfaction with provided services; the methodology for assessing the adaptive potential of representatives of the teacher community; the methodology for calculating the coefficient of salary advance in education, etc. The article presents the results of their testing. The authors show promising directions and opportunities for continuing further research of the factors of human capital formation within the framework of new theoretical approaches and scientific schools.