Professional interests of schoolchildren as a factor in forecasting the labor market development of an industrial city

Introduction. The article deals with the problems of professional self-determination of high school students in a large industrial city. It is shown that among the factors of forecasting the development of the labor market the professional interests of the employee’s personality are not singled out as a separate factor. On the part of the city, there is a request for an “educational” model of vocational guidance, in which the problem of a person’s choice between “want” and “need” is decided in favor of society. At the same time, the results of diagnostics and vocational counseling for schoolchildren show that professional choice is made primarily on the basis of the professional interests of the individual, which does not always correspond to the needs of the regional labor market in professional staff to ensure the effectiveness of industrial growth. The purpose of the article is to present the results of the professional interests study in high school students within the framework of forecasting the development of a regional labor market in an industrial city. The Methodology of the research is based on the subjectival and activity approaches to the process of a personality’s professional formation as well as the analysis of scientific literature. The research was carried out in the form of testing. The”Proforientator” (Moscow) computer complex was used to perform the testing. Statistical data processing was conducted making use of nonparametric chi-square test for one selection. Results. Based on a theoretical analysis of the literature, the role of the professional interests of schoolchildren as a factor in forecasting the regional labor market is determined. The dominant professional interests of high school students, indicating the presence of a contradiction between the needs of the individual and the regional labor market, were revealed Conclusions. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop a set of measures to eliminate the sharp contradiction between the current needs of the labor market and the professional interests of high school students.