“Knowledge workers” and modernization in the region

Professional education is the main part of personnel training and it serves as the driver of modernization process. “Knowledge workers” are carriers of knowledge provided by the professional training system. Professional activity of “knowledge workers” is strategically important in the economy under transformation. The paper reviews domestic and foreign experience and defines criteria for identifying people as “knowledge workers”: educational level, employment in “intellectually demanding” industries. The study identifies specific characteristics of “knowledge workers”, represents their typological classification depending on their employment affiliation (professional managers, new workers, certified technicians, scientists, innovator specialists). The paper focuses on determining the level of implementation of employment potential of qualified specialists in the context of economic modernization. The authors define the dependence of the level of regions’ modernization on the employment of workers that have vocational education. At the same time, the paper points out that the modernization of the territory is influenced not so much by the training of “knowledge workers” as the fulfilment of their potential in the labor market. This thesis is confirmed by the results of correlation analysis, which evidence the lack of direct connection between the number of college and university students and the level of modernization. From the position of effective implementation of the potential accumulated, the study shows the importance of integrating the graduates of educational organizations into the labor market in accordance with the specialty they obtained. The paper also identifies problems that hamper job placement within the specialty obtained. The study shows that the slowdown in modernization processes is due mainly to the economic and cognitive aspects. In particular, the imbalances in the components of the secondary modernization index stem from an insufficient number of scientists and engineers, people who file patent applications, and from the small amount of allocations to research and development in GRP. The paper reveals that one of the ways to improve human capital is to increase innovative activity of the youth; the authors substantiate the thesis about the direct positive impact of the development of competencies on participation in research and scientific developments. The results of the study can be used to work out strategic plans for the development of innovation industries and social entrepreneurship in Russia’s regions.