Research on cultivation path of Heilongjiang-Russia economic and trade talents in universities under “The belt and road initiative”

Russia is an important trading partner of China's Silk Road Economic Belt, and “the Belt and Road Initiative” has expanded the scope and fields of cooperation between two countries. At present, China's trade cooperation with Russia has increased in various fields such as new energy, high technology and aerospace on the basis of agriculture, industry and energy. The expansion of cooperation areas will inevitably increase the demand for economic and trade talents, who should not only master basic Russian knowledge, but also be familiar with Russian trade laws and local cultural traditions. As China's largest trading province with Russia, Heilongjiang province has absolute advantage on trade talents culti-vation with Russia, because many colleges and universities in Heilongjiang province have relevant trade majors with Russia such as Heilongjiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Normal University and East University of Heilongjiang, which cultivated a large number of economic and trade talents for Russian trade. However, the traditional economic and trade talent cultivation system for Russian trade has been unable to meet the talent demand of Sino-Russia trade cooperation under the "Belt and Road Initiative”, and it is urgent to reposition the standards and requirements for Russian trade talents under the new economic situation. How to create a new economic and trade talents cultivation system for Russia trade is an im- portant issue which universities faced in Heilongjiang Province.

• 1.    The current situation of the demand and supply for Sino-Russia economic and trade talents in Heilongjiang Province

  Despite the complex international situation and the impact of COVID-19, in the first half of 2021, the total value of Heilongjiang's import and export to Russia ranked first in China, reaching 59.95 billion yuan, up 18.4 percent in the same period last year, accounting for 64.4 percent of the total value of Heilongjiang's import and export and 14.7 percent of the total value of China's import and export to Russia in the same peri-od.Therefore, the demand for foreign trade talents in Hei-longjiang province is still dominated by the demand for Russian trade talents.

• 2.    The problems of cultivating Si-no-Russia economic and trade talents under “ the Belt and Road Initiative”

However, looking on the cultivation of economic and trade talents in colleges and universities in the province, although many majors of international economics and trade have been set up , majors of trade with Russia have generally started lately, and many of them have only been trade directions in recent years and have not yet formed mature major. On the other hand, Heilongjiang province is one of the best provinces of Russian teaching and Russian studies in China. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, almost everyone in Heilongjiang province learned Russian. But with the nationwide popularization of English teaching in last century, the number of peo- ple learning Russian language has dropped significantly, and there are insufficient students in the cultivation of Russian trade talents.

So, it can be said with certainty that the demand of Russian trade talents in Heilongjiang Province is exceeding supply.

• (1)    The overall quality is not high, the quantity is short, and the market demand can-not be met.

Heilongjiang Province had an absolute advantage in the trade and border trade with Russia and the CIS in the 1990s, but the tra-di-tional geographical advantages were gradually lost and did not turn into sustainable regional economic competitiveness. This result is not only due to historical reasons, national policy of priority development of coastal areas and regional industrial type differences, but also to a large extent related to the overall quality and actual business level of trade personnel en-gaged in Russia. Up to now, how to regulate the trade with Russia and improve the quality and professional level of economic and trade personnel has been a headache for trade ad-ministration departments at all levels. The Chinese embassy and consulate in Russia are troubled by the gray custom-clearance problem. Admittedly, this is also related to the complicated political and economic situation in Russia, but it just proves the lower level and depth of our research on economic and trade issues in this region and the lack of professional talents.

• (2)    The talent cultivation model is outdated and cannot adapt to the development and changes of the new economic situation.

• 3.    Cultivation path of Heilongjiang-Russia economic and trade talents in universities un-der “the Belt and Road Initiative ”

Although Heilongjiang is an advanced province for Russian teaching and Russian studies in the country, the combination of Russian language and literature teaching and international trade expertise and application ability is not ideal. Therefore, it has also been criticized for "The study of Russian language, literature and culture does not serve China's globalization strategy well." At present, undergraduate students majoring in business Russian in Heilongjiang province still have not got rid of the bondage of language teaching mode in terms of curriculum setting and teaching methods, while the teaching of international trade is mainly based on the trade mode and business practices of English-speaking countries, and there is a serious lack of teaching materials related to Russia's economy, society, geography and humanities. Teaching methods are also relatively old. The talent training mode of "major + foreign language" has been poorly connected in the direction of trade with Russia. (3) Talent cultivation has not been based on local economic development, not high-lighting local characteristics.

Heilongjiang province is located in remote areas, and its level of economic development and higher education is quite differ- ent from that of coastal developed provinces. If colleges and universities cannot base them-selves on local economic development and highlight their own advantages and char-acter-istics in the process of talent training, then the talents cultivated will certainly lack competi-tiveness. At present, many universities in Hei-longjiang province have established interna-tional economics and trade majors. However, most of them have the same or similar teaching plans, curriculum and training objectives with other universities in different region, and they are not based on the geographical endowment of Heilongjiang province's trade with Russia. The comparative advantage is not tailored and it is difficult to adapt to the needs of the Russian market and the development of northeast Asia regional economic integration.

• (1)    Actively exploring teaching reforms with the goal of cultivating applied, professional and open talents

The goal of vocational undergraduate training is to cultivate specialized talents with certain theoretical basis who can play the role immediately after graduation by combining the methods of production, learning and research. Not only different from the general undergraduate training mode, but also differ-ent from the vocational college training mode with professional skills, voca- tional under-graduate training is in order to cultivate applied, professional, senior specialized talents. Therefore, how to mobilize students' enthusi-asm and interest in learning, so that students learn expertise, adapt to Russia's economic and trade needs is the most important task. And the teaching reform should start from the following three aspects:

Firstly, strengthening the foundation. That is, strengthening Russian language ability and basic professional theory. Without this foundation, it’s hard to distinguish vocational universities education from vocational college education. This foundation is the need for students majoring in Russian trade to expand their horizons, but also the foundation for further promotion and development of their jobs. Russian teaching reform focuses on listening and speaking, to change the situation of “mute Russian” as a breakthrough. The teaching of basic theory should pay attention to the connection with practice, analyze and solve practical problems with theory, and improve students' ability to understand and solve problems as a breakthrough.

Secondly, emphasizing on skills. That is, focusing on cultivating students' practical ability to work. Taking how to solve the problem of students' learning weariness as a breakthrough. In view of the characteristics of the post-2000 generation, we need to find out how to mobilize students' enthusiasm and in-terest in learning. Nowadays, many stu- dents are keen on online games. We can build the competitive environment of an online game, that is, using the action-oriented teaching method under the advanced project teaching. Some vocational colleges adopt the bidding system to simulate the competition mechanism of corporate projects. We can boldly try the actual company project competition mechanism under the competition system. For ex-ample, the college provides funds for students to register and operate online stores of Russian specialty goods or food, allowing students to freely combine in teamwork with reasonable division of labor, keeping sales as the assessment criteria, and provides full trust for students, so that students become principal part of teaching reform. And change the state of passive learning to love learning.

Thirdly, highlighting being applied, professional and open. To highlight being applied is to combine modern teaching means with teaching practice, which not only improves students' learning enthusiasm, but also imparts theoretical knowledge and practical operation skills to students. To highlight being profes-sional, is to close link classroom teaching and future career , so that teaching and social needs. To highlight being open, is to combine Russian language teaching with international trade knowledge, improve professional and social communication ability together.

On the one hand, we should constantly improve the teaching level of practice class, cultivate trade talents with Russia according to the standard of foreign trade clerk; use foreign trade software to enable students to master the foreign trade business process; use case teaching and self-evaluation to improve students' professional ability; increase the time of bilingual professional courses and Russian listening and speaking classes; hold more competitions such as speeches and debates to improve students' comprehensive quality and communicative ability. On the other hand, we should compile handouts or teaching materials according to the characteristics of trade with Russia and the requirements of relevant skills, so as to achieve refining, applicability, docking with the requirements of companies or enterprises, with local characteristics of Heilongjiang.

(2)Strengthening the comprehensive quality of teaching staff

The cultivation of talents is inseparable from the excellent teaching staff, so it is extremely important to cultivate a group of high-end, high-quality, professional sino-Russia trade teaching staff. When colleges and universities recruit professional teachers, they should take professional theoretical knowledge as the first standard and select the best ones. Of course, teachers with practical experience in Sino-Russia trade are also preferred. What’s more, professional teachers must have the ability to teach in both Chinese and Russian. Universities should provide bilingual teaching from the first year, and start by training students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills so as to lay a foundation for students to engage in various foreign jobs in the future. Meanwhile, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the hardware facilities of the university, such as increasing multimedia equipment and establishing Sino-Russia trade training bases. The function of multimedia teaching is to improve the level of learning information; The role of training base is to improve students' trading practice ability.

(3)Taking university-enterprise cooperation as a breakthrough to improve the employment quality and employment rate of students

University-enterprise cooperation is becoming a trend in cultivating Sino-Russia trade talents. For example, to replace the traditional Chinese professional course teaching with all-Russian professional courses; to sign cooperation agreements with companies or enterprises engaged in economic and trade with Russia; to try the possibility of or-der-based talent training; to assign teachers to work and study in enterprises, hire business personnel to teach in universities and jointly explore improvement measures and methods, timely adjust the training program for Russian trade talents according to market demand and business needs; and to take cultivating students' comprehensive quality and comprehensive ability to improve students' employment competitiveness as the primary task.

Fund Project: Higher Education Teaching Reform Project of Heilongjiang Provincial Education Department in 2019 (SJGY20190542); Philosophy and Social Science Research Planning Project of Heilongjiang Province in 2019(19GJE285); Scientific Research Project of East University of Heilongjiang (HDFKYTD202112;HDFKY190202)