Secondary employment of students as a factor in the professionalization and social integration of young people

Structural changes of the Russian labor market, connected to its adaptation to economic state transformations by alteration of labor price and increasing informalization of employment [1, pp. 9–15], directly influence the integration of young Russian people into the system of social and labor relations in the society. It actualizes necessity to research the problem of employment and young people’s working activities. In this plan, we should pay attention to the specifics of transitive state of the Russian society, which is caused by an ongoing transformation of social institutes and practices. Leading Russian scientists point out its important features: antinomy of social consciousness which is expressed in existence of opposite values and behavior models in the society (Zh.T. Toshchenko [2, p. 65]); increased risks of young people’s social integration related to its uncertainty, asymmetry, and alternative focus (Yu.A. Zubok, V.I. Chuprov [3, pp. 56–69]); extension of social distances between social strata and groups in the society, which leads to the tension of social space and difficulties in social mobility (L.A. Belyaeva [4, p. 9], etc. Transitivity of social conditions makes dysfunctional manifestations of employment possible: spread of informal and illegal employment, employees’ rights discrimination, and etc., which may have an impact on young people’s integration into social and labor sphere of the society. After analyzing empirical data of Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey by RLMS-HSE, P.M. Kozyreva and A.I. Smirnov found out the weakening of Russian young people’s confidence concerning their labor market situation, reduction in secondary employment scale, increased number of those who ready to work without signing a written employment contract and on disadvantageous terms [5, pp. 55–67]. However, young people are the key resource of demographic [6], social, and economic development for the Russian society [7; 8]. It makes formation of young people’s productive employment experience necessary. Also, it is important for them to use gained professional experience in labor activity.

In this context, it is necessary to refer to the analysis of the role secondary employment plays in students’ lives, their life plans and its realization, in getting professional education, the inclusion in professional activities, etc. The interest that foreign and Russian economists and sociologists pay to the research on students’ secondary education is due to progressive extension of this phenomenon and ambiguity of its consequences for studies, professional competences’ development and initiation to the profession, social adaptation. The basis of the theoretical understanding of students’ employment during their studies is described in the works of P. Ryan (concept of “school- to-work transition”) [9], M. Trow (concept of higher education transformation from elitism to massiveness [10]), etc. In 2000s, students’ secondary employment specifics and its impact on academic performance were studied (M.-P. Moreau, C.R. Leathwood [11]; R. Hall [12]; C.M. Kalenkoski, S.W. Pabilonia [13]; P. Robert, E. Saar [14]; M.A. Vorona [15]; Yu.M. Pasovets [16], etc., [17]). The results have something in common with major motives for combing studies and work, types of employment, social problems of this young people’s category not depending on the country of residence. Among domestic researches of this period it is worth pointing out the work by D.L. Konstantinovskii, G.A. Cherednichenko and E.D. Voznesenskaya in which many of these aspects are discussed [18].

In modern foreign research this problem is further developed: interconnections between students’ employment and performance under the new conditions, socio-economic status of secondary employed students and opportunities for their professional development, along with further training, are revealed. H. Simon, D. Casado and other scholars underline a quite common prevalence of long-term regular, paid jobs among students from Spanish universities: senior students and people having higher level of motivation usually work there. But authors also note that, unlike students’ perceptions, regular work does not significantly impact their real academic performance [19]. Researching part-time employment of British students, its types, motivation and problems concerning combination of studies and work, R. Hordosy, T. Clark and D. Vickers find “double deficit” of students’ secondary employment. Low incomes of students make them work to have some additional money and continue their studies. At the same time, part-time jobs deter results and their ability to improve skills necessary for employment [20].

In the last three-five years, foreign authors often refer to analyzing impact of students’ secondary employment on their professional education, career, employment, and employment rate after graduating. While studying the readiness of students-managers from major Australian university to work, M. Chavan and L. Carter show that willingness to combine studies and a part-time job emerges at the end of the first year. Experience of work in the sphere corresponding to the student’s education has a beneficial impact on understanding university subjects and performance [21]. After studying Australian young people, D. Jackson and D. Collings come to the conclusion that students’ secondary employment is relatively useful: it eventually provides higher full-time employment rates of those who had paid jobs during their studies [22; 23]. They proved it by comparing impact from two forms of practical experience on fulltime and part-time employment of graduates: “work-integrated learning” (WIL) and paid job during the last year of studies.

While analyzing current state of this topic, several national and regional Russian studies need to be mentioned. These works characterize social status of young people and touch upon some aspects of students’ secondary employment like its structural parameters, which include spread of secondary education among students, model types of economic activities and its motivation [24; 25, pp. 97– 98]; readiness to combine work and full-time education [26, pp. 84–88]. On the basis of “Monitoring of education economy” by NRS HSE, S.Yu. Roshchin and V.N. Rudakov identify widespread of university students combining work and studies in modern Russia (more than a half of higher education students have work experience). Also, scholars point out several factors which play a major role in students’ inclusion into secondary employment sphere. They are lack of students’ financial assistance from their families and willingness to get work experience, and etc. [24, pp. 159, 166 168]. However, data from regional interviews show that latter is more important in the secondary employment motive system for financially secured students [27, pp. 101 102; 28, pp. 77 78]. This topic is put in the spotlight only in several researches; detailed examination of certain aspects concerning combination of secondary employment and studies is more common. Impact of students’ secondary employment on their professional formation [29], students’ preferences in choosing type of employment during their studies, and etc. are among these aspects. Local interviews of students about this topic in certain universities are quite common.

While analyzing the level of knowledge of certain aspects of secondary employment, it is worth mentioning that the most part of researchers’ attention is focused on identification of motivational aspects; a smaller part – on characteristics of structural parameters of students’ employment. In many cases, this topic is examined on the example of students from higher education institutes. The term “higher education students” is usually used in the scientific community to describe this category of young people. At the same time, identification and analysis of functional aspects of students’ combination of fulltime studies and work are usually neglected. These functional aspects are connected to realization of students work expectations, achievement of objectives, and receiving of possible unintended consequences. Given this, this research represents an attempt to overcome lack of scientific works in this sphere and to analyze directly the role of students’ secondary employment in their professionalization and social integration.

The purpose of this research is to explain the meaning of secondary employment for young people’s professionalization and social integration in modern Russia on the basis of empirical data. The novelty of this problem’s statement and solution is connected to the examination of students’ employment motivation in relation to achieved results, realization of expectations from employment, definition of possible work-study combination results for students’ social and personal development, and the selection of a number of young students’ secondary employment functions: socio-economic, professionalization, increased competition, self-understanding, self-determination and self-realization; personal development and improvement of personal potential. We also divide pragmatic (getting experience from any job, search for the most suitable job) and professionally oriented (accumulation of professional experience, development of professional competences, and etc.) motives of students’ secondary employment.

The relevance of this work is represented by the necessity to identify the impact of secondary employment for young people’s professionalization and social integration, its consequences for young Russian generation livelihood. In a social transition environment, we expect mixed results from studying employment impact on social and professional adaptation of young people, their inclusion into the system of social and labor relations, and their professional development. In this context, scientific understanding of functional and dysfunctional manifestations of students’ secondary employment becomes important. These manifestations are connected to the lower levels of student performance in their studies, acquiring negative experience from interactions with colleagues and administration, devaluation of professional values, and etc., and searches for effective ways of their levelling. We see the solution of these issues as important in theoretical and practical terms.

Methodology and technique of the research

First of all, it needs to be clarified that we think it is possible to use the term “secondary employment” to mark the group of students from institutions of secondary vocational and higher education having full-time studies as employed in the economics sphere. Our basis is the official position of the government that full-time students of educational institutions, including education in the sphere of state employment services, are considered employed1. In this case, their work is considered to be additional or secondary employment. Therefore, students’ secondary employment is related to combining full-time studies and permanent or temporary work.

Examination of students’ secondary education in the context of its social integration (into the spheres of labor and employment first of all) seems important because of mixed results from combining studies and work. On the one hand, employment during studies might be productive for students. Development and implementation of labor functions allows them to exercise their abilities without waiting for professional diploma, acquire experience and seniority, to earn their own money, to join the profession and professional activity provided that there is a relation between their ongoing education and work, and etc. On the other hand, it can lead to a series of problems which could be difficult for students to overcome. Getting a job while studying implies more physical and psychological pressure on students which frequently leads to problems with studies and university performance decline. If profiles of education and work do not coincide, a student might lose an interest in a profession he trains for during studies and devaluate its personal value.

Given this ambiguity, it is necessary to focus on the role of students’ secondary employment for its professionalization. We prefer to interpret professionalization in a broad sense – as a process of including an individual into profession and professional work, formation of professional knowledge, skills and competencies, its probation and implementation in practice, development of values and norms of professional work, self-improvement in professional activity by refining qualification and professionalism. At the same time, this interpretation also means that professionalization is a part of social integration.

In our research, we use the following primary theoretical and methodological approaches toward students’ secondary education: systemic, structural-functional, economic-sociological and resourceful. Systemic approach to the subject of the research allows building a common description of the studied phenomenon and characterizing its elements. Usage of structural-functional approach gives an opportunity to analyze interconnection between these elements, examine functionality of secondary employment, its effectiveness from the perspective of expectations implementation, in the context of its role in professionalization and social integration of students. Economic-sociological approach helps to address issues of revealing and explaining motives of students’ secondary employment, students’ evaluation of their “benefits”, or peculiar results, from inclusion into the labor sphere, which have some interconnections between economic status and social position. Resource income allows specifying opportunities combination of studies and work provides.

Also we suggest author’s approach to defining possible results of combing studies and work for social, personal development of young students and pointing out relevant functions of students’ secondary employment. Students’ motivation for employment is examined in the context of their subjective assessment of the implementation of these expectations.

Empirical basis of this research – the results of two sociological surveys of secondary employed students (students from secondary vocational and higher education institutions having full-time studies combining full-time studies and work) from educational institutions of the Kursk Oblast conducted by us in 2011 (N=130 people) and in 2017 (N=150 people)2. The gathering of the empirical data was conducted by the method of handout questionnaire; the survey took place at respondents’ educational institutions.

This methodology reflects the conceptual provisions of the research and includes identical indicators, which allow carrying out a correct comparison of data in repeated surveys. Among these measured indicators: motives of students secondary education, assessment of the work results as the implementation of the expectations from a job, assessment of the value of a current job for mastering a future profession, and etc..

The results of the research and their analysis

As the results from the 2017 results show, at the present moment a primary motive for students to combine studies and work (78.0%) – the willingness to earn their own money. A third part of respondents are motivated by an opportunity to financially assist their parents. A small part of students works because they need to pay for their professional education ( table 1).

Primary factor to get a job for 32.0% of working students is a willingness to gain experience for further employment. Every tenth student works because of the desire to find the most suitable job by trying different types of work (look at table 1). We think it is important to separate a wish to gain work experience possibly not related to the profession studied in the university and a wish to accumulate experience in the work related to professional program in the university. Motives for getting work experience and finding the most suitable job are not directly connected to professionalization (but it is not excluded). That is why these motives could be called mostly pragmatic and not professionally oriented.

22.7% of secondary employed students think that their job is the way of developing its common and professional culture, knowledge, competences. 19.3% of working students

Table 1. Motives for students’ secondary employment (in % from the number of respondents)*

Answer option	2011	2017
Willingness to be financially independent, to have own money	86.9	78.0
Necessity to gain work experience for further employment	34.6	32.0
Desire to financially assist parents	33.1	28.7
Willingness to use free time	31.5	27.3
Need for further development of skills	21.5	22.7
Desire to gain professional experience to shorten the period of adaptation to work	20.8	19.3
Desire to start a professional career as early as possible	20.0	10.0
Wish to expand their knowledge, acquire general cultural and professional skills	18.5	22.7
Wish to expand the circle of friends	11.5	8.0
Desire to create their own business, business	10.0	11.3
Necessity to pay for studies	8.5	5.3
Willingness to get acquainted with different types of work while studying at the University and choose the one that is more suitable for the role of permanent work	7.7	10.0
Spiritual need for work	6.9	9.3
Another reason (“ for the family budget with a husband ”, “ necessity to provide for a daughter ”, “ current life situation (birth of a child) ”, “ necessity to pay for a second higher education ”)	2.3	0.7
Overall	313.8	285.3
* It was possible for respondent to mark several answers.
Sources: Data from author’s survey of secondary employed students, the Kursk Oblast, 2011 and 2017.

want to accumulate professional experience to shorten the period of adaptation to work after their graduation. Only every tenth student combines studies and work to start a professional career. These motives are connected to professional inclusion, therefore they could be named professionally oriented.

Significant groups of students think of employment as a way to use their three time (27.3%) and the way of developing their skills (22.7%). The lesser number of employed students connect their employment to willingness to try themselves in business sphere, to organize their own business, to spiritual need for work and aspiration to expand their social networks.

While analyzing motivation of students’ secondary education from 2011 to 2017, we can mention two peculiarities. First of all, there is a relative stability in hierarchy of motives. Material or economic motives and several professional motives of lesser importance oriented toward professionalization are on the top. Secondly, there is a decrease in a number of students who begin working during their studies and seek for early start of a professional career.

It is important to correlate motives of students’ secondary education and opportunities the work gave to students, because many employed students have material and professional expectations from work. Also, it is possible to examine the level of their implementation. Special interest in the research is the answer of secondary employed students to the question of the relevance of the gained experience for their further professionalization and professional adaptation.

There is a term “window of opportunity” in literature which is used to understand social phenomena and processes. It implies advantages which a social practice presents. Based on specifics of working activity and special social status of employed students, we presented so called window of opportunity, which is given to students by means of secondary employment. Within it, certain “advantages” are grouped into two broad categories: social, including economic and professional opportunities, and opportunities for developing personal potential.

Students’ social acquisitions from inclusion into the sphere of labor and employment may include:

– getting to know the nature of the profession, inclusion in the professional community, the establishment of business relationship (familiarization with the profession and the professional community; the opportunity to communicate with colleagues, more experienced and qualified specialists);

– formation and improvement of professional competencies, knowledge and skills (the ability to competently, efficiently do the work, mastering of knowledge of the profession);

– obtaining competitive advantage for future employment, professional adaptation, and career advancement (advantage over other graduates without experience, advantage in further application for another job; a chance to start working earlier after graduation and advance a career faster that other graduates);

– the acquisition of financial independence and a source of livelihood (opportunity to have one’s own money).

Supposed ways of the development of young people’s personal potential in the process of work could be:

– individual’s self-realization and realization of the potential (discovering one’s new skills and abilities);

– social self-determination (acknowledging one’s social position in the society);

– development of common cultural competences important for goal-setting and goalachievement, setting of one’s life path (ability to plan life, set life goals, ability to choose the right means to achieve goals);

– development of important personal qualities, including those necessary for professional activity (formation of personal qualities necessary for the employee: responsibility, discipline, etc.).);

– self-realization (ability to realize one’s interests and propensities).

Professional growth of young people become interconnected with the following opportunities: getting to know the nature of the profession, inclusion in professional society, establishment of business connections; formation and development of professional competences, knowledge, and skills focused directly on professionalization and professional adaptation; and also development of personal qualities necessary for professional activities; acquisition of competitive advantages in further employment, professional adaptation and career advancement.

Assessing the impact of work on achieving aim of being financially independent and getting personal money, at the present moment, the most part of working students (69.3%) say that work is the source of their own money ( Tab. 2 ).

Overall, we can say that the most part of students who have material motives for work say that it helps to realize them. Significant part of employed students think that their work helps them to understand the nature of the profession and join professional society (31.3%) and communicate to colleagues along with more experienced and qualified specialists (24.0%).

In terms of the development of professionally important skills many students notice the favorable impact of work on the development of their ability to competently, efficiently perform their work and on professional knowledge (24.7%). Speaking of social acquisitions from participating in a work related to getting competitive advantage in the labor sphere, more than a tenth part of students (13.3%) think that work experience gives them

Table 2. Students’ opinion about impact of their work on the extension of social opportunities and development of personal potential (in % from the number of respondents)*

Answer option	2011	2017
Opportunity to have personal money	76.2	69.3
Self-discovering of new abilities and opportunities	39.2	45.3
Ability to plan life, set life goals	33.1	36.0
Opportunity to realize interests and propensities	30.8	30.0
Opportunity to begin work faster after graduation (in comparison to other graduates) or faster advance a career	28.5	13.3
Formation of personal qualities necessary for the employee (responsibility, discipline, etc.)	27.7	33.3
Acknowledging a social position in the society	24.6	18.0
Ability to competently, efficiently do the work, professional knowledge	24.6	24.7
Opportunity to communicate with colleagues, more experienced and qualified specialists	24.6	24.0
Inclusion into profession and professional society	23.8	31.3
Ability to choose appropriate means of achieving aims	23.1	16.0
Advantage over other graduates, who do not have working experience, in further employment for another job	19.2	10.0
Other (“ opportunity to live without parents ”); (“ communication with different people in different situations ”, “ maintenance of practical experience ”, “ fatigue, lack of sleep ”)	0.8	2.0
Job did not give anything	–	0.7
Overall	376.2	354.0
* It was possible for respondent to mark several answers.
Sources: Data from our survey of secondary employed students, the Kursk Oblast, 2011 and 2017.

an opportunity to start work earlier or faster advance their career after graduation, unlike students who do not have this experience. The same amount of students (10.0%) think that they would have an advantage over graduates who do not have work-related experience in applying for another job (Tab. 2).

Thus, judging by the assessment from secondary employed students, possibility of having own money is the primary social opportunity the work gives them.

If we speak about opportunities for personal growth in the process of work, the main part of employed students think that work helped them to understand their potential (45.3%) and provided them with the means of realizing their interests and abilities (30.0%). Besides, one third part of students (36.0%) see their jobs as the place where their ability to plan life and set life goals improves. Also, in the process of work, many of these young people (16.0%) learn to choose the right means of achieving their goals. One third part of working students (33.3%) notices the formation of personal traits necessary for work: responsibility, discipline, and etc. Generally, every fourth student from the number of secondary employed students (18.0%) thinks that working experience has an impact on understanding their social position in the society.

If we speak about employed students’ assessment of personal potential development job provides, for the most young people their work becomes a source of understanding of themselves and their potential, presents opportunities for developing general cultural competences, which are important for goalsetting and goal-achievement, life planning, forming demanded personal traits.

While looking at the dynamics of students’ possible “benefits” from work from work in 2011–2017, it is possible to find several special aspects. First of all, we can speak about relative stability of so-called window of opportunity of secondary employed students, where the most valuable assets are material (financial income), personal (awareness of their capabilities and self-realization), and less valuable – professional (inclusion into professional activity and society). Secondly, according to the respondents’ answers, revaluation of the role of secondary employment in the context of its competitive advantages happened in the minds of students. In comparison to 2011, in 2017 a number of those who chose these answers decreased: from 28.5 to 13.3% of those assessing secondary employment as a competitive advantage in professional adaptation and a career building; from 19.2 to 10.0% – in assessing it as a competitive advantage in further employment.

We think it is necessary to analyze assessment of the role of employment for professionalization and professional adaptation by working students. The results of our surveys allow us to specify the meaning of including students into profession. These results reflect assessments from students, who combine studies and work, concerning professional experience impact on the formation of their views toward profession and professional activities (Tab. 3).

Now, the most part of working students (83.3%) think that gained experience has an impact on the formation of their views toward some aspects of working and professional activities. Thus, about a half of secondly employed students (48.7%) think that work helped them to understand specifics of relationships between colleagues, business communication. Many respondents (41.3%) talk about a significant impact of work experience on the extension of their ideas about principles of relations between managers and employees.

A significant number of employed students began to clearly understand employer’s requirements for employee’s personal abilities and professional competence (26.0%), and the contents of professional activity, professional duties (38.0%). Only some students, while working, managed to develop clearer understanding of opportunities and limitations for their possible promotion (7.3%) and professional growth (5.3%).

The fact that only 40.0% of working students point out the impact of their jobs on development of their ideas about profession and professional activity is noteworthy. One of the reasons for this – employment of students in

Table 3. Students’ assessment of work experience impact on the formation of their views toward profession and professional activities (in % from the number of respondents)*

Answer option	2011	2017
The work allowed forming a clearer picture: On relationships between colleagues, business communication	55.0	48.7
On the principles of relations between managers and employees	42.0	41.3
On requirements of the employer for personal qualities and professional knowledge and abilities of the worker	41.0	26.0
On professional duties or the contents of professional activity	25.0	38.0
On opportunities and limitations for Your career advancement (promotion) in the organization	15.0	7.3
On opportunities and limitations of developing Your professional skills in the organization	11.0	5.3
No, this job has not played any part in shaping Your ideas about work	15.0	16.7
Overall	204.0	183.3
* It was possible for respondent to mark several answers.
Sources: Data from our survey of secondary employed students, the Kursk Oblast, 2011 and 2017.

the spheres not corresponding to the profession studied in the university and in the areas of low-quality work. Thus, only one third part of students (32.0%) have work connected to their program of professional education (in 2011 the number was 44.6%).

The most part of this category is represented by students from engineering (they work as system administrators, engineers of technical support, website developers, and etc.), economic and service (they become managers, accountants, credit specialists, administrators, and etc.), pedagogical (they are tutors, counselors, teachers-organizers, and etc.), and sports (work as coaches, instructors) training programs. To a lesser extent, work in the sphere of future profession is typical for humanitarian students (where strong competition is expected), medical and pharmaceutical professions (where a diploma-confirmed qualification is required).

But now the most part of secondly employed students (68.0%) work in economics sphere not connected to their professional education and their work does not require high qualification (sales consultant, sales manager, manicure/nail service master, promoter, driver, etc.) or is described as nonqualified (handyman, caretaker, cleaner, dispatcher, courier, etc.).

In this context, differences in opinions of students, who work in the economic sphere, concerning value of their job for mastering their profession studied in the educational institution become clear ( Tab. 4). It means that students split up in two significant categories according to the relevance of their job to mastering future profession: those who think that their job is useful for the studied profession and those who think differently.

Table 4. Students’ opinions about relevance of their current job for the profession studied in the educational institution (in % from the number of respondents)*

Answer option	2011	2017
Yes	25.4	10.7
Rather yes, than no	18.5	22.0
Hard to say exactly	11.4	9.3
Rather no, than yes	15.4	16.7
No	28.5	41.3
Refuse to answer	0.8	–
Overall	100.0	100.0
Sources: Data from author’s survey of secondary employed students, the Kursk Oblast, 2011 and 2017

While generally assessing a value of their real work for mastering future profession, only one third of working students (32.7%) believe that it would be useful for these purposes (Tab. 4). This opinion is expressed by the most part of those who work in the sphere of their future profession (62.5% of the category) and by less than one fifth part of those whose profiles do not coincide (18.6% of the category). In comparison to 2011, this rate did not significantly changed (74.1 and 19.4% respectively).

Meanwhile, the most part of the respondents (58.0%) think that their experience from a current job will not be valuable in the process of mastering the profession they study in the educational institution. This category includes mainly those whose work is not connected to their education (73.6% of this category in 2017 and 68.1% in 2011); but some students who work in the sphere of their education think the same (25.0% of this category in 2017 and 13.8% in 2011). This is why there is a decrease in 2011–2017 dynamics in a number of those who are confident about relevance of their current job experience for future profession, and an increase in a number of those who think the opposite. These changes are caused by increased rates of students employed in the sphere of services and sales and bigger gaps between the profile of received education and available jobs.

In 2011 and in 2017, the most part of working students admit a favorable influence of occupation on the formation of their professional culture. Another, lesser part of student think that work positively impacts the development of their professional culture (Tab. 3). Mostly, this is valid for development of young people’s ideas about business relations and communications as components of working culture. To a lesser degree, this is valid for the nature of the profession and professional activity as a component of professional culture. If we speak about the role of secondary employment in forming ideas of young students about opportunities for building career and professional trajectories in a certain organization, it is currently minimal and recently decreased.

Discussion of the results

Our attempt to find oud and analyze students’ social and personal acquisitions from working activities allows characterizing functional aspects of their secondary employment while considering it as the factor of modern young people’s professionalization and social integration. According to the surveys’ analysis, many employed students point out that work gives them opportunities to form and master professional competitions, knowledge and skills; to develop necessary personal qualities; to understand nature of the profession and to be included into professional society, to establish business connections; to get competitive advantages in further employment, professional adaptation and career building. According to this part of students, these opportunities, connected to the substantive and formal aspects of professional and working activities, contribute to their professional adaptation and increase competitiveness on the labor market.

Considering our attitude to the question of defining possible results of combining studies and work for students’ social and personal development, we suggest pointing out the following functions of students’ secondary employment.

In social terms:

– socio-economic which means getting income and achieving material independence, the latter allows extending designation of this function and using its definition as socioeconomic (not just economic);

– professionalization connected to the inclusion into the profession and professional activity, professional society, development of professional knowledge and competences, and the formation of professional competence;

– strengthening of competitiveness meaning acquisition of competitive advantages in employment, performance of professional functions, and career building in comparison to other students and graduates.

In personal terms:

– function of self-understanding, selfidentification, and self-realization, which are manifested in discovering personal skills and potential, their realization, and understanding individual’s social position and status;

– personal growth and improvement of personal potential which is connected to the development of important personal traits and common cultural qualities in goal-setting, goalachieving, and life-planning.

We think that proposed functions of students’ secondary employment influencing their livelihood do not exhaust all of its functional manifestations and can be supplemented in the following scientific developments. At the same time, this approach allows reviewing aspects, which are important for author’s research, of combining studies and work connected to identification of the importance of students’ secondary employment for professionalization and social integration.

In addition, unlike previous studies, we suggest analyzing motivation of students’ employment during studies in relation to achieved results, its subjective assessment by working students themselves, and employment expectations along with its realization. This approach allows identifying social and personal effect of students’ secondary employment. We pay special attention to the specifics of social acquisitions from combining studies and work as well as to their changes in the last years, identified in this research.

First of all, empirical data from surveys conducted by us show that the most part of working students have their material expectations from work realized. In comparison to other employment “advantages”, it stands as the top priority for young students and their social integration. The results of our research, their comparison to other researches [19; 20; 24; 25; 28] indicate the leading role of socio-economic function of secondary employment for students from Russia and foreign countries.

Second, if we take into account objective state of processes in subjective assessments, we should say that in the last years the potential of competiveness of secondary employment experience for students decreased. It is displayed in respondents’ opinions and the results of our surveys. We think that the primary factor of such process is a mass spread of studies and work combination among young students. As the data of all-Russian and regional surveys show, more than a half of students are involved in the economy on a permanent or temporary basis [24, p. 159; 25, p. 97–98; 28, p. 65]. In this situation, working experience might stop being a competitive advantage, but at the same time it might remain as a necessary resource for employment after graduation.

Third, despite increasing social need for enhancing level of graduates’ professional competence and availability of their practical professional work experience, a share of working students who observe the productivity of their work for professionalization is one third. The main reason of this situation is the growing gap between the profile of received education and the work students do by combining it with studies. Solution to the issue of students’ employment in the sphere of future profession heavily depends on an employer, his willingness to give a job, and qualified requirements of work itself. In this regard, students, who do not have necessary work experience and their qualification is limited to their primary employment at the place of studies, are offered vacancies in the sphere of non-qualified work with part-time schedule and absence of the official registration of work-relations, etc. Many students, who want to have their money right now, agree to this job and its conditions, but this employment does not attribute to professionalization and puts their precarization at risk. Precarious employment characterizes unstable position of a worker on a labor market and absence of employment guarantees [30, p. 6; 31, p. 101]. Young people under 23 have the highest risk of entering this group [32, p. 38], which is the age of the most students. Besides, threats of a mass spread in the young people’s society of the idea to choose work with the lower requirements to accumulated potential or “overqualification” [33, p. 163] and nonrealization of cognitive and creative potential [34, p. 92] emerge.

At the same time, the most part of secondary employed students see their work as an important factor of forming their work culture in general and their views on business relations and communication. Acquired results show the necessity to strengthen the function of students’ secondary employment, connected to its professionalization, and creation of conditions for it by institutions of professional education and authorities.

After analyzing modern practical developments of foreign and domestic authors concerning solution of this problem [21; 22; 25; 28], we assume that implementation of the following recommendations will greatly contribute to completion of the defined objective:

– creation of a single specialized database of vacancies for students, who want to combine studies and work, at the level of regional employment services, possibly using electronic government resources;

– involvement of employers in cooperation with professional organizations for the joint development of strategies for the students and graduates’ employment, the formation of labor supply in the areas of institutes’ training programs, and the development of the institute of training and industrial internship, when students have the opportunity to work in the field of a studied profession;

– continuing organizing job fairs, presentations of professions, master classes, practical conferences and other professionally-oriented events with the participation of potential employers on the basis of specialized educational organizations.

In addition, it is possible to acknowledge the efficiency of the following measures to strengthen students’ secondary education connection to their professionalization and integration into labor sphere:

– from the government: the development and the implementation of financial incentives and subsidies for organizations which provide jobs for students according to the profile of their future profession and cooperate with professional institutions (universities, colleges);

– from institutions of higher and secondary vocational education: increase of cooperation with potential employers, search for vacancies and their provision to students according to the profile of their education, creation of own services (departments, recruiting agencies, labor exchanges) for students’ employment promotion, consultation support for students during employment process;

– also from professional educational organizations: implementation of the practice of material and moral encouragement of students working in the sphere of their education;

increased organization of educational clusters consisting of educational institutions and educational programs of secondary vocational (training of skilled workers, employees and mid-level specialists) and higher education, within which interaction with organizations and enterprises is carried out.

Conclusion

Thus, acquired results allow understanding of secondary education’s mixed impact on the development of personal potential, social and professional adaptation of modern students. On the one hand, implementation of material expectations, which are a top priority, formation of views concerning relations between labor subjects, and etc. are major socio-economic and personal acquisitions for the most part of working students. On the other hand, opportunities for professionalization and accumulation of professionalism in the process of studies and work combination remain unimplemented by the most part of employed students.

In this regard, today we can talk about a significant impact of students’ secondary employment on the formation of their common labor culture and the necessity to strengthen its professionalization functions, which will contribute to the growth of employed young people’s professional culture.

The results of our research, related to the production of sociological concept of young people’s integration into the sphere of labor and presented in this paper, contribute to the development of theoretical presentations and accumulation of empirical data in the sphere of economic sociology, labor sociology, and young people’s sociology. We have made an attempt to relate expectations from students’ employment to achieved results, define its potential for students’ social and personal growth, and point out a number of its functions: socio-economic; professionalization; competitiveness increase; self-understanding, self-determination, and self-realization; personal growth and mastering personal potential. It is also important to give explanations for differences between pragmatic (acquisition of any work-experience, search for the most appropriate job) and professionally oriented (accumulation of professional experience, development of professional competences) motives of students’ secondary employment.

The obtained results might be used in the practical work of authorities, employment services, and educational institutions of professional education as a necessary informational basis for the regulation of interaction between educational system and labor market. Its goal is the reduction of the gap between profiles of students’ education and work, the formation of students’ practical experience in the sphere of professional occupation, and activation of students’ adaptive potential.