Sociological analysis of professional and employment orientations of technical college students

The results of a study of professional and employment orientations of technical college students (based on a sociological survey conducted at Moscow Polytechnic College, Stary Oskol Polytechnic College and Gubkin Mining College) are given in this paper. In the structure of vocational and employment orientations the following are distinguished: motives for choosing a profession, the personal sense of vocational education, the stability of motivation, subjective images of ‘good’ job, the optimality of professional choice, and professional and employment plans. According to the results of the sociological survey of students, the main motives of professional choice are ‘stability of demand for the profession’ and ‘prestige of the profession’. The factor of the closest, reference social environment plays a significant role in the formation of elective preferences. The personal sense of vocational education is associated with the possibility of obtaining a demanded speciality, the opportunity to become a qualified and highly paid specialist. The authors determine the level of professional choice optimality taking into account such indicators as the satisfaction with the chosen profession, the stable attitude to the profession during the training, the conditional re-selection. The results of the research show that two-thirds of technical college students intend to continue their studies at the university, one in three expresses readiness to get a job connected to their speciality. Every third student has a superficial understanding of the future job requirements. Informal sources of information about the future profession (relatives, friends, acquaintances) predominate in the structure of these sources, the media and the Internet also have a significant influence.