Students and income-earning youths: a transformational transition from competition-based approach to competitiveness

Youth as a socio-demographic group is of strategic importance for any country. The age limits for determining young age vary widely from country to country. Thus, according to the UN Security Council Resolution, a young person is a person aged 18–29. In Russia, young people are citizens aged 14– 30. During this period, a person will have to overcome the transformational transition from an inexperienced teenager with inherent social infantilism to maturity and social responsibility. In this age period serious social statuses such as a schoolchild, a student, a graduate student, a young specialist, a trainee and others are concentrated.

With total world population of 7.3 billion people, the world’s youth population (aged 10– 24) is 1.8 billion (25% of the world population)1. In Russia, the same age group comprises 21.9 million people or 14.9% (aged 10–24) of the total country’s population (as of the beginning of 2017). Based on the Russian age limits for young people (14–30), 26.4 million people (18%) belong to this age group2. The share of young people in Russia has never decreased so much before. For example, there is information from previous historical periods: in 1926 – 29%, in 1939 – 26.5%, in 1959 – 26.5%, in 1979 – 27%, in 1989 – 22%, in 2002 – 24%, in 2009 – 24%, and in 2013 – 21.3%3. We are not speaking only about the share of this age group in the population, which is declining due to changes in the age structure of the population due to increasing life expectancy, but also due to nominal quality of young people in the society. There are obvious socio-economic risks of this trend – the growing load on the working population and other consequences. However, traditionally, it is young people who accumulate creative potential, desire to compete, and development of their own personality and society. In this regard, the reducing share of young people in the country is perceived as a serious threat not only to economic development, but primarily to social and cultural stability.

Research problem

The research purpose is to analyze competitive orientation of young people and the comparison of some elements of the sociological image of students and incomeearning youth depending on competitive orientation in personal life, educational and professional activities.

Thus, the research objectives are: to consider the key factors in the formation of the competition-based approach; determine the criteria for its successful transition to competitiveness and maintaining long-term stability; establish a correlation between competitiveness and the list of individual’s personal qualities, life values, and priorities.

In adolescence, which is the period when a schoolchild studies at high school, the process of social adaptation is intensified – even yesterday’s child thinks about their place in the society, makes a decision about their future profession, independently or with the help of their parents. During this period, the initial attempts of personal self-determination and plans for the future are associated with preparing for the upcoming competitive interaction (in the framework of “adult life”) in the daily and work activity. Building up competitive potential continues during the whole life, being especially relevant in the information (post-industrial) society. This process occurs to a greater extent during the period of vocational training and is implemented in a workplace in the form of the accumulated competitiveness. After graduating from secondary vocational or higher educational institutions, young specialists enter, perhaps, the most intense competition in the labor market, the most intense in their lifetime. It is the “entry” into a profession, employment in a company (or starting one’s own business) that creates maximum competition between peers who also compete for the desired starting positions; as well as between employees who are already in starting positions (for example, previous years graduates), which creates a kind of career “jam”. Great ambition, efficiency, and companies’ openness to young employees (mentoring programs, etc.) help competitive youth overcome this “jam”.

Competition of the younger generation for social and professional position in the society is complicated by at least two factors: first, the desire of young people to be in demand due to increasing working life of a significant part of people (part-time retirement, retirees’ active social position); second, automation and robotization of production processes.