New industrialization and professional plans of the young generation: From schoolchildren and students to young specialists of the industrial enterprise

The relevance of the study of the youth’s professional plans in relation to the industrial sector is determined by personnel shortage, erosion of institutional benchmarks during the period of professional self-determination, and the increasing role of human capital in production. In recent years, the scientific community has identified the problem of deengineering associated with labor imbalances at enterprises of real sector of the economy and having such deeper origins as deformation of the student youth’s professional self-determination. Under the intensively developing digitalization and social-cultural dynamics, utilitarian values o f the profession become a priority for the younger generation, but the model of new industriality suggests a different orientation - towards professional development, essence of work and management of cultural capital. The study aims at identifying students’ and working youth’s attitudes to the engineering profession and the nature of their professional plans. Several groups were surveyed in Yekaterinburg: 11th grade schoolchildren (N=2233); 2nd-4th-year students of technical schools (N=1865); 1st-6th-year students of universities (N=1009); young workers of the Ural industrial enterprise (under 35, N=204). The data indicates contradictions in the professional plans of young people. New industriality has determined the priority of knowledge in labor, the significance of involvement in production and of responsibility for the high-quality performance, but young people focus on external indicators (salary, career growth, good working conditions) in their professional path. The engineering profession by its nature coincides with impulses of today’s industrial development, but in the youth’s perception, on the contrary, is typically utilitarian.