Use of the Competency-Based Approach when Modeling Competitiveness of University Graduates

The article is devoted to the relevant problem of the formation of successful competitiveness of young professionals in the regional labor market, i.e. the development of a competitiveness model of a university graduate. The article discusses the concept of «a specialist’s competitiveness» and substantiates the authors’ point of view on its content. The authors have analyzed the existing Russian and foreign approaches to the definition of the essence of a specialist’s competitiveness and highlighted the key competencies for the formation of successful competitiveness of a university graduate. The authors presented the results of the study, a sociological survey of employers, conducted in 2017, which allowed them to rank the competencies in terms of their importance for the production process. Methodological research tools include a sociological survey, statistical data processing and a survey of employers in the Irkutsk region. In the process of the study, a correlation between the form of ownership of the enterprise and the employers' assessment of the professional, business and personal competencies of a young specialist was established. The authors proposed a hypothesis that the employer’s belonging to the public or private sector determines different requirements for certain competencies of a young specialist. The results of the study were presented at the scientific and methodological seminar in Irkutsk State University. The proposed competitiveness model of a university graduate is recommended for use when creating «twin models» of service industry enterprises of the region.