Increasing the competitiveness of future economists for work in industry 4.0

Abstract

Introduction. Currently, in the context of the development of digitalization and information technology, the business environment is changing. This must be taken into account when preparing economics students so that students have a high level of professional competence and possess the knowledge and skills necessary to work in Industry 4.0. Given the rapid development of ICT in the field of economics and education, it is essential to prioritize the development of students' ability to navigate information flows and use modern data processing methods and programming skills.. The aim of the study is to develop recommendations aimed at creating organizational and pedagogical conditions for the increasing the competitiveness of future economists for working in industry 4.0. Materials and methods. The 285 students took part in the survey – future economists studying in the specialty "Accounting and taxation" of 5 universities (Chechen State University named after Akhmat Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow Aviation Institute, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics). To assess the significance of differences in indicators in samples of 1st and 3rd year students, a nonparametric Pearson's chi-squared test was used. Results. The results obtained showed that when characterizing a competitive specialist, 1st year students in economics give priority to theoretical and methodological knowledge and knowledge of a foreign language, while 3rd year students attribute a competitive specialist and high knowledge of modern ICT to the priority characteristics of a competitive specialist. The results of Pearson's chi-squared test confirmed the statistical significance of differences in such characteristics as foreign language proficiency (χ2 = 58.7), theoretical and methodological knowledge proficiency (χ2 = 46.8), modern ICT proficiency at a high level (χ2 = 52.5) when comparing the answers of 1st and 3rd year students who are in the zone of significance, exceeding the critical value (p < 0.001). A survey of students on the factors contributing to an increase in the level of training of competitive specialists for work in Industry 4.0 showed that, compared with first-year students, third-year students are more interested in the introduction of special additional disciplines, electives in the information and professional areas. The calculation results of Pearson's chi-squared test confirmed the statistical significance of differences in students' assessment of such factors that contribute to an increase in the level of their IC, such as an increase in classroom hours for computer science disciplines (χ2 = 41.9), the introduction of special additional disciplines, electives in the information and professional areas (χ2 = 61 ,3) when comparing the answers of 1st and 3rd year students.. Conclusions. The data identified in the study make it possible to formulate recommendations aimed at creating organizational and pedagogical conditions for increasing the competitiveness of future economists. First of all, it is necessary to organize a sufficient level of technical support for teachers and students, as well as to attract competent teachers who are fluent in basic applications and professional software. Keywords: information culture, software, MySQL, Python, education