Образ человека будущего, Том 7
Шрифт:
Andrii Kyrychok - PhD
Kyiv Polytechnic Institute named by Igor Sikorsky (Kyiv, Ukraine)
E-mail: [email protected]
Modern approaches to the study of issue of PR-experts training require rethinking in order to identify new prospects of improvement and development in training of specialists in public relations. An important aspect is that Ukraine has recently moved to training format, based on acquiring of knowledge necessary for professional life by students. This applies, in particular, to specialists in public relations. The key aspect is to determine the set of skills of PR-specialist meant to be acquired by him during study. Another important point is the transition to the European three-level educational model, aimed at democratization and improvement of the process of acquiring of necessary skills by specialists. The essential transformation should be done in the field of PR-education in order to allow experts, at every level of education (Bachelor-Master-PhD), to receive only a clearly defined and systematic set of skills. The author carried out the content analysis of educational training programs in the field of PR for the purpose of discipline component, the principles of programming and knowledge, acquired at each educational level. Investigated data was systematized, analysed and recommendations on principles of development of effective three-level model of training for experts in public relations at the university were given.
Key Words: public relations, PR-education, skills, comparative analysis, educational training program, and competency approach
Introduction
Ukrainian education system requires essential rethink from all points of view, it concerns the approaches to training of workers in different disciplines, including specialists in public relations. Nowadays, the first step to this at the level of the whole higher education system is made - the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education", aiming to democratize education sector and make it more competitive.
In this article, we suggest to investigate the process of educational training of specialists in public relations by applying competency approach. In modern realities, HEIs should develop innovative educational programs, which can provide not only the acquisition by students of certain amount of knowledge and skills, but also their subsequent effective practical application in their professional activity. This approach to the development of educational programs will respond to the challenges, posed by "knowledge society" and therefore "knowledge economy", for which generalized skills, based on the obtained fundamental knowledge, communication,
Kyrychok, Andrii , 2017
Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017 71
The Main Determinants of Improvement of Model of Educational Training of Specialists in the Field of PR Based on Competency Approach by Andrii Kyrychok
resolution of professional problems, possession of the latest information technologies, the ability to continuously update the existing system of knowledge are the most important and effective.
Competency approach involves the willingness and desire of a man to apply his knowledge, skills and personal qualities in a certain field of professional activity [Baydenko, 2004].
Competency approach in educational activities is an important direction to ensure a close correlation between education and employers, as well as the direction of unification, on the one hand, the requirements of employers to future experts, and on the other - a means to develop educational programs for individual specializations of one discipline. Even as we speak, leading companies, government bodies, when developing demands on staff, describing requirements for certain categories of workers, widely use the concept of competencies, develop and implement the so-called "profile (or model) of competencies", a set of competencies, i.e. knowledge, skills and personal qualities necessary for successful professional activity [Bolotov, 2003].
The most important indicators of the quality of acquired knowledge throughout the learning process are professional qualities of experts, formed on the basis of personal qualities in the information and communication sector, including the field of public relations, which involve consistent and analytic thinking, creativity, communicativeness, ability to teamwork, ability to use knowledge, skills and practical skills to analyse the situation and foresee its development, including the cases of complicated and unforeseen situations, the availability of rhetoric skills, including written and oral communication, negotiation, work with print and electronic media, social media and other communication channels of digital society, possession of the full range of Internet technologies, conducting special events, creation of promotional product of commercial or social orientation. The analysis of all these indicators allows us to draw a conclusion about deep relationship and interdependence between them [Saunders, 1998].
Here is a list of skills the PR-specialist should possess (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. The list of required competencies for PR-specialist
As we can see, the figure shows a wide range of competencies from various fields of knowledge. This is not the whole list of branches, to which the field of public relations is coherent. PR-specialist is versatile and he constantly develops new skills from other disciplines, because without such a development his professional level will fall. The main requirement for the student during study is to acquire the ability to learn. We emphasize that PR-specialist should constantly improve his skills [Fiske, 2014].
72 Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017
The Main Determinants of Improvement of Model of Educational Training of Specialists in the Field of PR Based on Competency Approach by Andrii Kyrychok
The aim of this article is to analyse the peculiarities of the formation of educational training programs according to three-level system by virtue of competency approach.
In the course of the work two tasks were performed: we carried out the comparative and content analysis of educational training programs in the field of PR and considered the ways to integrate this experience into domestic programs.
Literature review
It should be noted that today specialists of educational and scientific sphere and practitioners hold discussions about what character exactly should the training program in the field of PR-education have, including what nature the discipline content should have. Many of these professionals pay attention to the fact that a single international standard of education should be developed. Experts from many countries have already tried to improve the system of training in this area [Azarova, 2003; Ferrari, 2009; Ferreira, 2004; L"Etang, 2002; Pirozek, 2003; Sriramesh, 2002; Toth, 2010; Zhang, 2010; Zlateva, 2003]. In 2008, the University of Leeds [Tench, 2008] conducted the study of public relations programs around the world to form a unified standard of training in this area. Then, in 2009 an online survey of members of "Euprera" organization regarding programs of basic and full higher education was carried out [Cotton, 2009]. From this perspective, analysis of web sites and conduction of qualitative interviews of East European University [Watson, 2014], as well as study of the development of education in public relations in some countries seem to be very interesting [Goncalves, 2009; Xifra, 2007].
During the research, we pursued the objective to compare educational training programs for public relations in different countries and in the domestic training system. In the study, we relied on document analysis and content analysis to obtain statistically accurate survey data. Since recently we have implemented three-level education system, the research was conducted on the basis of three-level paradigm. That is why, for the analysis, we chose programs of "Bachelor", "Master" and "Doctor of Philosophy" degrees, which train specialists in public relations. 37 training programs of "Master" degree and 35 training programs of "Bachelor" degree were analysed. Considering that training system for "Doctor of Philosophy" degree is a new format for the domestic education system, we analysed five foreign training programs for "Doctor of Philosophy" degree in order to establish their discipline filling, content and duration. Data received will be used in the future to improve the national training system for public relations and to develop educational training program for "Doctor of Philosophy" degree. The investigation was aimed to carry out a comparative analysis of the programs in terms of repeatability of professionally oriented, social, and human disciplines and general credit load for each discipline separately; to determine optimal credit load for each discipline, based on the evidence found.