Professional substitutability and additional education of engineering graduates

The paper deals with the psycho-didactic problems arising in employing engineering graduates for positions that don’t meet either the level or the area of training acquired at a technical higher school. Foreign authors refer to this socio-didactic phenomenon as professional substitutability. It is stressed that in a market-based society professional substitutability is, to some extent, predictable and inevitable. For that reason, the adaptation of university graduates to taking up job vacancies is becoming highly relevant both for young specialists and for their potential employers, as well as for the system of additional education. It is shown that professional substitutability may be of two kinds: vertical and horizontal. Vertical substitutability refers to the situations when graduates with a specific degree (specialist, bachelor, master) in a specific field and subject of training are employed according to the area of their higher school, but the job qualification doesn’t match the graduate’s qualification (it may be either higher or lower). Horizontal substitutability refers to the processes when the graduate, due to some extraordinary circumstances, is to take up a vacancy that is fully in line with the university qualification; however (in a more favorable situation) it doesn’t match the university training, although that major belongs to the same field of training. In a less favorable case, the graduate takes up a position requiring the qualification that may differ from the field of university training. The paper outlines the content and the components of the adaptation period needed for the young employee, when he/she is to go through psychological and professional subject and industry specific functional adaptation independently to bridge the knowledge gap and acquire professional competencies. Usually, the young specialist is to undergo additional training (in industry, technology, science), take a refresher course or enter a master’s degree or a post-graduate program. In the paper there is a summary table demonstrating the kinds and types of additional education for young specialists taking up job vacancies according to different types of horizontal and vertical professional substitutability. This table (which, actually, is a morphological matrix) can be used as a navigator for engineering graduates when taking up a job vacancy. It can be also applied by institutions of additional education to develop educational programs and curricula for refreshment and requalification courses.