Innovative person is a subject of all innovative reformation, active initiator and realizer of them. His abilities, according to the strategy, should include: ability and readiness to study continuously, re-study, self-education, professional mobility; ability to think critically; creativity, initiative; skills of independent and team work in a competitive environment.
Objectives of long-term development of Russia are at least linked to solution of the following problems:
1) provision of high level of population welfare;
2) establishment of geopolitical role of the country as one of global leaders that define the world situation.
Strategy of Russian development up to 2020 confirms and outlines the necessity to form domestic economy of leadership and innovations. In this case some promising objectives are defined as:
- occupying a significant market share (5-10%) in the area of high-tech and intellectual services;
- increase in share of innovative products in total industrial output (5-6 times);
- increase in share of innovatively-active enterprises (from 9,4 to 50%).
As it is known, world economic crisis has complicated realization of the set objectives significantly and led to decrease in innovative costs among private enterprises, it has also intensified structural weaknesses of Russian innovative system.
Key challenges regarding innovative development in Russia.
Solving problems of post-crisis restoration takes place in conditions of internal and external challenges for Russia. Let us define key external challenges in regard to our state and its mechanisms. One of the most significant challenges is related to acceleration in technological development of the world economy.
Developing countries and countries of CIS become real competitors of Russia in the area of innovations as well as leading countries.
Uncertainty in development of Russia increases due to technological revolution in recourse-saving and alternative energetics. Export of traditional sources of energy still prevails at the world market. However, new economically-efficient technologies of prospecting hydrocarbons from non-traditional sources: shale, oil-bearing sands, etc.
Another significant challenge is “washing out” employees, technologies, ideas, and capitals from the country, while qualified working force and “clever” money (investments, technologies, competences) are required for strengthening the country.
The third group of challenges should include those that are faced by the humanity – change in climate, population aging, and also ones that influence Russian citizens the most – healthcare, food safety. All the mentioned factors define the need for intense scientific researches and technological developments in the area of:
- “clean” energetics;
- genome medicine;
- new technologies in agriculture, etc.
Russia does not possess significant foundations in these areas. The country should overcome the existing isolation and integrate into the world innovative system.
A different plan of actions implies narrowing “window of possibilities”, transition of Russia into the system of imitating countries that serve as raw material sources that are unable to produce a new knowledge and achieve global leadership in key directions.
Innovative person. Achieving the set perspectives and reality in transforming ideas into possibilities and specific activity is possible only in case personality of an innovative person is formed in Russia, and it is not a synonym of innovative businessman.
Innovative nature of Russian education. Forming competence of the “innovative person” begins before school and in primary school.
The following basics must be mastered during this preschool period:
1) critical apprehension of information;
2) ability to think independently;
3) creativity, inventiveness;
4) ability to work in a team;
5) socialization skills.
The quickest introduction of innovative tools into formation and constructive activity of a person requires:
- formation of institutions for pedagogues and managers that will help them master innovative programmes of developing preschool education (no less than 2 institutions with state support in each federal district within 5 years);
- paying utmost attention towards the role of family in training and education. This objective implies creation and development of various institutes of civil society, including socially-minded non-commercial organizations;
- establishing flexible and real facilitation of new technologies of education and methods in school. These methods include developing infrastructure of deep and profile education, integration of general and additional education, creating possibility for professional and pre-professional training. Real efficiency of the taken measures will define granting the most efficient schools with the status of presidential lyceums.
Connection between school and higher educational institution in the ares of innovative development is established via mutual network, projective activity and professional training communication between young researchers, their introduction into projects, organized by institutions, grant support for certain projects and educational programmes, creation of probation grounds network for training employees of secondary education, improvement of accreditation, license, and other requirements.
Formation of an integral continuous education system that will correspond to requirements of innovative economy, has become urgent in its origin. It can be realized via:
- introducing international standards and credit-module organization of training process;
- developing system of interaction between institutions of education and high-tech production enterprises;
- altering principles of employing professors and tutors: positions of middle and higher rank (constant positions) will be occupied on competitive basis with a necessary consideration of international publication activity of a contender.
Formation of innovative person is linked to training professionals-innovators in all areas of economy, including education. This setting clarifies a number of internationally-oriented positions:
- participation of tutors in global competitive researches and projects, shutting down contracts with professors who don't take part in this activity;
- hiring foreign specialists on constant and temporal basics;
- creating new ratings of higher educational institutions in accordance to their international publication rate and patent activity of professor team;
- increasing requirements towards results of mastering educational programmes on foreign languages and Russian;
- considering efficiency of international and domestic academic mobility of students and pedagogues;
- participation of high-tech business representatives in forming and implementing educational programmes;
- creating departments on prior directions of science and production within institutions of education;
- measures on opening Russian market for foreign organization in terms of increase in staff qualification and certification;
- developing a system of educating adults and training pedagogues and specialists for this purpose;
- creating small enterprises and opening a) training programmes (e.g. in the area of digital projection of products); b) educational programmes for adults; c) training programmes for aged people – persons of the third age.
Development of mechanisms and network of continuous professional education is defined by development of internet, remote training, interactive, problem, and focus groups.
Teaching innovative enterpreneurship should be included into the number of urgent problems in the nearest future. At the same time:
- an accent on forming a complete circle of innovative developments is made, it includes selection of research thematics and selling innovative “startups”;
- a powerful commercialization of scientific developments is initiated;
- successful businessmen will be attracted to train the youth within the program “Tutorship”;
- formation of united teams of human science students and students of technical specialization will take place.
The youth and innovations. Formation of innovative persons is majorly related to a complex of measures, aimed to involve young men into the context of scientific developments, it implies:
- developing infrastructure of the “House of schoolchildren” in order to realize programmes of additional education of natural science and technological direction.
- developing system of scientific olympics, scientific summer camps and expeditions, contests and conferences.
- support of editions, internet, and other resources devoted to scientific-technical and innovative activity, etc.
Ways of uniting efforts of state, education, science, business are placed in the focus of strategists and initiators of large-scale domestic changes. They include creation of technological platforms – a communicative tool, aimed to activate efforts on creating perspective commercial technologies, services, products and carrying out researches. The following directions are defined as prior:
- informational technologies,
- aerospace technologies,
- biotechnologies, including industry and pharmaceutics,
- composite materials,
- photonics, laser technologies,
- nuclear energetics.
A “breakthrough” at markets of high-tech products and intellectual services is planned on 8-10 positions: nuclear technologies, aircraft building, shipbuilding, software, arms and military technics, educational services, space services and output of space-rocket technics, and also leading positions in fundamental applicatory developments and technologies.
Efficient science. Innovations in developing out Motherland are linked to achieving efficient potential by Russian science. Nowadays Russia has 3,5 thousand of research organizations with staff over 750 thousand employees.
It is necessary to:
- carry out audit of quality of their activity;
- concentrate our efforts on prior directions;
- form a network of scientific-research centers, research universities, centers of supremacy, and centers of competences – national research centers on prior directions;
- create integrated university-academic complexes that will realize practice of combining teaching and researching activity;
- master and introduce new models of aspirant training, introduce specialized audit classes into them;
- broaden probation programmes;
- strengthen scientific schools, create positions of federal scientific consultants, federal professor (an age qualification will be introduced – 70 years for occupying leading positions in the area of science and education);
- remove regulative limitations for employing foreign citizens for leading positions (incl. institution chancellor).
Specific ways of leadership and survival for an institution. Numbers of foreign students who receive education in universities of a country play the most significant part among various forms of education export.
Statistical collection “Export of Russian educational services” underlines that level of foreign students’ satisfaction with their residence and education in Russia is far from reassuring. The main complaints are linked to:
- quality of profile education;
- unsatisfactory content and outdated methodics of education;
- lack of well-organized practices and practices at all;
- discrepancy between education cost and its quality;
- lack in classical and new methodical and training literature;
- presence of subjects that do not relate with a future specialty;
- other social problems, linked to personal safety;
- linguistic and intercultural barriers.
Resume. If Russia is to carry out technological breakthrough in optimal time period, consolidation of many scientific, professional, human, financial-economic, and political efforts is required. At the same time, truth is certain, and every person should start his own way to innovations.
The work is submitted to the International Scientific Conference «Priority directions of development of science, technologies and equipment», Italy, April 12-19, 2014, came to the editorial office оn 19.03.2014