Training of engineers for innovation: request evaluation

The article falls under research category and is aimed at evaluating regional personnel demand in innovation technical specialists. Evaluation of regional industrial companies innovation activity allows for understanding their innovation potential, possible content of perspective demand for technical specialists related to advanced new technologies and processes. Demands of modern engineering labor market reflect only current state, difficulties and production opportunities. Low innovative status of Russian companies, weak development of innovative models and practices hinder prognostication of levels and professions and for engineering sphere. Problems related to forming demand forecast for specialists with professional education, including technical education have been looked into rather attentively for the last five years. Nevertheless quantitative methods of evaluating personnel demand do not solve the problem of engineering competencies for the new economy. Weak indefinite demand for innovative ideas together with qualified engineering and design personnel deficit remain one of the main factors hindering innovation activities of companies and higher educational institutions. Pilot research on the basis of the model for evaluation of innovation behavior of companies from key branches of the regional economy suggested by the authors allows for identifying differentiated ways for interaction between higher educational institution and companies from the real sector of economy aimed at forming the system of integrated academic research and training of qualified engineering staff. Evaluation of innovation potential of Sverdlovsk region companies uncovered an interesting interconnection: companies from one branch or one technological sphere with the same level of hi tech products but with different cooperation level with external developers have different innovation potential. Considering different nature and speed of innovation and technological development of companies authors see the need for internal flexibility and adaptivity of engineering personnel demand evaluation and transfer from large scale macro-analysis to evaluating demand at micro level on the basis of interaction between educational institution and particular employer in the real time format.