Additional Professional Education of Municipal Employees in the Context of Digitalization.

Abstract

Additional professional education of municipal employees of the Russian Federation is considered today, on the one hand, as an integral determinant of the formation of the personnel potential of the municipal service, and, on the other hand, as an important component of the educational strategy of universities. Currently, universities must be ready for constant changes in the educational environment, be able to predict new areas of retraining and offer relevant continuing education programs, taking into account the interests and needs of consumers of these educational services. Additional education is becoming a modus for integrating a practiceoriented approach to training specialists with the formation of relevant knowledge in the field of innovative technologies for interacting with the local community. The aims of the present article are the following: analyze the specifics and problems of organizing additional professional education for municipal employees in the context of digitalization. A survey of experts (heads of local self-government bodies) was used as a key research method. The survey was carried out with the support of the All-Russian Council of Local Self-Government (N = 582). The purpose of this survey was to analyze and assess the human and economic potential of the RF municipalities. To verify the data obtained, the authors used general scientific research methods, a complex of analytical procedures: systematization, generalization, comparative analysis, analysis of statistical data, analysis of documents. According to the results of the study, it is noted that municipal employees do not have sufficient experience in the distance format of completing additional education courses (2/3 of the respondents), but this form of their organization is considered desirable in view of increasing the controllability of the educational process. The respondents directly associate the effectiveness of distance learning with the resource provision of digitalization of the educational space: the presence of digital infrastructure in an educational institution, modern software, support from IT specialists, etc. The preferred forms of control in the context of digitalization of education are: project defense, development and testing of new technologies in their professional field, preparation of a real product. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were drawn about the need to update the content of educational programs and include the following areas in them: development of inter-municipal cooperation (creation of economic clusters, networking and exchange of resources); social construction of urban space; social partnership of authorities, business and local residents, taking into account the implementation of the principles of cooperation economy. In the additional professional education of municipal employees, it is proposed to use the following educational technologies: simulation, case studies, expert discussions and workshops.