Changing the Education Paradigm to adapt to the Labor Market

Abstract

The article explores an urgent problem in modern professional education — the imbalance between the spheres of practical experience and academic education. Education is still focused on academic knowledge, whereas employers are interested in hiring employees capable of quality work immediately after the graduation. The integration of Armenia into the general European educational space makes the problem of education quality even more urgent. The labor market’s shifts, which require specialists to possess specific professional abilities rather than a wealth of information or experience in order to successfully and quickly adjust to a new work environment, worsen this process. This has changed the educational paradigm from a qualification-based model to a competency-based model imperative, which can only be achieved through the recalibration of educational programs to be more adaptive to changing the needs of the labor market. This process has been ongoing for a long time, but the mechanisms for developing and validating programs are still far from perfect and do not always provide for extensive discussion with employers. This article discusses the conceptual principles of recalibration of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs based on the Dublin descriptors and Tuning methodology.