Higher Agricultural Education: Orienting Professional Tasks to Shape Sectoral Digital Competencies

Abstract

AbstractThe relevance of the research topic is determined by the need to provide the agricultural sector of the Republic of Buryatia with highly qualified personnel. The paper aims to assess the possibility of forming professional competencies of students, considering the specifics of agricultural production and the trends in the digital development of the industry. The paper uses modeling methods in practice. The results of the analysis of the applied Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education and professional standards of activity (in terms of requirements for the formation of students’ digital knowledge, skills, and abilities) indicate the mutual inconsistency of the content of these requirements, which makes it challenging to adapt educational programs and set professional tasks with their focus on the formation of digital competencies for work in today’s agriculture. The authors conclude that it is necessary to adapt educational programs to the requirements of the digital economy in the agricultural sector. This will actualize the content of educational programs of higher education of higher agricultural education institutions, considering the employers’ needs in specialists with competencies in various areas of agriculture and a set of digital knowledge, skills, and abilities applicable to the agricultural sector. Thus, the paper focuses on forming the professional competencies of students in higher agricultural education programs to ensure the digital development of agricultural organizations. The paper presents a rationale for approaches to adapting basic professional educational programs (BEP) to the digital economy, in which a special role is given to “Applied Computer Science,” “Economics,” and “Management.” The authors consider the possibilities of setting and orienting the content of professional tasks on the formation of digital competencies. The main aspects of the transformation of higher agricultural education in the conditions of Industry 4.0 are presented.KeywordsProfessionDigital industry-specific competenciesFederal state educational standard for higher educationProfessional standardsDigital economyAgricultureAgro-industrial complexEducational programsInformation technologyJEL ClassificationA22M53Q16