YOUTH SECONDARY EMPLOYMENT INCENTIVES BASED ON THE HACKATHON ECOSYSTEM TO PROMOTE PROFESSIONALIZATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Abstract

The article is an attempt to find new tools to boost youth motivation to secondary employment. The study notes that modern multi-vector (multi-dimensional) processes of updating the higher education system in Ukraine challenge the need for reforming higher education. The above verifies that currently, the biggest demand is primarily for competitive graduates who can independently build their own professional career trajectory, who are able to handle a large amount of information, think critically, demonstrate a high level of adaptability to permanently changing social environment and labor market demands, have developed communication skills, are able to learn throughout the life, are ready to expand management functions and are able to predict the results of their activities. The theoretical and methodological framework of this study involves systemic, structural and functional, economic and sociological and the resource-based approaches. A systemic approach was used to gain an overview and build an overall description of the researched phenomenon; structural and functional approach was applied to provide insights into the functional character of secondary employment, and the resource-based approach – to specify the opportunities for students to combine study and work. It is argued that the use of the Hackathon ecosystem enables to identify the possible outcomes of combining work and study for social and personal development of student youth along with getting better awareness of specific functions of youth secondary employment. Within the scope of this research, the following indicators were employed: the motivation behind secondary employment of student youth, performance assessment as realization of students’ expectations from employment, and the evaluation of the current job significance for mastering a future profession. A motivation hierarchy for secondary student employment has been identified where money is viewed as the key motivator whereas occupational incentives are perceived as less important. As it observed, this hierarchy demonstrates a relative stability in recent years against the falling trend for the significance of the early start of professional career for working students. In addition, the study provides a robust argument to substantiate the demarcation between pragmatics- and occupation-based incentives of student secondary employment. The findings have revealed a rather high realization level of financial expectations of many working students (as a manifestation of the key economic function of student youth employment); a certain devaluation of the work experience role for student secondary employment as their competitive advantage in the area of social and labor relations; as well as low effectiveness of the majority of working students for their further professionalization. However, the results of the study have verified critical effects of any work experience upon shaping basic work culture for this youth category. Apart from the above, the paper discusses the relevance of implementing professionalization agenda in the framework of student secondary employment as well as renders practical recommendations for its enhancement. The study results offer a number of implications to develop further theoretical positions and accumulate empirical data to promote quality assurance in vocational education and training institutions.