USING THE HACKATON ECOSYSTEM FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT FORESIGHT: SCALE, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

Abstract

This article is an attempt to explore the opportunities of using the Hackathon ecosystem tools to perform a quality forecasting of a wide range of youth employment issues. It is observed that despite vast experience of psychological training in higher education institutions based on the transformation of self-awareness, shaping professional perceptions related to changes in professional knowledge of professional occupation as it is, its object, professional community, etc., modern University realia lack targeted management efforts towards developing job-related skills as well as comprehensive assessment of their changing trends in the process of professional enhancement of students’ self-consciousness. At best, specific good practice of individual specialists is used, often without its interpretation by teachers and psychologists and beyond the scope of systemic analysis of the research issues. All this challenges an impetus to further studies on developing professional self-awareness of future specialists and encourages active implementation of the Hackathon ecosystem tools to render a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment at the level of University as well as in a regional setting. To attain the research agenda, the study employed the following general and special research methods: a system analysis method, an analytical grouping technique, comparative analysis, and dynamic and graph series construction. To summarise the research outcomes and to prepare a proposal draft on the opportunities to use the Hackathon ecosystem for offering a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment, the methods of abstract logical analysis and content analysis were used. Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design was chosen as the basis for this study. A questionnaire was chosen as a method of sociological research on student secondary employment. As a research toolkit, two questionnaires were developed: for students and for graduates. The study suggests using the Hackathon ecosystem to perform a foresight on student secondary employment and self-employment as a model to promote professional socialization of Ukrainian youth. According to the research findings, it is argued that there are three trajectories of student secondary employment: spontaneously formed (a good high paying job offered by chance), planned (targeted search for secondary employment according to the study major to gain professional competencies and work experience) and forced (employment to improve or maintain financial and economic well-being, usually beyond the education profile). An emphasis is put that secondary employment for Ukrainian students is not only the way to gain work experience and an extra pay opportunity but also an instrument of student professionalization. It is concluded that the terms and nature of secondary employment affect the professionalization effectiveness where gaining work experience, building professional contacts and employment prospects after graduation are viewed as a benefit for a wider student youth involvement in secondary employment.