New Leadership Research Paper
In recent weeks, media outlets have published numerous articles and editorials announcing the issue of labor shortage in the world of primary and secondary education in Quebec. The supporting data allows one to conclude that banks of deputies are merging visibly and that regular ranks are becoming increasingly sparse. According to university faculties of education, there have been significant declines in enrollment. This imbalance is not temporary. However, the waves of retirements among baby boomers do not do much in the way of explaining why this phenomenon is like so.
Researchers have cited various factors in an attempt to shed some light on this worrying situation, especially in the secondary education stream (Radio-Canada, January 25, 2019). The lack of attractiveness of a profession can be attributed to factors such as; low wages with some being among the lowest in Canada, increased difficulty in teaching as a result of too many students in the classroom, increased tasks since the wind d austerity. Some additional reasons include chronic instability, obsolete school infrastructures, parents with little solidarity when it comes time to value the authority of teachers with their children, etc.
Each country is interested in preparing a cohort of such teachers, which would not only ensure the quantitative implementation of the tasks of compulsory education but also bring to a much higher level of knowledge and the culture of its citizens. The professional training of such a specialist is arduous. Objectives and subjective factors generated by social transformations, technical achievements of stereotypes and formalism of the existing system of professional training, motivation, and value orientations of future teachers become obstacles.
In the world, the teaching profession belongs to individuals who are considered responsible. It is from the activities of representatives of this specialty that a complex chain of basic interrelated processes begins, which can be schematically represented as; education and upbringing of children and youth, high-quality education, scientific and technological progress, and development of society. The result depends to a large extent on the potential of the first-generation: the skills, efforts, abilities, and professionalism of the teacher. Due to this, every nation strives to be at the forefront of preparing a cohort of such teachers, which would not only ensure the quantitative implementation of the tasks of compulsory education but also brought to a much higher level academically and the culture of its citizens. The professional training of such a specialist is challenging. Objectives and subjective factors generated by social transformations, technical achievements, stereotypes, the formalism of the existing system of professional training, motivation, and value orientations of future educators become obstacles. This interweaving of external and internal conditions, positive and negative factors, as well as active, and indifferent leads to difficulties in the implementation of high-quality pedagogical education.
There is a need to take a closer look at those factors that hinder the achievement of significant results in the training of teachers and to reflect on ways to optimize such training. Therefore, there is a consensus around the urgency of upgrading a career so crucial to the future of our society. Given the complexity of the problems, one would safely assume that the wage increases promised by the current government will not be a panacea. The Institute of History of French America takes the opportunity of this crisis to invite the Minister of education to undertake a broader reflection on the training of teachers. Additionally, it ought to take advantage of the context to review some of the directions taken 25 years ago.
A call for flexibility, 25 years after the Chagnon reform
The considerable impact on the teaching profession of guidance taken more than a quarter of a century ago was quickly forgotten. In 1994, the Department of Education, then headed by Jacques Chagnon, introduced a new four-year bachelor’s degree in education science for anyone who wanted to go to secondary school. The BES, as it is commonly known, became the only way to access teaching careers.
Intense debates followed the implementation of this measure. The critics of the new BES criticized had a problem with the offering a lighter education in basic subjects. Thus, the new teachers in history and the social universe in high school could be required, and are still today, to cover a wide variety of topics and periods with a disciplinary training yet limited to a dozen courses on content disciplinary (Barnett, Corkum, & Elik, 2012). Promoters of the new teacher training program were delighted to see a bachelor’s degree in which class management, adolescent psychology, and docimology were gaining importance. They emphasized that “learning to learn” is a science and not an art that is improvised on the job. No winner can come out of such a dispute.
A lot of water has been pouring in since then, and the Institute of French American History does not want to reopen these heartbreaking debates here. The current situation invites constructive participation by all stakeholders in the education system. More pragmatically, the stakeholders call for flexibility and diversification of access to secondary education. They are proposing to the ministry easily adaptable solutions to deal intelligently with the current shortage of teachers. This is all for the benefit of the youth in high schools.
At the moment, Quebec deprives itself of valuable human resources. Each year, university departments train a large number of bachelor’s, master’s, and even doctorate graduates in various scientific disciplines such as mathematics, literature, geography, and history. These young graduates – often avidly passionate about their field – have however been denied, since 1994, any access to secondary classes. Before that date, once their basic training was completed, the graduates undertook a one-year certificate course which opened the door to the teaching profession. It is frustrating to see some of our history graduates enroll in a French-language in Ontario university to access a patent – the Ontario system being more flexible – that allows them to come back later to teach in Quebec. While in Quebec universities, if they wish to do the same thing, they must commit to completing four additional years of study, which may represent for some considerable extra debt.
Faced with the labor shortage that threatens the world of education, the minister of education should move quickly by introducing a one-year pedagogical certificate that will allow graduates from a variety of science and engineering disciplines to delve in humanities. The current system significantly deprives high school of graduates who are passionate and highly qualified in their field. It is prudent to acknowledge that the proposal put forward cannot solve all the challenges facing the world of education today (Bohanon, 2019). However, it has the advantage of being realistic and enabling dynamic and qualified young people to contribute to this crucial sector of our society. Consistent with its historical positions on education that point towards a more extensive disciplinary training (brief to the Beauchemin Commission and Fahmy-Eid, 2014), the IHAF maintains that the revaluation of this profession requires, among other things, the reassessment of knowledge itself. When the doors of high schools are opened to experts in various fields of expertise: the education system and the youth will be better off.
Conceptual Framework
Today, everybody is talking about the current situation in education and the shortage of qualified personnel. On the pages of magazines, in the offices of officials, in business communities – everyone recognizes the need to look for practical tools to solve the problem (Bornman & Donohue, 2013). The community acknowledges that quite a lot is being done in this direction, especially when it comes to advanced training of top managers, making the question of where to raise the qualifications of senior managers is irrelevant. In the presence of funds, it is solved quite easily.
The educational level of a manager is essential, but the qualifications of the personnel they are to manage are just as important. The reality is that there is a considerable deficit in skilled workers. The problem of professional training and retraining of staff, today, is not only relevant but also critical (Alphonso, 2019). Claims from enterprises to the level of qualifications of specialists, produced by educational institutions of various levels, are heard more often, and sometimes are fatal.
According to representatives of various industries, which have repeatedly expressed themselves to graduates of educational institutions, it is often necessary to retrain a specialist to be able to allow him to work independently. At the same time, these claims concern not only the engineering and technical personnel but also the performers, that is, representatives of working professions. That is, in this situation, in addition to the general shortage of personnel, we experience an even greater shortage of qualified individuals. The current situation is covered from various angles. Many analysts are looking for the roots of this problem, and, in many cases, even offer certain solutions. But before solving this problem, it is necessary to pay attention to what has led to this situation.
Talented people have always lived and are currently residing in Canada. Furthermore, one can safely say that they are among scholars, teachers, and workers. There are skilled young people who, despite all the difficulties they face, are still able to make their way in life. These individuals could be in other countries whereby the shortage of highly qualified specialists is no less relevant than in other countries (Coughlan, 2018). There are brilliant scientists in various branches of scientific knowledge, who also often try to find their place. How did a country with such people and with such potential find itself in a situation of personnel shortages?
In a nutshell, returning to the history of our education, most of the educational institutions providing vocational training and retraining of personnel were under the jurisdiction of the ministries for which they trained the personnel. That is, the ministry of transport, the ministry of agriculture, or some other ministry that had educational institutions that trained precisely those specialists who would need the industry in the near future. With all the shortcomings of this system, in the end, at the very least, it could provide the link between the educational institution and the specific company in which the graduate was to work (Davis, 2019). The leaders of most enterprises knew where graduates would come to work for them and understood that either they would have to train these specialists after they graduated from educational institutions, that is, in the workplace, or they would do something so that these specialists would acquire a particular qualification in the process of learning in an educational institution (Myers, 2019). It was impossible to dismiss a young specialist, which means that at the level of the law, the enterprise was tied to a graduate, and the graduate to an enterprise.
It is widely understood that one’s freedom of choice was limited by this circumstance. The costs of adaptation and entry into the position required much less than the alumni leave for these aspects today. And considering the trained individual already knows what is required including the relevant people to deal with and the specific work at this enterprise, it is much harder for both the individual to leave and the company to release their personnel as they have invested resources in them. It is somehow interesting that in the situation of socialist economic management, in the situation of planned management, the level of optimization and systematic entry of young specialists into the production sphere was better than what we have now.
This digression was made to draw attention to the problem plaguing this sector and to motivate colleagues to look for solutions, which today should not be situational, but systemic. It is possible to solve the problem of personnel shortages in the short term by not approaching this issue systematically (O’ Brien, 2018). Although, it is essential to note that without changing people’s attitude to this issue, without changing the legislative base in the aspects of professional training and retraining, without involving enterprises in this process, the issue shall become a recurring one. Therefore, the nation will be forced to look for specialists outside from abroad, overpaying them at an exorbitant price or attract migrants, who, at times, have little verifiable or even questionable qualifications.
One should keep in mind that building an efficient enterprise in which production processes are optimized is impossible without highly qualified specialists. Not only top managers, but also heads of workshops, departments, craftsmen and, of course, workers. The situation with a shortage of qualified personnel is a long-standing issue (Monson, 2019). Many large enterprises have tried to solve the problem using various methods. Judging from their experience, it can be stated that even large enterprises with sufficient resources alone cannot always solve it. Therefore this being the case, small and medium enterprises cannot even afford to think about solving this problem on their own.
One solution is targeted training. The method is well-known and fairly common. An enterprise pays an education institution to train a specialist by training it on a commercial basis and, as a result, after a certain number of years, it receives a specialist. The question is, how this specialist meets his company expectations. Directing the future employee to train, the company cannot influence what knowledge and skills it will receive. Training standards are developed and approved, graduate requirements also exist, and it is only possible to intervene in the training process through work experience (Ohan et al., 2008). But it is rare to set the parameters for what a specialist should know and be able to do after graduation. Schools cannot do anything about it. The educational standard is “lowered from above,” and they are obliged to comply with it. As a result, everyone performs according to what is prescribed for them, and the production is received by a specialist (Frigerio, Montali, & Fine, 2013). One should bear in mind that not all the graduates’ study according to the target program. If one is to consider them personally for the future of personal growth, then one must be quite critical about these prospects, because it is not always that the target specialists have certain personal competencies that will allow future become leaders.
Additionally, the sufficiently high rates of technology development and changes arising in the management system create an additional effect of “lagging” in the case of the target specialist. Hence, in any case, it is not worth refusing this system of training, but it is necessary to develop a procedure for intervening in the training process (Education, 2019). A special procedure for interaction between the customer (enterprise) and the contractor (educational institution). However, it usually turns out to be a non-market-oriented way: “pay the money, you will receive for it what we consider necessary.”
The other solution to the problem of shortage of personnel with the required qualifications is more costly, but also having a right to exist. If the community does not work with state educational institutions, then why not create a non-governmental one, and teach such specialists in it according to how the particular situation need? (Perold, Louw, & Kleynhans, 2010). This strategy, however, is not available to everyone, and there are no fewer problems here than in state educational institutions. It is not only a relatively high cost of maintaining an educational institution with non-mass training of specialists but also of those notorious standards that become obsolete faster than its implementation duration (Hobbs, 2018). In addition to professional training, any educational institution should also teach and in general subjects, pass licensing, certification of teaching staff, etc.
The other strategy that can be utilized includes assuming the creation within the framework of a single enterprise, and in some cases, with the participation of several enterprises, a training center for additional education (Picchi, 2018). The content of the curriculum here is much less dependent on educational standards, and a particular enterprise will always be able to get specialists of exactly the qualifications that are needed. Of course, the method of creating corporate training centers for additional education is challenging in its respect.
Organizations that follow this path must find specialists who can organize the educational process correctly, respond promptly to the changing tasks of the enterprise, train and retrain not only representatives of working professions but also middle managers and control costs. The field of supplementary education imposes special requirements for employees of these educational institutions related to the training of adults (Deutsche Welle, n.d.). At one time, there was an additional vocational education system, which at a certain level provided a solution to acquiring adjacent or new professions, but at a certain point, instead of expanding the functions of these institutions and giving them special social significance, many additional education institutions lost government support and went to the area of business education (Geng, 2011). The lack of demand for graduates and the relatively high cost forced these institutions to look for new areas of their activities, and everyone began to teach accountants, secretaries, computer operators, and the like, and the industrial training masters were forced to leave to work in the company.
The presiding situation dictates that if the enterprises themselves do not take care of creating new training centers for additional professional education, then most likely the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel in the country will not be solved (Pires et al., 2013). It is important that these educational organizations were created not in the likeness of Soviet institutions, but acquired a new look and were able to solve pressing business problems. Also, a critical task is the creation of a system that could exist according to the principles of self-reproduction and dynamic development (Gaecia, n.d.). Efforts will be required from the state to provide legislative support for the activities of these institutions, as well as intelligible support for early career guidance centers, children’s and youth creativity, innovative ideas, and rationalization, etc. Financial support for such social work is required from the state. These are targeted investments in the human capital of national importance. Public organizations should also play an important role in such work.
It is useful to mention one more method that enterprises currently use when faced with a shortage of personnel or the need to improve the skills of their specialists. This is an appeal to educational service providers. In their person can act as a state educational institutions, and private consulting or educational companies (Macdonald, n.d.). This opens up the possibility of operational management of relationships. An enterprise can always form a request and select the organization that best meets the requirements (Provenzano, 2019). But something should be considered. Entering this relationship with any provider for the first time, one cannot be sure that the service that they have ordered will be provided in the version needed. The provider may not have complete information about the features of one’s company and the specifics of the staff. Specific components should be specified. It is also possible that the provider implements the so-called “boxed products,” that is, ready-made educational programs that are not adapted to a specific customer.
For instance, to improve the efficiency of time spent, a certain individual agreed with a consulting company, and s/he conducted a training on the topic “Organization of working hours of the shop manager.” After some time, s/he ordered training for the same department heads on the “Management Solution” in another consulting company. There can be a very unpleasant situation when the information and skills generated during the first training conflict with the content of the second (Marketwatch, 2018). And the group members have an intrapersonal conflict, which leads to a significant decrease in the efficiency of these specialists as a whole. Of course, it is possible to find companies that offer comprehensive training solutions and ensure the continuity and interconnection of all their educational products, but this is quite a rarity.
In a situation of rapidly developing technologies and constantly growing requirements for the qualification of personnel, it is impossible with the help of any one-time tactical solutions to fully satisfy the need for highly qualified personnel.
Summing up, the paper has concluded that to solve the problem of shortage of qualified professional staff, active participation of the state, educational institutions, business representatives and the business community in solving this issue is necessary (Rodrigo et al., 2011). At the same time, it is the business community that can initiate and mediate between all interested parties. Today, the urgent task is to find a system solution designed to build many years of interaction, which will ensure not only the satisfaction of operational needs for qualified personnel but also a constant influx of trained personnel in all spheres of production relations (Metz, 2018). A systematic approach can be decisive in building a system of continuing education, without which in the modern world it is impossible to ensure the sustainable development of an enterprise, the economy and the state as a whole.
Themes
Currently, in different countries, there is an acute problem of a shortage of teaching staff. Moreover, according to some scholars, the need for school teachers will continue, since the vast majority of not only young teachers but also experienced teachers leave school for certain reasons. Therefore, teachers starting their pedagogical activity in most cases are left without support. Seeing no prospects, they are forced to leave the profession at the very beginning of a career, without achieving success or a certain level of skill.
In this situation, the measures of the Ministry of Education are aimed at improving the system of teacher training, which includes not only the selection of applicants, the quality criteria of their basic education, but also the ongoing support of novice teachers, as well as the creation of conditions for further professional development throughout teaching activities.
Government agencies are taking integrated efforts to ensure that not only young professionals who have qualified as teachers but also experienced teachers are provided with effective support from management and the public (Strauss, 2017). In this regard, they publish regulations aimed at providing both personal and professional assistance to novice teachers and teachers with experience (Thomas, 2011). The measures taken to increase the attention to the professional development of teachers, starting with their respective education and ending with the completion of their careers.
In addition, the role of the teacher and the school in the modern educational space is, indeed, greatly transformed. Classes are becoming more multinational; inclusive education is spreading everywhere, requiring the teacher in the subject area to organize the teaching and educational process with children with special educational needs as part of attending regular school. Additionally, teachers are required to have a sufficient level of knowledge of modern information and communication technologies, have high innovative potential, feel an inner need and desire for continuous improvement, make adequate and rational decisions.
The professional development of the teacher is divided into several stages. At the first stage, basic training is carried out in the relevant educational institution (Voa, 2019). At the second stage, not only the beginning of work activities takes place, but also the first independent steps in the chosen professional sphere, when the teacher directly confronts school reality. At the next stage, further professional development of teachers who were able to cope with the difficulties of teaching work occurs.
The growing shortage and constantly increasing cost of human resources are no longer news for anyone, but a fact that cannot be ignored anymore. In addition, the “demographic hole,” as a result of declining birth rates in the crisis years of the nineties of the last century, is already making itself felt, and in the coming years, it will hurt even more for an already “easy” human resource deficit business.
Of course, it is possible to import developing labor “industrial” centers from the depressed regions of our country and the near abroad, but in any case, this will not solve the problem for a long time (Walker, 2019). Migrants immediately become full participants in the free labor market and very quickly can move on to another employer who will offer more favorable conditions. Therefore, staff turnover is inevitable evil, and one should seriously think first about who and how you should be held in the company since it has long been calculated that it is worthless to retain an existing employee than to attract and bring to an acceptable level of efficiency of the new work.
In addition, the growing shortage of not only highly qualified specialists and managers, but also ordinary workers makes us seriously think about this group of personnel. No matter how clever and intelligent the heads and design engineers would be, but nothing can be done without a simple worker. Immediately the image of the hero from the movie locksmith of the highest rank, “master of golden hands,” which many of the things conceived by candidates and doctors of science from the scientific research institute where he worked, simply wouldn’t come to mind in life. That situation from Soviet times, when at each entrance on the boards hung vacancy announcements “Required … Required … Required …”, experienced by the older generation, is repeated, and now young people have the opportunity to get to know it in practice. Therefore it should be right now to think seriously about the fact that ordinary employees of the company are a specific target group that requires special attention of employers.
Therefore, the topic of staff retention is clear-cut, but it would be better to study it from the point of view of not just retention – as a reactive action performed when something goes wrong, but rather a look from a comprehensive and proactive corporate motivation system. First, this report shall define the terms to better understand what will be discussed in the coming moments. Motivation is an internal process leading to behavior aimed at satisfying a person’s needs, including and as a subject of labor (Will, 2019). Motivation/stimulation is the use of psychological and material ways to create employee interest in work.
Since the aim is maintaining such employee interest in the long term, one should, first of all, consider long-term incentives – as a set of motivating actions (including all relevant rules, procedures, and practices existing in the company) aimed at achieving strategic objectives by the staff (i.e., long-term a) goals.
Key principles of the incentive system
It is necessary to identify the “hygienic” success factors as early as possible, i.e., those key principles of the long-term incentive system, without which today no company striving to retain key employees can exist:
Competitive compensation package (competitive and fair wages – higher than the median, that is, 50% of companies in the market); timely salary correction; an appropriate set of corporate benefits that provide a solution to the most urgent needs of an employee. The employee will think only about work, not about where to eat, how and / or what to get to work, where to be treated, how to ensure that one is safe as well as the safety of their families in an accident situation ( disability, death, etc., supplement up to average earnings to “social insurance” compensation for sick leave). Where the dividing line between a competitive and non-competitive position is actually, numerous reviews of recruitment agencies will help to find out where there is comprehensive information that is statistically calculated on large amounts of data, both on wages paid and on a possible set of corporate benefits, indicating the frequency of their use by employers.
The dependence of pay on the results of labor, i.e., bonus system, must be related to KPI’s (key performance indicators), reflecting business performance/efficiency; corporate incentive programs and competitions should stimulate the “correct” behavior of the employee. Understanding the causal relationship between the stimulus and the response greatly facilitates the management of execution. It is also important that the reward is not delayed, and “the reward found the hero” promptly, thereby forming a positive conditional connection.
The employees should be fully aware of the rewarding system. This particular requirement is similar to the previous one and means that it is always important for a good employee to understand what the employer expects from him and what reward (and sometimes punishment) he can receive if he fulfills or, on the contrary, ignores the rules established in the company. A company must have a system of constant translation of the regulations and principles of remuneration (bonus plans, KPI’s themselves, algorithms and procedures for calculating them, etc.). All conditions should be reported to employees at the beginning of the calendar period, and not at the end when the result has already been obtained, and nothing can be changed.
Strong corporate culture focused on effective work. The usefulness of the so-called “corporate philosophy” (mission, code of conduct, development strategy, personnel policies), internal communication systems (staff magazine, weekly newsletters, corporate intranet site, periodic staff meetings/conferences) are high and effective internal and external PR, – the positive image of the employer.
Opportunity to develop, build a career, and realize themselves. Understanding of their career and professional opportunities in the company, participation in professional competitions and interesting projects; presentations at exhibitions, professional conferences and business forums; publication of articles incorporate professional journals; scientific and teaching work; mentoring; internships, exchange of experience, etc. What are the main tools for staff retention? Three main groups should be distinguished: monetary, benefits and non-monetary (moral).
Monetary instruments
Consider what can be called “long-playing” monetary programs. These include; options for the purchase of shares (stock options) and their various modifications and options (phantom option, a grant to receive shares, a limited option). The option to purchase shares, in general, gives the manager the right to purchase shares of a company at a fixed price for a certain period in the future (GlobalCitizen, n.d.). In other words, the manager gets the right to buy out the company’s shares, for example, after three years at the current price, i.e. the price existing at the time of the option. Since the purchase price is fixed, the manager is interested in maximizing the market price of the shares of the company in which he works in these three years.
Traditionally it was believed that the growth of the market value of the shares is the most effective indicator of the success of the state of affairs in the company. But there have been several recent major scandals in the business involving data fraud and distortion of the company’s financial statements. This is to create the appearance of a favorable course of affairs and, accordingly, growth in its shares on the stock market, give us the ground for a critical perception of the possibilities of this tool of motivation (Rodrigo, 2011). Also, it is possible to use stock options and their various modifications mainly to motivate managers of large companies whose shares are listed on stock exchanges.
Deferred bonus scheme – the participation of a key employee in the company’s profits with a delay, when the payment of remuneration is carried out in stages for 2-3 years. Such schemes are sometimes used in Russia, but less and less, since hired managers do not consider it appropriate to agree to such a long delay in the payment of remuneration.
Long-term bonus schemes based on key performance indicators (KPIs) in a 2-3 year strategic perspective. This is a more interesting tool for motivation. Its essence boils down to the fact that the owners, together with the executive management of the company, define strategic goals for a certain period, agree on how their achievement will be measured, and stipulate the remuneration that company managers will receive subject to the fulfillment of their strategic goals. The advantages of this scheme are obvious – the orientation in the medium term of the company’s key executives towards achieving a strategic result and, accordingly, towards working in the company (Perold et al, 2010). Possible drawbacks are errors in planning the goals (unrealistically overestimated or, on the contrary, underestimated), but they can be eliminated through an annual audit of the results achieved and a thorough analysis of the causes and consequences of actions taken and other factors of the market and business environment.
Getting a share in the company (partnership) – under certain conditions. Such an incentive is most often used in small companies, where the personal value of a super-professional worker is high, and its success depends on how long this specialist works in the company. These are, first of all, consulting companies of various profiles – auditing, legal, etc.
Bonus plan for project work. This tool is used in project organizations to encourage managers and project participants to complete work on time, with the required quality and specified resources (Hobbs, 2018). It is important that the bonus program at the end of the project be sure to include all key specialists that are important for the successful completion of the project since it is no secret that the importance and value of all efforts grow inversely to the time remaining until the planned completion of the work.
If earlier attention was paid to the quality of teacher training and the creation of conditions for their professional development, then in modern innovations, concern primarily concerns the period of entry into the profession and related problems such as lack of professional competence and quick exit from the profession. In the pedagogical community there is a general understanding of the meaning of the period of entering the profession, on which it depends, whether the young teacher will remain faithful to the chosen specialty or stop his own improvement and leave the teaching field forever.
According to the majority of teachers, as well as according to an independent survey among colleagues, the stage of entering the profession should include; support from mentors and other colleagues (27% of respondents), a reduced study load without loss of wages (35% of respondents), access to necessary support resources (12% of respondents), participation in a compulsory program of assistance in entering a profession (14% of respondents), the ability to systematically put into practice theoretical knowledge (12% of respondents) (Eringerio et al, 2013).
The transition to the role of teacher should be gradual and smooth. It is crucial to develop special programs for entering the profession. Such programs will allow the novice teacher to avoid most stressful situations, when, for example, the teacher is forced to take over the leadership of the whole class (classroom management). Of course, yesterday’s graduates of a pedagogical profile are already considered to be qualified specialists, since they have certificates and university diplomas.
However, once in school, they are acutely lacking experience or simply do not withstand the academic load. Also, when starting to work, many sincerely believe that they know the peculiarities of school functioning, what students need, what they need to be taught. In this regard, there are various questions to which young teachers are looking for answers and listen to the conversations of experienced colleagues around them. Recent graduates turn to them for advice but do not receive clear answers, do not find proper examples, in connection with which their confidence decreases, thereby provoking doubts: have they made a mistake choosing a teacher’s profession? As part of this article, a survey was conducted on the subject of the personal life of young teachers. Thirty-five respondents were interviewed who gave their answer to the question of what other difficulties they have when planning their personal lives. Among other problems, novice teachers have noted: lack of time (43% of respondents), lack of adequate response or recognition (23% of respondents), reassessment of their own capabilities (13% of respondents), difficulties in finding a balance between work and personal life (21% of respondents) (Geng, 2011).
The results indicate that the transition from training to the performance of labor duties in an educational institution in modern educational conditions should be quite flexible not only because of the risk of leaving the novice teacher to do but also so that he does not lose his individuality. It is necessary to achieve the integration of professional and personal qualities in the process of entering the professional activity of a teacher (Davis, 2019). Also, the survey data convincingly suggests that the first practical experience as a teacher is important to motivate further pedagogical activity, since the young teacher is ready to learn, he expects a lot from his own efforts and from the system as a whole. And if he receives sufficient support, most likely, his further activity will be not only successful but also long.
The corporate culture that has taken shape in an educational institution has a positive effect on raising the self-esteem of a novice teacher. Young teachers have original ideas, but at school, they have to adapt to the norms and values already established there, which are characterized by a conservatism that does not welcome innovation. In this regard, it is necessary to protect novice teachers from pressure from the dominant culture and to help break through fresh ideas. In connection with the above features of entering the teaching profession, also higher education institutions should monitor the young teacher during the adaptive period, check the effectiveness and quality of basic pedagogical education.
Graduates of a higher educational institution should independently assess how well they are prepared for the realities of practical work at school. Based on their own analysis, a higher educational institution and a young specialist should compile reviews that help higher education institutions adjust relevant educational programs (Marketwatch, 2018). The main goal of teamwork in assessing the adaptive period of a young teacher is to increase the motivation to continue their professional activities, to reduce the number of specialists leaving the profession in the first years of activity in a school educational institution. Achieving high motivation includes not only personal but also social, as well as professional support for graduates of pedagogical specialties.
The results indicate that personal support plays a significant role in entering the teacher’s profession. Thus, beginning teachers often face difficult and stressful situations that cause states of tension and doubts about professional competence and personal qualities. When they receive support, they tend to cope with stress factors successfully, and their self-esteem rises, thereby reducing the likelihood of leaving the profession (Myers, 2019). There are several elements that make up the personal support of novice teachers. Support from a mentor or colleagues, contacting with other young teachers. It is in such conditions that a novice teacher can be convinced that the difficulties he has encountered are not exceptional, because the same thing happens to others.
Another means of successfully entering the pedagogical field is a safe environment since it is important that the problems that arise and the emotions they cause are discussed without regard to assessing the professional competence of young teachers. In such circumstances, it is important to consult a mentor or colleague who is not responsible for determining the level of professionalism of the young teacher or for deciding on the extension of the contract with him. During the survey, young teachers noted that a reduced load was needed (Ohan et al, 2008). Novice teachers need more time and effort to prepare for lessons. Also, lack of experience can cause a sense of incompetence. Reducing the number of lessons (without changing salaries) can be very significant support for a young teacher.
Despite the availability of detailed recommendations for the entry of young specialists into teaching activities, it is important to note that they are rarely taken into account when drawing up educational programs. In addition, research in this area is just beginning to form (Pires et al, 2013). The fact that the majority of young teachers are set to continue their professional growth, and this, leads to an increase in the chances that such teachers will not leave school indicates the effectiveness of taking into account the above difficulties of a young specialist and their solutions.
Conclusion
Summarizing the topic of retaining employees in the company, I would like to emphasize the importance of a comprehensive solution to these issues with an emphasis on motivating staff in the long term. Clear and understandable goals, sound leadership, a good team, and decent compensation for your efforts largely determine future success.
To retain the best specialists and remain competitive, companies need to go beyond the traditional strategies of staff motivation, which are reduced to salary and social package. Smart leaders understand that they need to create a motivating work environment based on a learning culture and develop new leadership and career models for their specialists.
References
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