Youth Professional Development

Abstract

Professional adaptation is a process of engaging young people in professional activity that is influenced by the right career choice, the level of professional orientation, as well as the type of professional training. Professional adaptation is considered as a special type of social process aimed at engaging the group of people in working life, as they were artificially disconnected from this life during their study.

The formation of professional orientation is influenced by several objective and subjective factors. The objective factors include specific socio-economic conditions that will determine the role of an individual in the system of working relations, as well as the nature of work, its stimulation, working conditions and working environment. Nowadays these factors are significantly influenced by economic crisis, unemployment, lack of social protection, as well as the expansion of international contacts, the appearance of new forms of employment, the introduction of information technologies, etc. The subjective factors include personality traits, the interest in performing the activity, the satisfaction from performing the activity, motives and goals inducing this activity.

During the preadaptation period, an individual becomes acquainted with new duties and responsibilities that team members and the administration are expected of them to carry out; the individual’s training level and their ability to carry out professional duties are assessed as well. This period can last from a few months to a year. During the next period of inadaptation, an individual assumes a social role of a worker, accepts the goals and tasks of the organization and starts to carry out the planned tasks. In the period of post-adaptation, in case of positive adaptation, the employee’s activity is aimed at creative application of the experience and knowledge acquired.

Thus, professional success can serve as the objective criterion for professional adaptation, while job satisfaction can be considered as the subjective one. To assess the results of professional adaptation, the adaptation levels, namely high, moderate and low can be used.