The expert predicted an increase in competition for strong graduates among employers

The restriction of paid places in popular specialties will lead to the fact that the competition will intensify, and more prepared and motivated applicants will enter universities. This will generally improve the quality of graduates who will enter the labor market in a few years. This opinion was expressed by Olga Bakhtina, HRD at the RTA digital agency, in an interview with Izvestia on December 3.

However, she noticed that the university provides a base, and real skills are formed later on internships and first work projects.

"The candidate's portrait will also change: he will become more collected, academically strong, with an early interest in the profession. At the same time, the variety of alternative education — courses, practices, design schools - will increase, because some of the students will not be able to get either on a budget or a paid place. For employers, this means that a diploma will be important, but not the only criterion," she said.

In the fields where young people traditionally go — marketing, management, journalism — there will be a reduction in the total number of graduates, but an increase in the average level. It will even help marketing: more motivated people will come, but the "wide reserve" of newcomers will decrease. Therefore, companies need to build their own training programs and internships in advance.

For HR today, a diploma is more of a confirmation of basic training, but not an indicator of readiness for work. Bakhtina stressed that the reform is unlikely to radically change its significance: yes, there will be fewer graduates, and perhaps the diploma itself will work a little harder as a quality signal. But still, the main thing is skills, flexibility, and the ability to learn.

From the employer's point of view, limiting commercial admission will remove some of the weak students at the entrance, but the difference for the labor market will not be very noticeable. A good specialist is formed within the company through practice, mentoring, and working on real—world tasks.

"What should employers do? Strengthen early hiring, cooperate more closely with universities, create your own case festivals, design schools and internships. Pay more attention to the assessment of practical skills: case interviews, work assignments, mini-projects. And, of course, invest in education, otherwise the competition for strong graduates will increase dramatically," the specialist noted.

If we talk about the key competencies that young professionals will need in the next 3-5 years, especially in digital and marketing, these are basic analytics skills, working with data and metrics; product thinking; skills in creating content for different platforms; the ability to quickly master new tools, including AI; and developed soft skills — communication, work in a team, the ability to present solutions.

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