Formation of postgraduate students’ professional competences through independent work

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to get the opinions of the graduate students in order to establish their professional competences through an independent study. The research was carried out in accordance with the qualitative research method. The participant group of the research consisted of 40 students who were in the graduate programmes in various universities in Kazakhstan in the 2021–2022 academic year. Research data were collected with a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researchers. As a result of the research, the status of postgraduate students working in a job related to the education they received during their education was evaluated, and it was determined that the number of students working in an independent job and the number of students not working were close to each other. In the research, it was determined that the majority of students stated that independent work is important in the formation of professional competencies. Graduate students who participated in the research stated that they found their professional competencies somewhat sufficient. The vast majority of postgraduate students are concerned with the development of their professional competences through independent study. They suggested increasing employment opportunities for graduate students, providing students with the opportunity to practice by collaborating with the university and the industry, creating internship opportunities suitable for each programme and opening applied graduate programmes.

Keywords: Postgraduate education, independent work, professional competencies, student opinions;