Everything used to be simpler: a school graduate received a certificate of maturity and was considered a person who received secondary education. It was the basis for continuing studies. Young people who want to nibble on the granite of science could enter vocational schools, technical schools and universities. The first two types of educational institutions issued diplomas of
secondary special, and the last - of completed higher education. However, now the situation has changed somewhat. The applicant comes to the post - bachelor. “Is it a college education or not?” - thinks the employer. The question, at least in Russia, is somewhat confusing. We will try to figure it out.
In countries that are included in the system of the so-called Bologna process, a bachelor is the lowest academic degree awarded to students who have mastered certain programs of study at a university. As a rule, they defended graduation work in front of the State Attestation Commission and received an appropriate diploma. Qualification of a bachelor allows such a person to continue his education. And after graduating, he can become a master.
It would seem that everything remains as before. Bachelor is a young specialist with
higher education. And a master is a person who has completed graduate school and
defended his dissertation. In the countries of the European Union and America, the vast majority of college and university graduates enter adulthood and find work with a bachelor's degree. Only those wise men who plan to engage in scientific research or, in turn, become university teachers go to the master's program. However, the western employer knows that the applicant-bachelor sitting in front of him has been gnawing science in college for at least four years (and the doctor is 5-6 years old). Thus, the undergraduate “there” is a complete, completed higher education.
In Russia, a bachelor is a university student who has studied four years after high school. And after vocational school or technical school - three or 3.5, depending on the form of training. However, as you know, in Russian universities or institutes, students take five courses. Thus, the two-level system, introduced in 2011, assumes that for the first four years a student masters only general disciplines. Only in the fifth year a person chooses a narrow professional orientation in a given direction. This is the so-called specialty. The Bachelor of Psychology is one example of a university graduate. There is another option. “Family Psychology Specialist” is an example of a second type of student preparation.
The diplomas issued to such graduates indicate in black and white that the bachelor is a
higher completed education. The document also noted the profile (direction) of such a young specialist: jurisprudence, economics, management. However, this student received only the initial skills of mastery. This has its pros and cons. Of course, four years is not five years, and the bachelor in this significantly loses to the specialty, and even more so to the master. But, on the other hand, a bachelor is a person who is not "fixated" on any one very narrow specialty. He can find application in all sectors of professional activity requiring higher education. In the future, the bachelor, focusing on the needs of the employing organization, is able to hone his skills, having received a second education in two or 2.5 years.