Modern Economic Education

Is economic education in demand, is it still in the prestigious class? Opinions on this subject have recently been divided.

On the one hand, statistics confirm that economic professions are on the list of desirable for young people applying for higher education. Financial, banking and accounting diplomas are still in favor.

On the other hand, there are more and more forecasts predicting the rapid loss of a "piece of bread" for diploma economists due to their "overproduction". How are things really in fact?

A bit of history

As such, economic education was born in the second half of the 18th century. His appearance was a response to the needs of increased trade and industry.

The first commercial school was opened in Moscow in 1773. There, along with a very good level of teaching of general subjects, courses of accounting, commodity science, technology, commercial correspondence, commercial arithmetic and commercial geography were read. Education in the school lasted 7-8 years, special subjects occupied up to 11% of the total number of disciplines and the level of education corresponded to the status of a real school.

Modern training of economists

Economic education today does not fit into the framework of a single school, since economic science corresponds to the current level of development of production and trade. The training of economists is conducted at several levels (college, college, university, post university) and is divided into numerous economic specialties, sometimes as far as the active economic professions are far from each other.

Modern economic education has a number of features.

1. Dominance of narrow specialization in the development of programs for which the training of economists. Often, specialists working in the stock market, for example, have a very remote view of the economics of production or logistics.
2. Practice is the separation of accounting theory from the basic foundations on which economic education is built. It is believed that the accounting support of production should be mechanized and transferred to the hands of narrow professionals. However, most practicing economists believe this postulate to be erroneous on the grounds that knowledge of accounting is as necessary for the economist as knowledge of the alphabet is necessary for those who can read.
3. Modern economic science in analyzing the laws of business and forecasting its development increasingly relies on mathematical and statistical methods, which requires students to prepare accordingly.
4. Economic education is increasingly being chosen as a second higher education.
5. The training of literate professionals should be based on the study of the world economic interrelations. Knowledge of foreign languages is a help for modern economists.

Economic professions through the eyes of Forbes magazine

Forbes Magazine in January 2011 published the top ten professions in 2010. His research is based on the data of a large American recruiting website Career Cast. The following factors were taken into account in the analysis:

• Expected annual income,
• Comfort work,
• Demand on the part of employers,
• Absence of stress.

The top position of the list is occupied by an actuary, a specialist in risk assessment, capable of calculating the probabilities of problems and the most rational ways to prevent them. Its activities are closely linked with insurance and financial management. Annual income - up to 85 thousand dollars. The top ten also includes the accountant profession and statistics.

Thus, Forbes argues that economic education continues to be one of the most popular.