V.V. Ponomarev, professor, Dr.Hab.
S.K. Ryabinina, associate professor, Ph.D.
A.A. Mel'nichuk, D.S. Prikhodov
Siberian technological university, Krasnoyarsk

Key words: economic education of students, content of economic education, students' economic education level, university of physical culture, test.

Introduction. Social processes taking place in Russia today, provide for university graduates a significant degree of economic freedom, which opens up opportunities for the broad development of individual enterprise, personality-organizational, joint stock-employment and other economic activities. Therefore, at present competitiveness in the labor market is provided by a broad profile of training, including economic one.

The issues of enhancement of the economic and business training of sports university students have been touched upon in some Russian publications (V.U. Ageevets, V.A. Kakuzin, V.V. Kuzin, B.S. Kuz’mak, M.E. Kutepov, R.M. Orlov, I.I. Pereverzin, S.G. Seyranov et al.). But, despite of the unquestionable relevance of the considered problem the concept of economic and business training for students has not been established, the curricula on economics of physical culture and sport are underdeveloped and students’ entrepreneurial abilities are not being investigated, along with the weak use of the foreign experience of economic training of sports university students.

Various experts consider in a wide variety of often conflicting aspects the point that the modern socio-economic conditions put all new tasks in the field of personnel training for the industry of physical culture and sport [1, p. 186].

However, for a successful career in the new socio-economic conditions, in which a specialist has to work, his knowledge and skills should be formed to deal effectively with socio-economic issues.

There is no doubt that the current sphere of graduates of universities of physical culture involves major changes in the system of their training in compliance with social needs in the expansion and variation of the range of services, provided by means of physical culture and sport. Thus, S.P. Evseev et al emphasize the need for fundamentalization of professional education on physical culture [2, P. 47-50].

The appearance of such a profession as "manager - entrepreneur in sport and services" covers a wide range of work - from the head of the company, organization in the field of sport and services to manager of teams and individual athletes. Entrepreneurship in the field of sport and services, economics of sport, marketing and management, organization and management of small and medium-sized businesses becomes the main activity.

However, according to the analysis of the psychological and pedagogical economic literature, if in secondary schools success in the field of economic education is already significant, then this problem is hardly solved in universities, and in particular in universities, on the faculties of noneconomic specialities [3, p. 218].

Training of teaching staff in the speciality “Physical culture” is characterized by a series of contradictions and significant drawbacks. Society is not fully satisfied with the result and the quality of educational institutions for expert training. Many graduates do not correspond to their status, do not come up to social expectations, are not able to solve the problem of training of the physically and mentally healthy young generation. The gap between the levels of preparedness of graduates of universities (faculties) of physical culture to work in the new socio-economic conditions and the growing demands of society is obvious. The threat of professional incompetence becomes real.

With the deepening market relations the economic and especially business activity of sports organizations and experts in physical culture and sport are being intensified. Therefore, the requirements to professional training of experts in physical culture and sport have changed radically. Along with learning the basics of market economy, the experts are to form the economic way of thinking, learn the elements of economic culture of behavior and self-determination in the sphere of sports entrepreneurship [3, P. 127].

The purpose of the study was to work the content of economic education of sports university students and reveal the level of their knowledge in economy.

To solve this problem, we applied to the State standard of higher vocational education and the sample curricula for specialities "Physical culture" and "Physical culture and sport" and saw that not enough class hours are occupied by economic training of students. Economics is included in the block of general humanitarian and socio-economic disciplines of the federal component. According to regulatory documents, students should know the basics of economics, microeconomics and macroeconomics, and especially Russia's transition economy. Students pass an exam after studying this discipline.

The discipline "Economics of physical culture and sport" which refers to the cycle of "General professional disciplines" (GPD) of state educational standards of higher education of the second generation in the area of training 521900 - "Physical culture" and the specialty 022300 "Physical culture and sport" stands out in the block of disciplines of specialized training [4].

Our proposed discipline is studied on the 4^th year (8^th semester). The objective of the course is students’ mastering of knowledge and skills of system analysis of modern economic relations in the industry "Physical culture and sport" in view of the relationship of macro- and microeconomics.

The course "Management of physical culture and sport" also refers to the cycle of "General professional disciplines" (GPD) of state educational standards of higher education of the second generation in the area of training 521900 - "Physical culture" and the speciality 022300 - "Physical culture and sport" [4]. This course is studied in the 7^th and 8^th semesters. The objective of the course - students' mastering of scientific foundations of the theory of social control of physical culture and sports organizations of Russia in the market conditions.

It should be noted that a different amount of class hours is given to studies of these subjects, depending on the educational form. Thus, full-time students, studying on the specialities "Physical culture" and "Physical culture and sport", are given 102 hours to study the course "Economics of physical culture and sport" and 180 hours to study the discipline "Management of physical culture and sport". Correspondence students have 84 and 96 hours to study these disciplines, respectively. The number of class hours allocated for independent work of students is also different, 50% and 83% of the total amount of teaching load for full-time and correspondence students respectively. Thus, the classroom load when studying the discipline "Economics of physical culture and sport" is 51 hours for full-time students and 14 hours for correspondence students. Meanwhile, 51 and 70 hours are allocated for independent work respectively. 90 class hours are allocated for full-time students to study the subject "Management of physical culture and sport" and only 16 hours - for correspondence students. The amount of time given for independent studies of the discipline is practically the same: 96 hours - full-time -correspondence students. Tests or examinations are provided in accordance with the results of studying these disciplines, depending on the specialty.

Having studied and analyzed the regulations on the content and amount of disciplines of the economic cycle, being studied in the universities of physical culture, we felt it necessary to check the quality of the economic education of graduates and to identify the level of economic training of students.

The economic education of students involves not only the actual possession of economic knowledge, but also the ability to organize and do business in the field of physical culture and sport. Such activity is becoming more urgent in the modern society. To check the level of economic skills of graduates of universities of physical culture and their preparedness for doing business in the field of physical culture and sport, we conducted a test, consisting of two simple and rather brief tests, the results of which are used to estimate the level of economic skills of students.

Materials and methods. 48 5^th year students of Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astaf'ev of the faculty of physical culture and sport (speciality 050720 "Physical culture"), who have already successfully mastered the disciplines of the economic cycle, according to the curriculum, were involved in the tests. They were asked to take two tests. The first test, consisting of 10 questions, included questions on economic theory and marketing. Its goal is to identify the level of knowledge of graduates in economics. The second test consisted of seven questions and was aimed at identifying students’ organizational abilities to operate the business of a sports institution.

Results and discussion.

Table 1. Results of overall knowledge of general economic concepts of graduates of universities of physical culture

As seen from Table 1, which shows the results of the answers to the questions of the first test, in most cases, the number of wrong answers dominates over correct ones. Analyzing the answers, we were surprised to see that more than 45% of the subjects do not have the right idea of ​​the meaning of dividends, although it seems that even those who do not have economic education should know the answer to this question. Over 68% of the subjects gave the wrong definition of advertising, and this despite the fact that in today's world of information technologies advertising is all around us and has become an integral part of our lives. Students experienced great difficulty answering the question about the elasticity of demand for sports services: 33 persons, which is 68,75 % of the total number of subjects, gave the wrong answer. Only a few graduates were able to answer correctly to the question of cost competition, a third of them coped with the task and about 67 % of students were not able to answer the question correctly. The subjects had a lot of trouble with the 10^th question, which dealt with the costs and the extent of their changes depending on the changing production level, 37 persons out of 48 gave a wrong answer, i.e. 77 % of testees did not know the correct answer to this question.

The total number of correct answers to the questions of the test, conducted in order to identify the level of knowledge of graduates of university of physical culture in economics, does not exceed 7. Only 3 out of 48 subjects gave correct answers, 4 respondents of the test gave 6 correct answers, 10 named 5 correct answers, 15 answered correctly to 4 questions, 8 scored 3 points, 5 answered only 2 questions, 3 gave only one correct answer out of 10 possible. Nobody could give 10 correct answers. It should also be noted that 8 graduates deliberately or accidentally omitted some of the test questions and did not answer them. Thus, according to the results of the first test, we can speak on the quite low level of economic skills of graduates.

Let us consider Table 2, which shows the results of the second test.

Table 2. Results of preparedness of graduates of universities of physical culture for organization of business

The second test seemed to students very simple and easy, they spent much less time to do it, than the first one. On the one hand, this can be explained by the fact that they had to answer yes/no to the questions in this test, based on their own knowledge in economics and management, offering their personal opinion. As the table shows, the vast majority of testees answered yes to almost all questions. Students stated quite confidently that they could organize business activity of a sports institution, 38 of 48 subjects answered so, representing almost 80% of total respondents. 39 graduates, i.e. 81,25 % of all respondents, could name the most significant cost items in the operation of an object of physical culture. More than a third of the subjects do not clearly imagine the problems that administration of a sports establishment may encounter when organizing its business. Four people did not answer this question at all. In our opinion, it was interesting, when the questions were asked about the methods of promotion of sports goods in the market and the positive economic effect for the organizers. 75 % of respondents (36 persons) said they clearly know this process, but the promotion of sports goods in the market, ensuring public interest in sports events is directly related to advertising. But according to the results of the first test 33 students, i.e. more than 68 % of testees, do not even know the correct definition of advertising, which disputes the adequacy of subjects’ ideas of commercial activity of a sports establishment and promotion of some sports good in the market.

In addition, it is to be noted that 11 out of 48 graduates answered "yes" to all of the test questions, considering themselves so well prepared for the organization and doing business of sports institutions. One student, on the contrary, replied "no" to all the test questions. It is difficult to judge the reason for this choice: too low self-esteem and lack of confidence in his own strength, the desire to pass a test faster or, on the contrary, a clear view of all the complexity of this task and objective awareness of the lack of his own skills in economics.

Conclusions. According to the analysis and comparison of the results of our tests, the ideas of graduates of university of physical culture of the level of their economic skills are exaggerated and biased. Not always clearly understanding all the nuances and complexity in the organization of business, they believe they will quite easily cope with this problem, without having the necessary knowledge in economics and management. The very low level of actual economic knowledge of graduates, as shown by test, is worthy of being noted once again: 64,5 % of respondents gave less than a half of correct answers, i.e. managed to answer correctly not more than 4 questions out of 10 (some gave only one or two correct answers).

Summing up the above, we can conclude that formation of the economic competency of sports university students is one of foreground tasks of expert training in physical culture and sport. This task has become especially acute due to the XXII Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi in 2014. Russia is not only in need of top specialists in physical culture and sport, but in professionals capable of arranging and doing efficient business of sports institutions.

References

1. Ageevets, V.U. Economy of physical culture and sport: study guide / V.U. Ageevets, R.M. Orlov. – SPbSAPhC, 2000. – 247 P. (In Russian)
2. Evseev, S.P. Socioeducational studies of student collectives of P.F. Lesgaft academy of physical culture / S.P. Evseev et al. // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – 1997. – № 2. – P. 47-50. (In Russian)
3. Kuz'micheva, E.V. Economy of physical culture and sport: study guide for students of the speciality 032101 "Physical culture and sport” / E.V. Kuz'micheva. – Moscow: Fizicheskaya kultura, 2008. – 472 P. (In Russian)
4. The state educational standard of higher professional education 14.04. 2000 № 363 ped/sp. (In Russian)

Author’s contacts: kf.val.i.fk@mail.ru