What are professional standards? Why are they needed and for whom are required? Professional standards of various professions, their structure and purpose will be discussed in this article.
What are professional standards?
The professional standard of the employee is a special qualification characteristic. This document is necessary for workers to simplify the process of orientation in the chosen profession. The requirements of professional standards include the need to possess certain skills, knowledge and abilities.
The rules for the application of professional standards were established by the Labor Code at the end of 2012. The Government of the Russian Federation confirmed these rules by issuing an appropriate resolution on January 22, 2013. There is also a separate order of the Ministry of Labor. Professional standards, of which there are currently about 2,000, must be developed and applied in accordance with special rules and regulations.
Russian employers are required to constantly pay attention to updated standards in their professional field. So, if a new person comes to work, the responsibility of the head of the organization will be to check his qualification level - in strict accordance with the professional standard. It is also worth noting that employers are able to create and modify job descriptions, staffing tables and other local acts, in accordance with the document under consideration.
As of 2017, many professional areas are still without state standards. Persons working in such areas should work in accordance with local job descriptions. But there are exceptions. For example, when the profession gives the right to various kinds of benefits and compensation, or if the work is somehow connected with restrictions. In these cases, the title of the post must be entered in the professional standard, even if it is not necessary to apply such a document.
About the application of professional standards
The legislation states that professional standards must be applied in a timely manner in the following situations:
- it is necessary to conduct certification or recertification of employees;
- there is a need for personnel management;
- job descriptions are being developed;
- a quality personnel policy is being formed;
- tariffing works;
- employees are assigned tariff categories;
- it is necessary to organize training or retraining of employees;
- There is a need to establish a timely wage system.
Many employers ask a simple, but at the same time very important question: where are the approved professional standards located? The Ministry of Labor timely posts the necessary documentation on its official website. It is there that a special registry is located, containing all the new professional standards. It is very important to check any such documents on official resources. This is especially true for employees of any organization: often employers offer to work according to a local act that does not meet the regulatory requirements of the law. However, do not confuse local acts that have obvious inconsistencies and violations with job descriptions, which may be drawn up under the influence of a professional standard, but not fully comply with it.
Are occupational standards mandatory? If the requirements for the qualification level of employees are established in the Labor Code, then yes. The law provides for punishment for employers that refuse to introduce relevant regulations in their organization. According to Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the following types of punishments are worth highlighting:
- issuing a warning to the head - but only with the first violation;
- for heads of organizations - a fine from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles;
- for officials - a fine of up to 5 thousand rubles;
- a fine of up to 5 thousand rubles for heads of enterprises registered as individual entrepreneurs.
And what about the employees themselves, about those people for whom professional standards are mandatory? If the law has been amended and the provisions of the relevant documentation have become different, then the employee, of course, does not quit. He only has to undergo recertification, or receive additional education. However, if such a task was impossible for him, then the dismissal would be completely legal.
Compliance of employees with professional standards: basic requirements
The introduction of professional standards, their application and use - all this is regulated by Article 195.3 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The same article provides a brief definition of the qualifications of the employee, and also explains that the application of professional standards is an unconditional obligation of the employer in the event of a legal requirement for the qualifications of workers. It is worth analyzing this wording with a simple example.
Suppose an accountant comes to settle in an organization - an insurance company or a public company. According to federal law, it must meet the following simple requirements:
- higher education;
- work experience in the specialty for a total period of at least three years.
Everything is pretty simple here. But what if the citizen wants to get a regular LLC, and in the Federal Law "On Accounting" any mention of him is missing? What if an employee has good experience and an excellent track record, but there is no higher education? It is necessary to pay attention to the professional standard approved by the government of the Russian Federation. It should contain specific instructions on the necessary education and work experience. In particular, the 2016 document states that a citizen can be hired with both secondary and higher education. It turns out that an accountant needs higher education only to work in organizations listed in the Federal Law. And in LLC people can work with the formation of the middle class.
The conclusion here can be drawn as follows: the system of professional standards is only an auxiliary, recommended documentation, necessary in case professional requirements are not prescribed in the relevant law.
As an example, the three most common professional standards will be examined: a teacher, an accountant, and a personnel officer. All of these documents will help demonstrate the processes for applying the standards, as well as their contents.
Professional standard of the teacher: application in accordance with the law
What is a professional standard for a teacher? The Federal Law "On Education", as well as some other regulatory acts, enshrine the following concept:
The teacher’s professional standard is a special list of requirements, with the help of which the qualification level is determined, according to which the teacher qualitatively fulfills all the duties assigned to him.
Pedagogical professional standards are constantly updated and modernized. It is very important to adjust such documentation in a timely manner to the new scientific and educational realities. Do not forget about the requirements for the skills of teachers, their work experience and professional knowledge.At the moment, a government program has been approved for the transition to new standards - until 2020. All necessary professional standards should be introduced gradually, in several main stages. At the same time, both the stages of implementation and the form of documentation will be determined by regional authorities - in accordance with municipal legal acts. Special commissions are being convened, which should include representatives of various professional committees.
Each organization develops its own, individual plan for the transition to new standards. However, some general events are still worth highlighting. These include:
- Clarification of pedagogical standards in each particular educational institution. The main task here is to conduct reconciliations of employees with subsequent compilation of protocols.
- Verification work. You must review all existing employment contracts and various internal organizational acts. If necessary, employees are required to make appropriate changes.
- It is necessary to check employees for compliance with standards. So, new professional standards in education require re-certification of some employees of the educational organization.
- It is necessary to draw up a final report and hand it over to management.
Thus, the work on the implementation of new professional standards is really extensive. And what about the immediate responsibilities of teachers?
The content of the pedagogical professional standard
What is the teacher obliged to do, in accordance with the new professional standards of 2017? The document regulates the following main provisions:
- Absolutely every teacher should have a higher pedagogical education. Employees performing their labor functions in the presence of secondary specialized education can receive higher education on the job.
- The teacher must know the subject taught and all relevant training programs.
- The teacher must be able to plan lessons, conduct them in a high-quality manner and analyze the results.
- An employee in the field of education must possess additional teaching methods - laboratory, experimental, etc.
- The teacher is obliged to qualitatively involve his students in the educational process - regardless of their individual characteristics.
- The teacher must be proficient in methods that would allow an objective assessment of student knowledge.
Separately, professional standards in education regulate educational work. In particular, the job description of absolutely any teacher will contain the following items:
- about the need to master the forms of educational work, as well as its quality application;
- about the ability to organize extracurricular hours: excursions, walks, various cultural events;
- about the ability to form value orientations in children;
- about the ability to build educational processes taking into account the individual characteristics of a child;
- about the ability to create a friendly and supportive atmosphere in a group.
It is worth noting that the mandatory professional standards of the teacher’s profession contain many other aspects: for example, on the development of personal qualities, on creative orientation, etc. To get acquainted with the contents of the documentation in detail, you need to go to the official website of the Ministry of Labor.
The content of the accounting professional standard
The accountant belongs to the category of specialists engaged in financial transactions and economic accounting. The responsibilities of the accountant include the implementation of simple calculations for certain types of financial accounting. This means that the profession presented is divided into several subspecies. Accordingly, employers must qualitatively differentiate accounting qualifications and categories: whether it is a leading, senior, district or chief specialist.It turns out that for each category of accountant there is a job description. At the same time, there are only two professional standards: for the "ordinary" and chief accountant. Perhaps in the near future the Ministry of Labor will release several more versions of the document under consideration.
Is a professional standard required for an accountant? Of course, required. Moreover, employers who do not wish to apply the requirements of this legal act will be subject to administrative liability.
A professional accounting standard makes not only high, but the highest requirements for knowledge of financial fundamentals. In particular, each accountant must know the basics of archiving, medical or social insurance, pension, labor or even customs legislation. The main responsibility of an ordinary accountant is to compile costing of services.
Professional standard of the chief accountant
What does the chief accountant do? The Federal Law "On Accounting Activities" indicates that the chief accountant is obliged to draw up and submit to the management the financial statements of a certain economic entity. The professional standard fixes the following mandatory functions of the employee in question:
- timely preparation of financial statements;
- compilation of consolidated reports in accordance with IFRS;
- exercising internal control over accounting and financial reporting;
- high-quality tax accounting and tax reporting, tax planning.
It is important to note that the professional standard classifies tax reporting as financial reporting. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Labor is confident that an ordinary accountant will not be able to record taxes: only the chief accountant should deal with this.
Personnel Specialist: professional standard and instructions
The professional sphere of HR management involves two main types of professional standards:
- Recruitment specialist (recruiter). The document was approved in 2015. It contains the requirements for HR managers and recruiters. The duties of these employees include solely the search for employees and carrying out work to ensure optimal adaptation at the workplace.
- Personnel specialist. The professional standard in this area involves personnel management, as well as providing work for optimal career guidance.
The professional standard of the personnel specialist is divided into four chapters:
- general provisions;
- characteristics of the work functions that are included in the document;
- Description of work functions
- Information about the organizations that were engaged in the development of a professional standard.
The existing professional standard contains several generalized functions. It is in accordance with these functions that job descriptions are compiled. Here are the responsibilities here:
- documentation support for work activities with personnel (qualification of the fifth level is required, assuming secondary education);
- work to ensure staff (higher education and qualification of the sixth level are needed);
- work on the assessment and certification of employees (level 6 qualification required);
- operational or strategic management of the organization’s personnel (a seventh level of qualification is required, as well as at least five years of work experience).
According to each function, the professional standard fixes:
- qualification levels;
- future names of this or that post;
- training requirements;
- work experience requirements;
- all the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities.
The list of mandatory professional standards for the personnel officer also includes a special classification, which will be described later.
General provisions of professional standards for personnel specialists
The document under consideration provides a definition of the term "qualification level". According to the professional standard, this is a generalized set of requirements for the level of education of an employee, for his knowledge, skills. The higher the skill level of an employee, the more complex and even more prestigious his functions and responsibilities are. 
Professional standards for staff workers consolidate three skill levels for employees:
- The fifth level of qualification involves the independent implementation of work to resolve various practical problems requiring a qualitative analysis of the situation. A personnel officer with a fifth qualification level is required to deal with document management personnel records, as well as the hiring and dismissal of employees. Secondary vocational education is required.
- A specialist with a sixth level of qualification is engaged in determining the tasks of his own work or the work of subordinates. He is involved in document management, organizing certification of employees, conducting internships, bonuses, corporate policy, monitoring its implementation, etc. Higher and additional specialized education is required.
- The seventh level of qualification involves the definition of special strategies, as well as the development of innovative management activities. As a rule, this qualification level applies to managers and directors of personnel departments.
Thus, the main functions and categories of personnel officers are fixed precisely by the above professional standards. Various local acts written in accordance with the main document, such as job descriptions and staffing tables, will also become mandatory for employees.
For whom are professional standards required?
Above were considered the three most common professional standards in the workplace: teacher, personnel officer and accountant. In total, there are about two thousand such documents, and their number is constantly growing. You can draw up a small classification, with which to illustrate for whom professional standards and their requirements are mandatory. Currently, the application of legal standards requires the following areas:
- education;
- healthcare
- culture
- social services;
- finance;
- jurisprudence;
- office activity;
- building;
- Agriculture;
- MASS MEDIA;
- transport;
- electronics and electrical engineering;
- food industry;
- chemical, metallurgical, nuclear and space industries;
- shipbuilding, aircraft building and automotive industry;
- services sector.
In each of these areas there are hundreds of professional standards. For example, in the field of healthcare, individual documents regulate the areas of pediatrics, dentistry, psychiatry, etc. Each standard contains a brief description of the specialist’s activities, the levels of qualifications and their respective responsibilities. Everyone can find the necessary professional standard in the official register of the Ministry of Labor.