Portrait of a young person: professional preferences and readiness to implement life plans in rural areas

The current situation in rural areas has been witnessing the youth outflow. Young people probably do not see opportunities to implement their life plans in rural areas. There is little research into young people’s professional preferences in the field of implementing their life plans in rural areas. This problem predetermined the research purpose: to study the ideas of young people about their professional preferences in the field of implementing life plans in rural areas and to identify the readiness of young people to work in rural areas and to determine the factors that contribute to this. The research bases on the materials of the survey of 2,535 schoolchildren and students of the Kostroma region. The literature review has shown that modern researchers, when compiling a portrait of a young person, pay attention to the values of youth, determine the social portrait of young people involved in entrepreneurial activity, determine the stereotypes of young people about life in rural areas, etc. The research showed that 52.2% of respondents have a general idea of life in rural areas; however, 38% are ready to move to rural areas to start their own business. Young people in the region consider livestock breeding, construction and architecture, trade to be the most interesting professional areas. 63.9% of respondents indicated that today a young person can implement life plans in rural areas and is ready to work in the spheres of agricultural production (39.0%), education (19.6%), administration (15.7%), service sector (13.7%), and IT-sector (12.1%). Their motivating factors can be seen in the statements like these - “living in an environmentally clean place”, “a job with a decent salary”, “an opportunity to quickly get housing in rural areas”. The study results are applicable to career guidance activities involving young people in the region.