Educational research into socio-economic dynamics of university graduate employment: Triple analogy-based physics-and-engineering approach to labor market oscillations

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Perig, Alexander V.^{a; *} | Golodenko, Nikolai N.^b | Martynov, Roman S.^c | Kaikatsishvili, Alexander G.^a

Affiliations: [a] Department of Manufacturing Processes and Automation Engineering, Academy, Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region, Ukraine | [b] Department of Water Supply, Water Disposal and Water Resources Protection, Donbass National Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region, Ukraine | [c] Department of Philosophy, Socio-Political and Legal Sciences, Donbass State Pedagogical University, Slavyansk, Donetsk Region, Ukraine

Correspondence: [*] Address for correspondence: Alexander V. Perig, Department of Manufacturing Processes and Automation Engineering, Donbass State Engineering Academy, Shkadinova 72, Kramatorsk, 84313, Donetsk Region, Ukraine. E-mail: olexander.perig@gmail.com.

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Better student understanding of the dynamic trends in graduate employment requires the development of the author’s description of this multidisciplinary social problem. OBJECTIVE:This educational paper is focused on an author-proposed engineering-friendly description of oscillatory dynamics in the employment market for university graduates. METHODS:This didactical paper widely uses computational methods of oscillations theory, theory of electrical and hydraulic circuits as well as concepts of physical analogies and similarity. RESULTS:The generalized character of the employment-related oscillations in the studied social system of employees was didactically enhanced through the original introduction of two technical analogies with similar oscillations in the electrical system of an LC-field-effect transistor oscillator and the mechanical system of a hydraulic ram pump. CONCLUSIONS:The author-proposed triple physics-and-engineering analogy for the periodic oscillations in the socio-economic problem in graduate employment provides a broadening of the cross-disciplinary ideas of engineering students about oscillatory dynamics in the social, electrical and hydraulics systems. It was found in the case of the Donbass State Engineering Academy (Kramatorsk, Ukraine), that this original author’s approach provides simultaneous enhancement of the cross-disciplinary undergraduate engineering curriculum in the courses of economics, management, higher education pedagogy, physics, hydraulics and electrical engineering.

Keywords: Engineering education, graduate employment, oscillations in the labor market, electrical analogy, hydraulics analogy

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-193054

Journal: Work, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 3-29, 2020