Analysis of ICT education in Azerbaijan: current state, foreign experience, problems and prospects

Purpose of the study. The aim of the study is to develop recommendations for improving educational curricula for ICT specialties taught to students in universities of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The urgency of the problems outlined in this article is determined by the urgency of the transition to the modernization of the national education system and its integration into the global and world educational space, the requirements of creating an information society in Azerbaijan.

Modern society needs qualified personnel who own new information technologies and are able to apply them in various fields of activity. Therefore, the process of modernization of the ICT education system is necessary; curricula should comply with international standards and specialization profile.

Materials and research methods. The article provides a comparative analysis of higher professional ICT education in the developed countries of the world, shows the similarities and differences of the educational systems of the United States, European countries, Russia and Azerbaijan, analyzes the trends and features of the educational systems of developed countries, provides a list of IT specialties in demand today and in the near future. . The article also outlines the problems facing higher education institutions that train IT profile specialists.

As research materials are used:

• policy documents of the governing bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of higher vocational education;
• training programs of ICT specialties of universities of the Azerbaijan Republic;
• study programs of ICT specialties of leading foreign universities;
• scientific works of domestic and foreign authors in the field of ICT education;
• recommendations of international organizations ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) and IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) on the development of curricula for various areas of IT profile.

Results. Taking into account the analysis of the curriculum of the IT profile of foreign universities, recommendations of international organizations of standardization, monitoring of the labor market, methodical recommendations were developed to improve ICT education in Azerbaijan. The necessity of modernization of the education system and bringing it into line with modern requirements is shown.

Conclusion. In modern conditions of the formation of the information society in Azerbaijan, the educational program of the university should take into account the results of monitoring the labor market and the dynamics of macroeconomic changes, the disappearance of old and the emergence of new activities related to the use of ICT. Therefore, an important task is to prepare highly professional specialists in the country who are able to use and implement the advanced development of information technologies in practice.

The recommendations outlined in the article can be used by university professors to improve the educational programs of ICT specialties in Azerbaijan.

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