Retraining and Continuing Education: Problem Statement and Formalization of the Educational Process

The paper considers a formalized approach to defining and describing requirements, opportunities, and programs (technologies) for additional education (continuing professional development, retraining, etc.). The work proposes a model for changing key characteristics of learners during the educational process, providing a formalized setting for determining optimal training programs (technologies) for small groups (including their formation), taking into account various constraints on available educational opportunities. The analysis of permissible changes in the characteristics of different learners (applicants) indicates the necessity of developing special methods for selecting an effective training program for specific learners (forward task) and suitable learners meeting the requirements of a specific program (reverse task). Thus, developing and implementing the proposed model and methods of its use ensure a rigorous formulation of various tasks for selecting justified teaching technologies, as well as selecting learners (group formation), presented in the form of multi-dimensional resource optimization problems subject to a number of constraints. The capability of formalising the educational process and posing corresponding tasks opens up prospects for designing a decision-making information support system for planning and implementing various educational programs aimed at training and retraining contemporary specialists.