Building a Computer Vocational Guidance System for Graduates of Secondary Educational Institutions Based on a Genetic Algorithm

• Main Authors: A. P. Sergushicheva, E. N. Davydova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Plekhanov Russian University of Economics 2020-06-01
• Series: Otkrytoe Obrazovanie (Moskva)
• Subjects: career guidance; professiogram; career guidance methods; genetic algorithm; artificial intelligence; evolutionary methods; software system
• Online Access: https://openedu.rea.ru/jour/article/view/730

The purpose of the article is to present the results of a study on the development of a genetic algorithm to solve the problems of career guidance for graduates of secondary educational institutions and to verify the possibility of its implementation in a computer system. The issue of career guidance for graduates is still relevant, problematic and not fully resolved. According to the authors, the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies in career guidance systems is a promising area that should be paid attention to. Genetic algorithms are widely used to solve search and optimization problems in various subject areas. The authors propose to automate the process of identifying the tendency of secondary school graduates to a particular type of activity by building a vocational guidance system based on a genetic algorithm.Materials and methods. To identify an individual’s predisposition to a specific type of activity, it is necessary to have a list of requirements and contraindications to the profession. Among the ways of describing the norms and requirements for the applicant-specialist are professiograms, lists of necessary competencies and others. To determine the characteristics of the individual that affect the choice of profession, it is possible to use special tests, activating questionnaires, grades in school subjects. The authors carry out the comparison of personality characteristics and requirements through a genetic algorithm. Genetic algorithms belong to the group of evolutionary methods and are based on the evolutionary theory. Among their advantages are conceptual simplicity and wide applicability, resistance to dynamic environmental changes and the ability to self-organize.Results. The genetic algorithm has been developed, in which as a source of information for creating a new population individual certificate evaluations are accepted. Based on these estimates, an initial population of professions is formed. As a result of crossing a pair of individuals from the parent population, a descendant is obtained whose chromosome consists of the genes of both parents. The selection of surviving specimens is based on the percentage of success in the development of each of the professions in the list and the fitness function. The developed algorithm was implemented in a software system. As experiments showed, the genetic algorithm successfully copes with the task of finding the optimal list of professions according to a given criterion.Conclusion. The results of the study show that the use of genetic algorithms provides convenient mechanisms for introducing artificial intelligence methods into the field of career guidance, which improves the quality of recommendations for choosing a profession.