SOCIAL INNOVATIONS IN THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF MANAGERS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT

The transformation in the system of business relations in modern times has led to the formation of the economy based on knowledge. Relevant processes place qualitatively new demands to the managerial staff in this system and, consequently, to the technologies of their professional training. Effective usage of innovations in pedagogy for the training of managers becomes one of the fundamental factors in the formation of competitiveness of knowledge economy. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the essential characteristics, generalization and justification of social and pedagogical innovations in the professional training of managers under the conditions of the formation of a knowledge economy. The methodological principles, which the given analysis is based on, include the implementation of a set of universal and special methods of scientific cognition. Results. The role of education is defined as the foundation for the economy based on knowledge. In total, it is possible to distinguish three main areas for optimization of the process of professional and personal development of future managers: expanded implementation to the system of in-class activities forms, methods and technologies that teach to perform practically all managerial functions and actions under different market conditions; implementation to the educational institution of out-of-class forms of practical work that develop market and managerial thinking and other qualities, skills, and abilities; expansion of personality developing space in the educational institution. So, in the context of the knowledge economy formation, important means for the development of managers' economic knowledge are those that are aimed at studying, analysing the achievements of economic thought, understanding information, and generating their own effective options for management optimization. Based on this, the priority social and pedagogical innovations are: projecting and modelling in management, research, and creative activity. Practical implications. In the project process, a clear formulation of the project's goals and objectives, development of the final material product (business plan; measures to optimize management of a certain enterprise sector; a set of diagnostic methods for assessing the professional competence of applicants for the position, etc.) were assumed. Modelling allowed developing and exploring models of objects of economic activity, which helped to systematize knowledge about them, to specify their components, to disclose new functions. Research and creative activity allowed students to study at the empirical and theoretical levels in the economic sphere, the laws of its phenomena functioning in the context of their systemic interconnection with the goal of knowledge development about it, generating and implementing effective approaches to solve problems.