The most important criterion for the advancement of the nation on the whole is the level of its human development, which is based on knowledge as an intellectual component of human capital. An important trend in development of world economy today is the process of intellectualization and formation of a knowledge-based society, in which economic well-being is determined by the high technologies, innovative capabilities and the level of intellectual development of the society. Transition to an innovative model of economic development is gradually taking place. The humanitarian, which is also called the “post-industrial” type of economic development comes to replace the industrial one, the driving force of which is the scientific knowledge, creative and intellectual potential of human resources. According to A. Tofler, the transition from the economy of the workforce to the brain power economy is now occuring, and in the new society information and knowledge are the main factors of production [8].
Some scholars [6] determine education as the most important asset of human capital, which can be considered not only a means of increasing future incomes, but also an ability to create self-generation or self-investing of human capital. This is explained by the fact that being educated, the person by means of using his labor potential multiplies not only the material goods, which are then used to meet the physiological, social and other needs, but also improves his skills, his professional abilities and competence.
According to various data, human capital ranges from 50 to 70 percent in the structure of national wealth of developed countries and is steadily increasing. When forecasting the prospects for global development, Deutsche Bank experts point out that investments in human capital – education, training and health – is a crucial factor for the GDP growth [2]. Scientists have shown that the formation of human capital occurs, firstly, through the process of upbringing the individual in the family, then through the mechanism of social interaction and communication, and, finally, through the mechanisms of socialization and professionalization in the appropriate institutional environment (education and culture, information space, production system, educational environment of the educational institution). Consequently, the paradigm of modern higher education should be based on a combination of such important elements: education shoud be comprehensive and have professional orientation; in the process of training one the most important element is forming the cultural level and moral standards of the students; professional training of the future specialist should be done in close connection with practical experience; the state should finance education giving the priority to the scarce areas and specialties thus contributing to the growth of intellectual potential of the nation; the process of education, professional development, self-education should be permanent and this should be realized by both the educators and those who study as it is the vital demand of nowadays [3].
The modern “theory of human capital” [15] represents the direction of economic science, within which the human component of economic systems of various sizes is considered in terms of value and price and can be defined up to three levels:
- on a personal level, human capital refers to the knowledge and skills that a person has acquired through education, training, practical experience (while using his innate abilities) and through which he can provide valuable productive services to other people. At this level, human capital can be compared with other kinds of personal ownership (property, money, securities) that generates income, and we call it personal or private human capital;
- at the microeconomic level human capital represents the aggregate qualifications and professional abilities of all employees of the enterprise, as well as the achievements of the enterprise in the efficient organization of labor and personnel development. At this level human capital is associated with the production and commercial capital of an enterprise, since profits are derived from the efficient use of all types of capital;
- at the macroeconomic level human capital includes accumulated investments in such fields as education, vocational training and retraining, vocational guidance and employment services, health improvement, etc. and is an essential part of the national wealth of the country, thus we call it national human capital [5].
It is important to understand the concept of “educational environment”, which creates conditions for the development of intellectual potential of human resources. Scientists determine different structural components of the educational environment and distinguish: the physical environment, human factors, training programs. Thus, D. Binetska [11] considers the concept of the “educational environment of the university” as a system formation, which is an artificial, specially created socio-cultural surrounding of the subject of learning and includes the content of learning, a variety of methods and teaching techniques that can provide a productive research activity for the student.
In modern scientific discourse, some researchers focus on human capital as a source of income, while other scholars treat a human as a person with his psychological, spiritual and moral qualities, and the capital is seen as a complex category: not only as money, but also as a national capital, which includes intangible assets. Human capital is characterized by the following features: it is the assets that a person has in the form of innate qualities: physical, psychological, intellectual, as well as those qualities, abilities that a person acquires during his lifetime (knowledge, skills, motivation), they are the assets that require significant investments; they are those assets that generate income over a period of time. So, educational environment creates conditions for the development of the intellectual potential of human resources, and human ability to produce knowledge embodied in means of production, is considered as intellectual capital.
Assessing human capital in the national wealth of Ukraine