Readiness of general education schoolteachers to support students in career selfdetermination and future profession choice

The research problem and the rationale for its relevance. The article draws attention to the problem of preparing general education schoolteachers to support students in career self-determination. This direction of continuous professional development for teachers is examined within the context of the supplementary professional education system. The issue of updating psychological and pedagogical knowledge and enhancing the methodological competencies of teachers is highlighted as crucial for improving the effectiveness of student career guidance. It is noted that the implementation of specialized education expands the teacher's role in developing knowledge and personal qualities in students that are required for their preferred professions. This necessitates clarifying the intended outcome of teacher professional development, which in the article is conceptualized as the teacher's readiness to support students in career selfdetermination and future profession choice. Consequently, the goal is to substantiate and interpret the readiness of general education schoolteachers to support students in career self-determination and future profession choice as a systemic pedagogical concept. The main research methods are analysis, generalization, and synthesis of existing approaches to interpreting this readiness. The methodology is based on the concept of continuous professional development, conceptual views on the readiness of general education professionals for new types of teaching activities, and the concept of pedagogical support as an educational strategy. The main result corresponds to the article's primary aim and constitutes its scientific novelty. The obtained result consists of an interpretation, systemic presentation, and structural description of the concept of general education schoolteachers' readiness to support students in career self-determination and future profession choice. The theoretical significance lies in enriching the understanding of professionally significant teacher qualities that ensure students' success in determining their life and career prospects. The practical significance suggests the applicability of these results for developing diagnostic tools to assess the degree of this readiness and for identifying directions to update the content and methods of teacher professional development in the context of preparing them to support students in career selfdetermination and profession choice.