Organizing careers guidance: an analysis of practices at Russian universities

Career guidance for schoolchildren and university applicants is one of the priorities for a modern university today, as it creates favorable conditions for solving its key task - providing student contingent. The paper is based on the content analysis and traditional analysis of documents and studies practices of career guidance at Russian universities, ranked in the top-100 according to RAEX rating agency in 2021. The study allowed the authors to determine that the management structure of career guidance work at pre-university level in higher education institutions is often centralized rather than decentralized. This work is usually supervised by the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs or the Rector. HEIs are focused on pre-university education, organization of student admission, professional self-determination guidance, cooperation with gifted young people. HEIs use a variety of forms and methods of career guidance in their interaction with schoolchildren, applicants, parents and the teaching community, taking into account not only the characteristics of Generation Z youth, but also the situation caused by the proliferation of online and Internet technologies in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic.