Tendencies and prospects of Russian continuing professional education development

A cluster of continuing professional education (CPE) is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the national educational system. The article is concerned with the tendencies and perspectives of CPE development. It gives a description of the cluster components, internal and external factors potentially influencing CPE development, the main subjects to change: the state, employers, CPE organization and structure, a potential audience of the CPE programmes. Three possible scenarios of traditional CPE development in the next fifteen years are offered.