Regional aspects of the transformation of the institution of vocational education

Modern Russian system of vocational education has the following levels of state regulation: institutions of higher education - on the Federal level (licensing and accreditation); institutions of secondary education - on the regional level (regional ministries and departments). Consequently, a region can have significant impact only on the training of mid-level specialists. According to the author, it leads to a bias in regulating the regional economy development. To assess this aspect, the author introduces the denationalization index as an indicator of the transformation of the vocational education system in regions, which resulted in the significant spread in the system of secondary education and very insignificant spread - in the system of higher education. The author also finds that the demand for services of private educational institutions is falling greatly in the field of higher education, and growing in the field of secondary education; over the past 10-12 years a greater confidence in public educational institutions in the field of higher education has been formed regardless to the form and tuition fees; at the institutional level, the ownership structure has been established, and existing relations between university administrations, teaching staff and main consumers of services (individuals) have gained a more expressed systemic nature. The researcher also concludes that there is a significant potential for the devaluation of vocational education. According to the author, the formation of the status of educational institutions as independent subjects in the market economy represents not so much a social infrastructure element as a structural element of the regional economic system resulting in the problem exacerbation associated with the imbalance in the level of development of human capital and technology in regions.