Modern view on proficiency enhancement and personnel training in the context of labor market development

The study discusses the current issues of proficiency enhancement and personnel training in the context of labor market development. The labor market is a multilayered phenomenon that today should be addressed in various ways. In particular, it is reasonable to suggest that proficiency enhancement and personnel trai-ning are an important regulatory component on the labor market. The empirical basis includes the results of a sociological study on Challenges and Opportunities of the Russian Labor Market conducted by the author in 2018 by means of in-depth expert interviews. The purpose of this research is to identify the key transformation problems of the Russian labor market. The experts (N = 20) were current and potential employers, i.e. managers of companies and organizations under differ-rent forms of ownership and economic sectors as well as university professors. The theoretical and methodological basis is represented by the theoretical principles of general sociology, sociology of labor, and economic sociology. At the same time, the following concepts and trends are of great importance: Marxist met-hodology, institutional and sociological school of labor market research (T. Veblen, J. Galbraith, J. Dunlop, L. Ullmann), the concept of a flexible labor market (F. Blanchard, R. Boyer, G. Standing, S. Clark). The study revealed 26 storylines and described a storyline related to the experts’ views on the problems of modern proficiency-enhancement system. First-hand experience in the field of professional development allowed the author to analyze the empirical material from the perspective of a systematic approach and certain provisions of institutional theory.