ENGINEERING TRAINING IN THE STRUCTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL CHOICE OF YOUTH

The structural elements of the university network of engineers' training and its demand in different social groups of young people are analyzed using statistical data, monitoring and sociological research results. Recent shift in the choice by school graduates towards engineering specialties is associated, first of all, with the expansion of employment and career opportunities, as well as the growing attractiveness of advanced technical qualifications. The concentration of personnel training for the development of breakthrough technologies in top, selective universities is effected by combining investments from the state budget, large corporations, the development of innovative forms of education, in particular within the framework of the Advanced Engineering Schools project, as well as investments of families with high cultural and economic capital to ensure competitiveness of future students. Successful training in mass engineering education programs in regional universities, where numbers of budgetary admission places have been increased since 2022, is hampered by a keen shortage of well-prepared school students-applicants. The best results are shown under the practice of attracting target social groups of young people while maintaining value of technical labor, for example, in various forms of mobilization via the track "School-SPO-engineering training in higher education institutions".