ndustrialists, who developed Ukraine’s industry, and who brought with them their own engineers, technicians, and skilled workers, from whom the local population acquired knowledge and skills. The organization of professional schools was decreed by a law enacted in 1869. Regulations passed in 1888 divided technical-industrial schools into three groups: (1) secondary technical schools, with a 4-year program for the training of technicians, (2) lower technical schools, with a 3-year program for training master craftsmen and tradesmen, and (3) trade schools, with a 3-year program for preparing skilled workers.
Between 1870 and 1890 Realschulen had supplementary classes of applied mechanical and chemical studies, and had commerce departments which offered specialized secondary education. Toward the end of the 19th century important professional schools were founded, such as the Kharkiv Technological Institute (1885) (now National Technical University «Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute»), the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute (1898), and the Katerynoslav Higher Mining School (1899).
Prior to the Revolution of 1917 there were 16 higher professional schools (including 4 technical, 3 medical, 3 pedagogical, and 2 commercial), 125 secondary professional schools (including 66 commercial, 23 pedagogical, 11 art, 9 theological, and 6 agricultural), and 535 lower schools (369 trade and industrial, 54 agricultural, 34 pedagogical, 30 theological, 21 commercial, 16 medical, and 11 art). As a rule professional and vocational education was poorly developed in Russian-ruled Ukraine in comparison with Western Europe. The tsarist regime stymied the development of the country’s productive forces and paid little attention to the establishment of a network of professional and vocational schools in Ukraine.
During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) efforts were made to Ukrainianize professional and vocational education, since all instruction had hitherto been conducted in Russian. Plans were also made by the educational authorities of the Ukrainian National Republic to organize trade schools with 1- or 2-year programs, and 4- or 5-year professional education programs at universities and institutes. Two new universities were founded—at Kamianets-Podilskyi (Kamianets-Podilskyi Ukrainian State University) and Katerynoslav (see Dnipro National University)—which offered some professional educational programs.
With the establishment of Soviet rule in Ukraine, professional and vocational education was reorganized. In the 1920s the professional school became the standard secondary school, offering 2-, and, later, 3- and 4-year programs. The following types of professional schools existed: industrial-technical, agricultural, socioeconomic, medical, art, artisan-industrial, construction, and transport. Survey data for November 1929 show that there were 678 professional schools in Ukraine, with an enrollment of 88,200 students. The most numerous were agricultural schools (249 schools, with 27,000 students) and industrial-technical schools (157 schools, with 26,000 students). Professional schools were established to train a skilled work force and prepare students for higher education.
Vocational training of skilled industrial workers was conducted in the factory apprenticeship schools. Established in 1920, these schools offered 3- and 4-year programs of technical training and general education to 14- and 15-year-olds who worked in factories and plants, and who had completed four grades of elementary education. In 1929 there were 201 such schools, with 30,000 students. In the 1930s the program of study was reduced to one and a half or two years. Similar schools existed for rural young people who worked on state farms (see Schools for peasant youth).
Higher education was also reorganized. In 1920, universities were abolished and replaced by institutes (agricultural, industrial-technical, socioeconomic, medical, pedagogical, art, and transport) which offered professional education programs that encompassed all facets of production (theory, economics, m