Published on: 2026-08-10
Source: Government of the Russian Federation –
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Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov spoke about the progress of the admissions campaign in colleges and technical schools.
Thus, more than 3.2 million applications were submitted by applicants to institutions of secondary vocational education (SVE) in 2026. For the 2026/27 academic year, approximately 880 thousand budget-funded places have been allocated in colleges and technical schools – 30 thousand more than the previous year. More than 56% of these are for technical professions and specialties, which fully corresponds to the forecast of the economy’s workforce needs.
“Today, we face the goal of training specialists and qualified workers, as outlined by President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. To achieve this, the number of budget-funded places in colleges and technical schools is being increased, and the federal project ‘Professionalism’ of the national project ‘Youth and Children’ is being implemented. This resonates with applicants and leads to noticeable results: since the beginning of the admission campaign, more than 3.2 million applications have already been submitted to secondary vocational education institutions – about 500 thousand more than in the same period last year,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The Deputy Prime Minister added that this number also includes 1.1 million applications to colleges and technical schools of “Professionalitet” – this exceeds the number of applications to secondary vocational education institutions by the participants of the federal project during the entire 2025 admission campaign.
As emphasized by the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov, this year about 1.4 million students are expected to enroll in colleges, with over 3.2 million applications already submitted.
“We see that each year more and more school students consciously choose secondary vocational education as a start for a successful career, which means the prestige of working professions is gaining momentum. Colleges are actively updating their material and technical base and opening new in-demand directions. This year, the average competition for one place is two people. However, for certain professions and specialties, the competition is higher: geology – 15 people per place, cartography – 14, radio engineering complexes – 13. Currently, the most popular professions and specialties among applicants are those related to programming, mechanical engineering, construction, medicine, elementary school teaching, and tourism. Just three years ago, they were lawyers and accountants,” Sergey Kravtsov noted.
The leading positions in the number of applications are occupied by fields of study such as “Nursing” (173.5 thousand applications), “Software Development and Management” (152 thousand), “General Medicine” (108.5 thousand), “Tourism and Hospitality” (94.9 thousand), and “Maintenance and Repair of Motor Vehicles” (74.7 thousand).
In 2026, admissions are open for four new specializations developed based on employer demands: “Congress and Exhibition Activities,” “Restoration of Immovable Cultural Heritage Monuments,” “Integration of Solutions Using Artificial Intelligence Technologies,” and “Industrial Design.”
It should be noted that the application for a targeted contract serves as a basis for priority enrollment, and volunteer activities are taken into account as an individual achievement. Experience in volunteer activities is included in the list of individual achievements considered during admission.
Recall that the admission plan for budget-funded places under the federal project “Professionalism”, which is being implemented within the framework of the national project “Youth and Children”, is set at 283 thousand places for the year 2026.
The admissions campaign in secondary vocational education institutions is ongoing. The main admission for full-time education ends on August 15. Those educational institutions that still have available spots will continue to accept applications for full-time education until November 25, 2026, and for part-time and correspondence forms until December 1, 2026.
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