Industrial Training Schools

beginning-level vocational-technical schools that existed from 1940 to 1963 at industrial enterprises and construction sites within the system of the State Labor Reserves of the USSR.

The industrial training schools prepared workers to occupy the most common jobs in various branches of the economy, including the construction, coal, mining, metallurgical, and petroleum industries; the course of study lasted six months. The schools admitted young people 16–18 years old with any general education whatsoever until 1955, when the admission requirement was changed; thereafter, at least an elementary education was required. Only young men 18 or over were admitted for training in occupations involving work underground, in shops where workers were exposed to high temperatures, and on construction sites. Students were fully maintained by the state.

In 1949 the industrial training schools for the coal and mining industries were reorganized as mining schools, with a six-month and a ten-month course of study. The industrial training schools for construction were reorganized as ten-month construction schools in 1955 and extended to two-year construction schools in 1957. Between 1959 and 1963, all industrial training, mining, and construction schools were reorganized as vocational-technical schools (seeVOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL EDUCATION and VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS). The industrial training schools provided instruction for approximately 6 million workers.