Institutes for Improving the Skills of Managerial Personnel and

in the Soviet Union, centers providing instruction and organizational and methodological assistance; they are part of the system for improving the skills of specialists in particular branches of the national economy. Institutes for improving the skills of specialists were founded in the 1930’s and 1940’s—the institutes for advanced teacher training, institutes for advanced training of physicians, and institutes for improving the skills of engineering and technical personnel under a number of people’s commissariats. In 1960—61 the institutes under the industrial ministries were reorganized as the central courses for advanced cadre training (in such branches as light industry and tractor and agricultural machinery production). In 1967, on the basis of these courses, the first institutes for improving the skills of managerial personnel and specialists were established, under the overall methodological supervision of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the USSR. The institutes are set up by ministries and agencies as well as by the councils of ministers of the Union republics.

There are institutes for certain branches of industry, such as the radio and the coal industry, as well as institutes serving many or all branches of industry, such as in the area of patents and standardization. The institutes present studies in the most recent advances in science and technology; in efficient planning methods and methods of economic incentive; in scientific organization of production, labor, and management through the use of computer technology; and mechanization and automation of production processes. They also produce curricula and prepare and publish instructional and methodological literature for the skills-improvement system. Their main teaching methods are lectures, laboratory and practical work, seminars, tutorials, and field trips to leading enterprises and scientific research institutes. Prominent scientists and economic specialists are brought in to lead courses in the institutes—in 1972 there were approximately 7,000 teachers with academic degrees or titles at the institutes.

In 1972 the USSR had 40 institutes for the improvement of skills (including six interindustry institutes), with 70 branches. In addition to the institutes, specialists may improve their skills in certain departments at higher educational institutions and in courses at various enterprises and educational institutions—for example, in 1972 there were 90 such departments and more than 500 such courses in operation. Some 250,000 specialists study at the institutes each year. In the period 1967–71, 3.5 million persons underwent instruction in the system for improving skills.