The process of training workers in the Ukrainian SSR was regulated and controlled by the state. The vocational education system was a means of forming not only professional skills, but also a Soviet identity based on party principles and Marxist-Leninist ideology. The Soviet model of vocational education, inherited by Ukraine with the collapse of the USSR, requires a thorough analysis and consideration of historical experience. The article examines the development of vocational education in the Ukrainian SSR in the context of the educational reform of 1984 and the socio-political and economic challenges of the second half of the 1980s.

It is shown that in the second half of the 20th century, the development of vocational education in the Ukrainian SSR underwent an evolution that strengthened the role of the state and introduced unified standards in the process of personnel training. By the mid-1980s, the transition to training qualified personnel with secondary education was completed, and the network of secondary vocational and technical institutions grew. In 1984, with the reform of general and vocational schools, all types of vocational and technical educational institutions were reorganized into secondary vocational and technical schools (SVS) with appropriate professional areas and terms of study. Official documents determined the further development of vocational education and requirements for the quality of training of workers, unified curricula and plans were developed, and great attention was paid to the implementation of new learning technologies. Measures were taken to improve the level of general educational and vocational training of students through cooperation between SVS and basic enterprises, the introduction of interdisciplinary ties, the combination of vocational training with industrial work, and efforts to improve the educational and methodological base.

A centralized bureaucratic system of managing vocational education institutions was formed, which determined the organizational, educational and methodological, ideological and educational aspects of work. Vocational education institutions developed extensively, which negatively affected the quality of students' professional training. Lack of funding, outdated material and technical base, and a shortage of qualified professionals hindered educational progress in the face of rapid socio-political changes and growing challenges of a market economy.

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