Keywords: state educational policy, North Ossetia, vocation education, initial vocation school, skilled workers

The article examines the problem of formation and development of the vocation institutions in training of skilled workers in North Ossetia in the 1940-1980s. The main stages and directions of reforming the system of initial vocation education in the republic are analyzed in the context of the educational policy, their dependence on the needs of social and economic development is revealed. It is concluded that a Soviet experience of forming initial vocational school is to be used as important and be adapted to the modern demands for restructuring of the state’s economy.