Subjective ideas about the prestige of profession among schoolchildren of the Khabarovsk territory: sociological analysis

This article presents the main methodological approaches to the analysis of the prestige of professions, as one of the criteria for social stratification of the society and its professional differentiation. Based on methodology of the stratification measurement and the results of empirical sociological studies of schoolchildren of the 8–11 grades of the Khabarovsk territory, their collective ideas about phenomenon of the prestige of professions, its conditionality by the objective conditions of the labor market and its influence on professions are analyzed. There are also the analyzed subjective opinions, value orientations and motives for choosing prestigious profession, the role of wages, parents, teachers, the media and the Internet, the intentions of obtaining specialties in organizations of the secondary and higher education in the region and beyond. The ideas of school students about the prestige of professions and their relationship with the economic and social processes in modern Russia are outlined. Conclusions are drawn on changing the process of vocational guidance in the direction of creating the conditions for students to make a conscious choice of specialties (professions) based on their personal interests in particular professions.