Unlike Brazil, India, or China, prior to the beginning of market-oriented reforms in early 1990s, Russia maintained a high level of human capital and possessed a highly developed system of vocational education, continuous education, and management development institutions sponsored by the government. However, after the beginning of the market reforms many state-sponsored programs were disbanded and individual enterprises and newly emerging private educational institutions found themselves in a position of having to provide training and professional development services for future and current employees. Both government-level policies in support of HRD and enterprise-level HRD systems have emerged fairly recently in the Russian Federation, and are still in a stage of change and development.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of HRD in the Russian Federation. It covers country-level policies, organizational-level programs and strategies, and individual-level educational and training efforts. While the study is focused on Russia, its conclusions will be of value to scholars, students, and practitioners examining similar issues surrounding the emergence and development of HRD systems in emerging countries. Furthermore, the authors’ framework for analyzing HRD on multiple levels and across various parts of the adult and vocational education and development systems offers a unique and important contribution to the theoretical debate on comparative educational systems outside the HRD and HRM communities.