In the recent past, there has been more and more talk about the fact that the system of professional education has to meet the constantly changing need for specialists in the labor market. In the author's opinion, this is where the problem lies: the labor market requires that education satisfy its social and economic needs with respect to a supplying qualified work force, while the education market satisfies the individual's personal need to acquire an education. And so, it is essential to analyze not only the professional and qualificational imbalance of the labor market per se, but also to gain a thorough understanding of the transformations that are going on in the system of education as a social institution, transformations that do or do not make it possible to satisfy the increasingly urgent social and individual educational needs. The author states that, what is important today, is not to master a prestigious profession or even a particular profession that is going to be in demand in the labor market, but rather to attain to a particular educational and cultural level, to master particular competences in order to be able to compete, so that the quality of the "commodity" will be able to meet the requirements of the "consumer," the labor market, and the employer. Therefore, it is institutions of supplementary professional education that will have to correct the situation of the imbalance between the supply and demand of the work force in the labor market, education centers that are engaged not only in training but also retraining and upgrading of qualifications, as well as vocational guidance. (Contains 1 note and 2 tables.)