FLEXIBLE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF EDUCATIONAL EXECUTIVES: FORMATS AND POTENTIAL OF THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Background. In the context of dynamic changes in the educational sphere and rapidly developing digital technologies, the issues of educational institution heads s training are particularly important. Modern management specialists training strives for maximum flexibility in pedagogical formats and goals, based on the tasks coming from the labor market, modern teaching conditions and the student's request. Federal universities, accumulating the latest scientific research, digital technologies and sufficient research potential, provide an opportunity to form competent and adaptive leaders in the field of education. Purpose. The aim of the study is to update and theoretically analyze research resources and innovative practices for the development and testing of flexible professional training for education managers based on the digital technologies’ usage, research, educational potential and federal university in a border geostrategic territory scientific knowledge. Materials and methods. The main research methods are systemic, activity-based, socio-cultural approaches, analysis of works of domestic and foreign scientists dealing with the problems of training educational leaders in the system of continuous education. The article is based on the author's experience in developing and implementing programs of additional professional training and master's programs for managers in the general and professional education spheres, adapted to current trends in the system of continuous pedagogical education. For this purpose, a content analysis of Russian highly rated journals (indexed in RSCI, Scopus, Google Scholar) was carried out. The results and conclusions of the author's study are compared with domestic and foreign studies on similar topics. Results. Microdegrees in various forms such as advanced training, professional retraining and retraining have been part of vocational education for many years. However, they have now moved beyond this area and become a key element in higher education policy. In this regard, the problem of integrating the research and educational potential of modern federal universities in the training of education managers is becoming more relevant, considering the specific features of the geostrategic border territory – the South of Russia in particular. The article studies and substantiates the possibilities of organizing flexible professional training of education managers in the context of active digitalization processes and educational system reformation. The possibilities of the scientific and educational potential of E.V. Bondarevskaya’s scientific school in designing educational programs of the "microdegree – micro-credentials – micro-qualification" format are shown as a popular developing form of qualification without a degree, relevant for training personnel for the education department of the border geostrategic territory (South of Russia). EDN: VDVCCO