INFORMAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR OF ADOLESCENTS’ PERSONAL SELF-DEVELOPMENT (ON THE EXAMPLE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL PRACTICES)

The article examines the informal educational environment as a factor of adolescents’ personal self-development. The author emphasizes that informal education represents a multivariate pedagogical space encompassing cultural, social, creative, and engineering forms of activity. Special attention is paid to engineering and technical initiatives as one of the directions for realizing the potential of non-formal education. The pedagogical value of project-based and event-driven formats that foster adolescents’ value attitude toward knowledge, communicative and reflective competencies, and motivation for professional self-determination is analyzed. It is concluded that engineering educational practices contribute to personal growth and the development of subjectivity while remaining a component of the broader informal education system.