The Russian vocational education and training (VET) system is undergoing a major reform aimed at bringing the personnel of VET organizations closer to real labour market needs, and making it more flexible and responsive. It becomes especially important to ensure that the continuous professional development (CPD) of VET teachers (coaches, mentors, facilitators) mirror the new paradigm of digitalization in VET. The Pro-VET project has demonstrated that the VET system of the Russian Federation can only respond to modern challenges by changing curricula development to use the latest digitalization techniques and consider the comprehensive development of work-based learning models. These transformations should allow the VET teachers to acquire special knowledge and skills, and more importantly, apply these new technologies in practice. At present, the roles and functions of Russian VET teachers are changing, transforming and expanding; many new requirements are being put forward for the digital literacy of VET teachers who must be ready to work in a digital learning environment. The purpose of the research is to show the contradiction between the actual level of digital skills and the perception of VET teachers about their own abilities. The theoretical significance of the study is to identify factors that influence the readiness and capability of VET teachers to use digital skills, the ways these are used, and the methodological approaches to raising awareness of these issues. The methodological basis of the study uses a systematic approach to study the current situation vis-à-vis the prospect of developing digital skills. Disciplinary and propaedeutic approaches make it possible to create new milestones in the practice of building CPD programmes for VET teachers, considering the needs of digitalization. Research methods were determined on the basis of activity- and competence-based approaches. The study identified the actual level of digital skills possessed by VET teachers which will contribute to the development of CPD courses to enhance the VET teachers’ readiness to use digital skills in VET teaching and learning. The practical significance and innovation of the study are in the description of a set of measures to train VET teachers to expand their awareness of and ability in using e-learning environments through the CPD training system.

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