Birchenko O. Optimization of Ukrainian higher school graduates professional self-orientation under the conditions labour market formation.

The object of study: higher education graduate student contingent. The problem of study: social mechanisms of optimization of high school graduates professional self-orientation. The methods of study: methods of structural-functional, complex, systemic, and statistical analysis, the sociological questionnaire method. Theoretical and practical results: the contribution to the further development of scientific grounds of social mechanisms of improvement of the role and responsibility of higher school educational establishments in the preparation of competitive specialists; an innovative structural-functional model of high school planning career service has been worked out. The model has been introduced into the educational activity of the Kharkov Institute of the Humanities "People's Ukrainian Academy".