Early career guidance as a method of developing the foundations of engineering thinking

The article discusses vocational guidance work and its importance in the rapidly developing world for vocational guidance of young people. In the classical sense, this work is aimed at identifying a way of thinking that has already been formed. The article considers methods for determining types of thinking and argues for the possibility of developing a technical way of thinking. There are proposals for developing “engineering” thinking in the framework of work with students in further education programs and a discussion on the age at which the development of technical thinking should begin. There is a detailed description of the author’s experience in the developing engineering thinking in grade 5 schoolchildren within the framework of the network educational project “Engineering”. Assessment data at various points in the project implementation are analyzed. The problems that arose during the implementation of the project are described, their root cause is analyzed, and methods of resolution are proposed. The conclusions show that the way of thinking is not an inherent genetic constant; the way of thinking is formed by the social environment of a person, by the tasks he is solving. It shows the possibility of developing students’ “engineering” thinking through classes in technical programs.