The article examines the historical and pedagogical prerequisites of education and the development of the methodological activities of teachers of higher education in general, and higher military school in particular. The paper highlights the most significant stages of the formation of the scientific category under study, both as an important component of the pedagogical system and as an independent pedagogical process aimed at improving the pedagogical skills and professionalism of the teaching staff.

Without the support and development of real-life communication between the participants of the educational process, without the use of the spoken word in teaching and educating new generations, without relying on the traditional, rooted in the depth of millennia, institution of mentoring, it is very difficult to effectively solve the daunting tasks of education that face the society, the state, the individual in the rapidly changing post-industrial information society of knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic era.

Improving the efficiency of the educational process in the context of the implementation of the National Project “Education”, in the era of the introduction of information technologies and electronic learning tools into the learning process, is becoming an increasingly urgent task for teachers, heads of educational organizations, and education authorities. The authors of the article believe that one of the tools capable of solving such a problem is the implementation in educational organizations of the model of reverse mentoring, as one of the modern and relevant. Compliance with a number of organizational conditions, which are described in this article, will make this process the most technologically advanced.

The article discusses promising areas of the university’s participation in the functioning of the regional segment of the unified federal system of scientific and methodological support of teaching staff and management personnel. The authors have developed and described projects that allow the university to participate in the new ways of development of the functioning of the regional segment of the unified federal system of scientific and methodological support of teaching staff and management personnel.

The problems and trends of the growth of the personnel shortage in the school education system are considered. The analysis of problems and shortcomings in the professional work of novice teachers is carried out. The role of psychological factors in the adaptation of young teachers to professional activity in modern social and cultural conditions is shown. Mentoring is described as an effective way to adapt to the profession and develop the personality and professionalism of a young teacher. The methodology of psychological and pedagogical support of young teachers at all stages of their entry into the profession has been developed.

The article clarifies the meaning of concept of “mentoring”, which in literature intersects with the concepts of teacher, educator, mentor, tutor, leader, etc. The author sees in mentoring not a fashion, but an important trend, consisting in the reorientation of education to the individuality of the student, his independence and self-education, individual educational programs, collaborative activities with a teacher. To these characteristics, he adds an approach that involves solving a dual educational task — creating conditions (environment) for the formation of intelligence and the formation of a new image of a person (both sides of this task are concretized based on the analysis of educational cases). The stages of formation, development and completion of childhood and the associated features of mentoring are outlined.

The article examines various aspects of tutoring accompaniment for gifted children in the educational space. Shows the content of the joint activities of the tutor and gifted children. Organizational and pedagogical conditions and methods of training a tutor for accompanying gifted children at a pedagogical university are disclosed.

The issue of optimizing the educational process at all levels, and especially at school, will obviously never go out of the category of topical ones. Today, different technologies and schemes are offered to solve it, one of which is various types of mentoring, including reverse. Considering it, the authors offer their own understanding and definition, analyze its theoretical foundations, performance parameters and the author’s model of implementation at school under the conditions of tutor support.

The article analyzes the development of mentoring in Russia. Mentoring is considered in the system of technological division of labor as a special practice that is the bearer of activity knowledge (as opposed to subject knowledge, the bearer of which is the teacher). The article reveals the development of mentoring practices on the example of the implemented and existing practices “Mentoring Academy” Skolkovo, “Women: School of Mentoring” of the Ministry of Education and Science, mentoring in Accelerators, Fablabs, etc. The competence profile of a mentor is characterized. The results of the study are given: with what projects and for what help students turn to mentors. On the example of the analysis of the implementation of the project “Women: Mentoring School”, the projects developed and implemented by mentors and mentors are characterized. The results of the study are significant for the development of the theory of professional activity, in which a new concept appears — “mentoring” as a type of special professional activity. The applied value of the results obtained is reflected in the search for a mentor’s competence profile and the development of professional standards for mentors.

The article analyzes and compares the concepts of “tutor”, ”mentor” and ”curator”, the features of tutoring in secondary vocational education are determined, the experience of digital tutoring in college is conceptualized, the prospects for building models of psychological and pedagogical support for the individualization of secondary vocational education in the context of digitalization are determined.