The Federal State Institution “State Museum of vocational education” traces its history since 1987, when it was established by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR under the Ministry of Culture.
It is situated in the Estate "Ivanovskoe” Podolsk, Russia and is the object of historical and cultural heritage of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Nowadays it is a federal, multidisciplinary, scientific, methodological, cultural and educational institution of the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation.
The structure of the Museum consists of three sections: "History of vocational (professional) education in Russia", "History of the people's art crafts" and "History of the Estate " Ivanovskoe "and its owners”. The Museum has got 22 exposition and exhibition halls with a total area of 2753 sq. m. with the unit-linked collection about 40000 items.
Halls about the history of vocational education in Russia include several sections: the pre-revolutionary (starting from the era of Peter Great); the period of Soviet professional school (1917-1940); the history of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945; the modern period of development of the Russian vocational education.
The section of the exhibition dedicated to people's art crafts of Russia includes the exhibition wares of masters of people's art crafts and talks about the formation of Russian art and industry education.
The section of the exhibition dedicated to the history of the Estate "Ivanovskoe" tells about its owners – the count F.A. Tolstoy; the Moscow General - Governor A.A. Zakrevskiy; the well-known merchants and patronages the Bahrushiny. In April 2013, the Museum has been opened the new exhibit "The Graph A.A. Zakrevsky" dedicated to this great state and military figure in Russia.
The Federal Museum of vocational education is the member of the Union of Russian museums, corresponding member of the Academy of education and a member of the International Festival "Inter-Museum». Three projects of the museum are included into the federal program "Culture of Russia 2010-2012".
The Museum has passed the way in its 25 years of history and has an experience in the organizing of the international and all-Russian conferences, seminars, competitions. It has conducted eight museum-pedagogical programs for different groups of children and young people. In the course of its functioning the museum organized more than 40 publications: collections of scientific articles, conference papers, booklets etc.
In its activity the museum bases on the experience of leading Russian and foreign museums.