**1. Introduction**

In the vector of development of both the global and Russian economy, the Arctic is the most important region with a huge potential for the Russian oil and gas industry. According to experts, the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation has 7.3 billion tons of oil reserves and 55 trillion cubic meters of natural gas [1], so Russia is developing an extensive program to develop production capacities and realize the potential of the region [2].

Arctic resources are of considerable interest to non-regional powers. Thus, according to American analysts, the most aggressive policy is led by China, which, according to their estimates, is the largest investor in the Arctic countries [3,4]. Other major economies (Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, etc.) are also actively expanding their participation in developing the region [5]. To a greater extent, they are suppliers of technologies that ensure the extraction of hydrocarbons on the Arctic shelf, as well as of competencies for working with these technologies.

Indeed, along with the intensification of economic activity in the Arctic region, the issue of improving the personnel training system has become more urgent. At present, there is a shortage of highly qualified specialists in the oil and gas industry in several specialties [6], ranging from workers to engineers and managers. This deficit will only increase as large-scale projects are implemented [6,7].

According to experts, at the moment, the most popular in the Arctic are highly qualified specialists in the sphere of extractive industry, in particular, specialists developing o ffshore oil and gas fields, ice-class marine shipbuilding, port, and shipping infrastructure, and others [4]. At the same time, successful implementation of oil and gas projects in the Arctic requires qualified specialists not only with higher, but also with professional education, as well as service and support personnel. In turn, until recently, the number of graduates with higher education was estimated at dozens of graduates per year. Today, the situation has somewhat changed: We can talk about several hundred graduates of various specialties. However, for example, in the near future, only for the development of the Barents Sea fields, there is a need for 15 thousand specialists with higher education, more than 50% of whom have a marine oil and gas education and a qualification of "mining engineer" [8,9].

Authors set goals to see the process of the transformation of the specialists training system for oil and gas projects in the Arctic occurring in the education structure in Russia over the last decade, for which it seems necessary to examine the major global trends in training for the Arctic; to trace the manifestations of these trends in the system of Russian specialists' training; to identify the list of universities that are leaders in training for the Russian Arctic, preparing "Arctic jobs of the future".
