Based on the data of the sociological study (through a survey of employers in the Lviv region) on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the supply and demand for the work of graduates of vocational (and technical) educational institutions (hereinafter referred to as VEI), the needs of employers for qualified workers – VEI graduates are identified. There is a significant shortage of workers in the region; the level of professional training of VEI graduates is average, which requires enterprises to create conditions for additional training directly at the workplace or to give preference to specialists with work experience due to the lack of practical work skills of VEI graduates. There is a low level of cooperation between VEIs and business entities in the region or the one of a purely formal nature, which affects the degree of staffing of enterprises with workers. There is a need to establish cooperation between businesses and VEIs to harmonize the scope and structure of professions and specific professional and qualification characteristics (skills) of graduates. The main obstacles to the spread of dual education include the lack of full, including digital, communication, respectively, coordination of activities between VEIs and businesses in these matters, as well as the unwillingness of businesses to spend time and resources on this. The article substantiates that effective tools for balancing supply and demand for the work of VEI graduates include the development of partnerships with businesses, involvement of employers in the learning process, establishment of an effective dialogue with VEIs; creation of appropriate conditions for practical training, provision of workplaces and laboratories with modern equipment and technologies; introduction of monitoring of the quality of vocational education; formation of regional orders for the training of specialists in VEIs based on the results of longitudinal studies of the state and trends in the development of the labor market, foresight of structural indicators of the employment sector. 

labor market, balancing, workers, imbalances, vocational education, dual education, institutional cooperation, partnership