The authors analyse retrospectives and emerging trends in the system of vocational pedagogical education and substantiate different ways of improving teachers of secondary vocational education training. The materials and conclusions presented in the article come from the results of research being conducted at the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Vocational Education of the Russian State Agrarian University — Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy for decades. The research is being done according to the coordination plan of scientific research of the Educational and Methodological Association of universities for vocational pedagogical education. The report contains provisions that can be taken into account by managers and specialists of federal and regional education management bodies when forming policies and making current decisions aimed at the modernisation of secondary vocational education, as well as by teachers-scientists when conducting scientific research in the field of theory and practice of vocational education