Role of STEM-education in training ІТ- professionals in British higher education institutions

The article examines the role of STEM education in the training of IT professionals offered by UK higher education institutions. The urgency of the problem is due to the fact that the quality of training is not only reflected in their individual competitiveness in the labor market, but also directly affects the scientific and technical level of IT products, its competitiveness in the international markets of goods and services, and therefore the overall competitiveness of the economy of Ukraine. The peculiarities of IT specialists training in the conditions of rapid change of programming technologies are analyzed. The priority direction in the preparation is determined, and envisages strengthening of the content of education of STEM disciplines. The relation between the acquired knowledge in STEM fields and the competitiveness of graduates of educational institutions in the labor market is considered. It is emphasized that STEM education should be aimed at the formation of conceptual knowledge of related sciences for students to understand the important principles and concepts of engineering and modern technologies, interdisciplinary approaches to integrating STEM disciplines (when knowledge and skills learned from two or more STEM disciplines are used to solve reality problems and (or) used to deepen students' understanding) is an ideal approach to implementing authentic classroom STEM content. It is concluded that the role of STEM education in the professional development of IT professionals is difficult to overestimate, and its introduction into higher education institutions is a necessity, considering the trends of science and technology. Training the creative thinking potential of future IT professionals is possible only if the STEM subjects are properly taught. British universities train IT professionals in line with labor market demands, government requests and the needs of society, which is based on STEM education.