This is a study of how vocational education was transformed to deal with social distancing due to
coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation. Data was taken from online delivery platforms such
as Coursera, Timepad, and Edumarket. The demand for educational courses in Russia increased by
2.5 times in the first half of 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19. Despite this only 19% of learners
are prepared to continue their learning after the quarantine measures are lifted. In the first half of
2020 programs on these platforms were focused on soft skills. There was an increase in programs for
stress resistance, leadership, productivity, business, hobbies and art, parent-child relationships, and
foreign language learning. The proportion of programs reliant on social communications decreased
significantly. However, there was an increase courses in IT (blog / website development, machine
learning), and medicine (ensuring safety in case of coronavirus infection, prevention of COVID-19,
etc.). The study is of interest to the heads of regional educational departments, specialists of the
continuing education in universities, professional educational organizations, non-governmental
organizations of continuing education, labor exchange and those who are involved in continuing
education and self-learning.