Introduction. The formation of professionals as a stratum in ethnic republics and regions became a strategic direction of the korenizatsiia in the first decades of the Soviet era. Goals. The article aims to identify some features of ethnic professional training and the shaping of the vocational education system in Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, and Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic throughout the 1920s. Materials and methods. The study primarily deals with documents from the Central State Archive of the Kyrgyz Republic (collection ‘Kirghiz ASSR People’s Commissariat for Education’) and other sources. The conducted analysis rests on the classical research principles of historicism and objectivity, employs the general scientific, statistical, comparative historical, and problem-chronological methods. Results. The severe shortage of native professionals and absence of vocational schools forced the RSFSR People’s Commissariat of Education to send young residents of Kirghizia ― on a centralized basis ― to educational institutions of other regions. The targeted student recruitment program of the 1925–1926 and 1926–1927 academic years involved 728 individuals. The bulk of the latter were ethnic Kyrgyz from poorest social strata (peasants, farm laborers, workers). And most of the allocated funds would be used for sustenance scholarships. The formation of a professional education system in the ethnic autonomy included efforts for the establishment of various educational institutions with different specializations. The educational mobilization of youths during the specified period laid the foundation for the would-be ethnic intelligentsia and provided required conditions for the modernization of Kyrgyzstan throughout the decades to come.