The article is devoted to the analysis of the possible directions of social partnership of employers and economics universities. In order to generalize the experience of partnership in the field of vocational education, the choice of partnership approaches and the assessment of the possible benefits from partnership, there was conducted a study of employers in Ukraine. The results of the study allowed us to identify the possible barriers that arise during the formation of partnerships and the most significant areas of social partnership between employers and economics universities. Successful partnership between employers and universities will ensure relative sustainable development of higher economic education, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, improve the image and reputation of enterprises, which means their sustainable development and competitiveness. This will confirm the importance and demand of the enterprise as a mandatory partner for improving the quality of higher education.

Formulating regional development goals stands out as an important part of the state regional policy, which in its essence has a purposeful character reflected in the state’s permanent influence on the socio-economic development of the country's regions. Analysis of modern research on the issue has shown urgent need to deepen the theoretical foundations and toolkit for solving problematic situations in the regions, the latter being the purpose of the study. The theoretical basis to enable setting the goals (goal-setting) for regional development is substantiated. It is proved that the cognitive approach is among the most powerful tools for studying poorly structured systems and situations, and the expediency of using fuzzy cognitive modeling to form regional development scenarios and solve problematic situations present in the relevant regions is substantiated. A special algorithm to carry out structural analysis of socio-economic regional development and to form a fuzzy cognitive model has been designed. Using this algorithm, a fuzzy cognitive model of socio-economic development of Ukraine’s regions has been formed. Pulse modeling based on the fuzzy cognitive model of socio-economic development of Ukraine’s regions by the self-development scenario is carried out. Scenario modeling has been implemented as for raising the strategic goals level of socio-economic development in the Kharkiv region on the basis of pulse modeling. The expediency of introducing a criterion showing the total impact effectiveness of certain scenarios exerted on goals achievement topical for the Kharkiv region is analyzed. It is substantiated that this criterion should be based on weighted additive convolution of the growth rate as for the level of target factors relative to the self-development scenario. The scenario modeling of the Kharkiv region socio-economic development based on the cognitive model formed in accordance with the approach mentioned above shows that reaching the top level of the region’s goals requires implementing development scenarios based on the effective growth of the region’s scientific potential and its combination with other domestic potentials.

The relevance of the article is confirmed by the need to develop scientific and methodological support for determining the development goals system in a region.It is one of the priorities for both the scientific community and public authorities. In particular, scientific basis, which coulddesign the development goals system in a region, requires further development and improvement. It should be based onboth the traditional and non-traditional methods of system analysis. The purpose of the article is to suggest recommendations for improving the scientific and methodological support for determining the development goals system in a region through using specific tools of fuzzy cognitive modeling. It has been proved that comprehensive assessment of regional socio-economic systems is impossible without the application of systemic approach, which allows interconnecting a large number of processes occurring in the economic, social and environmental systems in a region. Such researchis successfully carried outusing a cognitive approach to study complex systems of different nature. The authors of the article have considered peculiarities of drawing fuzzy cognitive maps, the latter being used as a tool for displaying real dynamic systems in a form that corresponds to human perception of such processes. A logical patternfor carrying out structural analysis of the socio-economic development of the region has been suggested.The patterncomprises five interrelated stages and includes constructing a fuzzy cognitive model of socio-economic development in the Ukrainian regions.The systemic indicators of fuzzy cognitive models of socio-economic development in the Ukrainian regions have beensuggested, and the analysis of their influence on the development of in the Ukrainian regions has been carried out.

The article is concerned with substantiating the most important features of development of the system of goals of territorial branding in the context of socio-economic development of territories. The features of territorial branding are researched, which, along with the use of classical branding instrumentarium, uses specific tools and methods, which is due to the peculiarities of its object - the territories of the country. The main components of the territory brand are generalized according to the international ratings WorldBank Ethics Indices, UNDP Human Development Index, CAF World Giving Index, Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index, etc. It is determined that the main components of the brand of the territory are the brand image, which means the overall impression of the brand and its perception by society as a whole and stakeholders in particular; brand identity, as well as infrastructure and marketing components that support the brand and increase its strength. The analysis of scientific approaches to territorial branding has proved that in general they are aimed at determining its various components, but none of them pays enough attention to goal setting as a key element of branding. The logical scheme of the relationship between the elements of the goal setting of territorial branding is proposed. It is proved that the main elements of goal setting of regional development and territorial branding are mission, vision and the system of strategic and operational goals, which are determined taking into account the opinions of experts and residents of the territory. Consistency and interconnection of all elements of goal setting will increase the efficiency of territorial branding. Prospect for further research is to develop methodological support for algorithmization of the territory brand development process.

У  статті обґрунтовано теоретико-методичні рекомендації щодо формування напрямів державної підтримки вирішення проблемних ситуацій у регіональному розвитку та виходу регіону з пастки соціально-економічної відсталості. Розвиток сучасних економічних систем національного та регіонального рівня характеризується наявністю довготривалих проблем. Економічна відсталість, основою якої є брак фінансового та ресурсного забезпечення соціально-економічного зростання, є глобальною проблемою, яка потребує поглибленого дослідження, спрямованого на пошук ефективних шляхів формування фінансового та ресурсного забезпечення сталого регіонального розвитку.У статті запропоновано здійснювати дослідження проблемних ситуацій у регіональному розвитку та передумов потрапляння регіону до пастки соціально-економічної відсталості за таким напрямами: дослідження динаміки показників соціально-економічного розвиту регіону; визначення усталених тенденцій у соціально-економічному розвитку регіону та ідентифікація його спрямованості; ідентифікація ключових чинників, що формують проблемні ситуації в  соціально-економічному розвитку регіону; оцінка передумов потрапляння регіону до «пастки відсталості». Для формування фінансового та ресурсного забезпечення виходу регіону з пастки соціально-економічної відсталості пропонується використовувати метод нечіткого когнітивного моделювання, особливістю якого є можливість визначати взаємозв’язки та взаємовплив між виділеними чинниками регіональної соціально-економічної відсталості. У ролі базових компонент моделі пропонується використовувати три інтегральних показники фінансового та ресурсного забезпечення регіонального розвитку:  соціального забезпечення;  економічного (фінансового) забезпечення;  екологічного забезпечення.