The relevance of studying the problem is conditioned by a number of circumstances existing in the Russian social education. Among the most important ones, the following should be named: having to bring the Russian education close to and harmonize it with the European one in line with the Bologna requirements, the need to overcome its excessive academicism, as well as the actual performance of the long-proclaimed transition to practice-oriented learning. The objective of the paper consists in suggesting the variants of overcoming the existing controversies and disadvantages of the professional training of social activity specialists by putting forward a model for organizing the practical training in the direction of "social work". The model includes the concept of practical training and mechanisms for implementation thereof in the modern Russia with the experience of the European countries borne in mind. The leading approach to the study of the problem was the method of hypothetic and deductive modeling, including all the successive stages up to the experimental one. The paper presents the results of theoretical analysis of scientific and methodological sources on the problem of practical training and implementation of practice and activity-oriented education at the Russian higher education institutions which is aimed at personal and professional development of students via the formation of competences. The analytical approach allowed identifying the key organizational disadvantages that prevent the said approach from being implemented to the full extent in the Russian education practice, including due to the lack of an optimum practical training model. The results of the research have allowed providing grounds for having to develop the concept of students' practical training in social directions of activity and suggesting the mechanisms for implementing it at the Russian educational organizations. The materials of the research can be used by the Russian and foreign higher education institutions when holding the students' practical training, first of all, in the area of social work.