The article deals with the relationship between the content and technologies of engineering and vocational education with the prevailing technological structures and types of scientific rationality in society. It is shown that it is possible to single out educational paradigms that correspond to classical, nonclassical and post-non-classical rationality. The technical-technological, scientific-methodological and psychological-pedagogical basis of the selected types of engineering and vocational education is explored. The strengths and weaknesses of institutional forms of these paradigms of engineering and vocational education are considered. The concept of symbiotic education, reflecting the views of post-non-classical scientific rationality, is proposed.