Olzhas Bektenov and Arsen Tomsky, founder of the inDrive service, discuss development of digital industry

Images | primeminister.kz

The Head of State is actively pursuing comprehensive modernisation of Kazakhstan. It is important that economic growth directly affects the quality of life of our citizens. At the same time, big business should show social responsibility. As you know, the President has declared next year the Year of Working Professions. We already have successful examples when big businessmen take patronage over colleges and create a proper base for training specialists. This model also allows enterprises to train their future personnel. Within the framework of the Year of Working Professions it is necessary to intensify such practice," Olzhas Bektenov emphasised.

As the Head of State noted in his Address, first of all it is necessary to overcome the acute shortage of sectoral specialists, such as water specialists, construction workers, power engineers and many others, as well as to train specialists in the professions of the future," Sayasat Nurbek said.

• Identification of needs, forecasting and planning of specialists' training in co-operation with employers according to their requirements and demands.
• Creation of anchor centres of competence on the model of academic excellence.
• Synchronisation of educational programmes based on the best international practices and technologies.

Since 2021, in order to reformat the education system to the advanced model of personnel training, the "Atlas of new professions and competencies of Kazakhstan" has been developed, which today is a qualitative component of the National system of labour resources forecasting. ‘Atlas of New Professions’ has become the basis for professional orientation for secondary schools, TVET, universities, as well as a platform for the development of new professional standards and training programmes," Sayasat Nurbek noted.

Pavlodar region was one of the first to introduce the regional atlas. The slide shows the region's experience, stages of localisation. Within the framework of the Atlas implementation, 20 enterprises and 15 pilot colleges interacted. As a result, 25 new training programmes were developed for 40 promising professions. Also, 41 teachers underwent internships at the enterprises. In 2022, 102 students will graduate, in 2025, 703 graduates are expected," the Minister of Science and Higher Education said.

Teachers of colleges routinely undergo training at the enterprises of social partners. The teachers of the Khromtau Mining and Technical Higher College were trained in the basics of drone control and post-flight data processing using specialised software. To transfer academic knowledge and new technologies to industry, the ministry has identified 25 Centres of Academic and Research Excellence based on 17 regional, three national and five pedagogical universities," Science and Higher Education Minister Sayasat Nurbek said.

In addition, the new Law "On Science and Technology Policy" creates conditions for the development of regional science, which will create an ecosystem of college - university - enterprise. Already now 30 leading universities of the country have established partnerships with almost 100 colleges implementing related educational programmes. For example, Satbayev University and Kazakhmys LLP signed an agreement, under which they agreed on the training paths of Kazakhmys LLP and Satbayev University colleges on such educational programmes as: ‘Energy’, ‘Metallurgy and mineral processing’, ‘Mining engineering’, ‘Technological machinery and equipment’. College graduates have the opportunity to continue their studies at Satbayev University on a shortened programme," Sayasat Nurbek said.

This flexible approach systematises the career path of young people, creating alternative methods of entering the labour market. At the same time, the introduction of micro-qualifications and minor programmes will allow students to master qualifications in related fields sufficient to perform a separate job function. Employed specialists can master new competences in higher education institutions according to point requests of the labour market. This mechanism will be implemented, first of all, in the system of engineering and technical personnel training," the Minister of Science emphasised.

Further development and deepening of interaction between universities, colleges and enterprises of the regions in the field of professional training of in-demand specialists will continue on the basis of regional roadmaps," Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek summarised.

From 2014 to 2024, under the coordination of NPP, dual training covered more than 208 thousand students, of whom 85% were employed in the first three months from the date of graduation. In 2025, it is planned to digitise the entire process of implementation and maintenance of the Register of dual training contracts with subsequent posting on the NCE website," Raimbek Batalov noted.

As part of the presented SME development ecosystem, we propose to integrate us into the state system of the Register of recipients of state support measures. We propose to use the data that is generated in the Ministries of Labour, Education, Science and Higher Education, adding market expertise and analytics. This will allow us to create a complete picture of the labour market, carry out quality forecasting of the need for personnel and new professions, as well as contribute to "bringing out of the shadow," Raimbek Batalov summed up.

Nevertheless, the demand for specialists with vocational education remains relevant in the labour market. According to research, the expected demand for workers with technical education is noticeably higher than for workers with higher education. At the same time, the total need in personnel up to 2030 is 1.8 million people, of which about 1 million are required with technical education," Svetlana Zhakupova said.

• development of 823 professional standards that meet the requirements of employers;
• updating 3.8 thousand educational programmes on the basis of professional standards;
• opening 25 Qualification Recognition Centres in priority sectors, such as tourism and information technology (IT);
• integration of education and labour market classifiers for 330 specialties and 771 TVET qualifications.

In fulfilment of the Head of State's instruction to stimulate employment of citizens in working professions, it is planned to develop additional measures to promote employment. The measures taken will make it possible to provide employment for 948 thousand people by the end of this year. To date, 567 thousand people have been employed, which is 60% of the total annual figure," the Minister reported.

Images | Akorda

The application of this assessment system will allow to distribute TVET organisations into 4 leagues. The colleges classified in the first and second leagues will form the first 100 technological leaders. They will become reference resource centres for other colleges. Today 6 colleges of the country are implementing such standards and their graduates are certified in the relevant specialities," the speaker noted.

The third area will be capacity building of educators. In this regard, the international internship of teachers in the best colleges of OECD countries will be expanded; the use of the so-called ‘lateral entry’ or involvement of the best specialists of the industry in the activities of TVET through the organisation of short-term courses will continue; it is planned to introduce internships for teachers at enterprises and attract specialists from industry; in addition, work is now underway to develop the institute of mentoring," the Minister of Education reported.

Development of strategic partnership with foreign colleges will be done by attracting investments and introducing new technologies of training and corporate governance. Strategic partnership with foreign colleges will be developed through attracting investments and introducing new technologies of training and corporate governance. I am sure that we will carry out this work in close co-operation with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as branches of 23 leading world universities are already actively working in our country. Partnership with universities will also be strengthened. For example, in the Northern macro-region, Kokshetau University named after Sh. Ualikhanov became a strategic partner of the leading colleges of the region, and the University of Pennsylvania became a foreign partner," Gani Beisembayev emphasised.

The volume of additional need to increase the amount of per capita funding norms for colleges as a whole for 2025-2027 will amount to 178.3 billion tenge. Of this, 53.7 billion tenge is needed for 2025. At present, the draft of the new methodology of the per capita funding norm is being worked out together with the Ministry of Finance, following the results of which it will be submitted for consideration of the Republican Budget Commission," the Minister summarised.

It is necessary to actively introduce international industry standards and certification. For this purpose, the Ministry of Education needs to conduct an independent assessment of the quality of work, complete profiling and ranking of colleges with the identification of technological leaders," Olzhas Bektenov stressed. Special attention will be paid to the system of incentives for educational institutions and introduction of KPIs that will motivate colleges to improve the quality of education.

It is necessary to actively develop dual education, expand targeted training for specific enterprises within the framework of the state order. Colleges should become a ‘centre of attraction’ for young people, employers and investors," Olzhas Bektenov said.

World experience shows that the quality of personnel training is ensured through a clear division of responsibility between the state, enterprises and educational institutions. Therefore, we want to increase the role and activity of business participation in this process. The most important thing in this great joint work is that college graduates should be in demand in the labour market and receive decent pay," Olzhas Bektenov added.

The main task is to effectively and timely fulfil the activities of the Plan. The Government and akimats will take active measures to ensure sustainable economic growth and improve the social well-being of citizens. It is necessary to ensure timely development of bills specified in the Plan, to involve experts in this work, to conduct in-depth analysis and discussion," Olzhas Bektenov noted.