Belarus boasts CIS lowest youth unemployment rate

The minister believes that this is due to the government's efforts to help young people with career guidance, employment and entrepreneurship. "Thanks to the mandatory assignment of the first job, university graduates are employed right after graduation and are provided with additional labor guarantees in line with labor legislation," the minster underlined.

He noted that young people in Belarus do not mind temporary employment and are interested in working in student construction brigades and volunteer organizations. "In 2012 about 130,000 young people were involved in secondary employment," Sergei Maskevich said.

According to the Education Minister, the third labor semester this year will be just as packed with events: employers are ready to provide over 40,000 jobs to student construction brigades alone. It is important that "the youth do useful things for themselves and the society; they meet their peers and representatives of various social classes, learn something new and try to work in various walks of life," the minister said.

Sergei Maskevich noted that this summer student construction brigades in Belarus will be involved in renovation and construction of roads, dairy farms, schools and kindergartens, sports facilities, residential houses, and churches, BelTA reports.

Student construction brigades will also work at landmark facilities that were granted the status of the Youth Construction Projects in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Belarusian student construction brigade movement. Belarusian young people will help build a bridge across the Mukhavets River in Brest Oblast, prepare Zhlobin for Dazhynki, renovate Constructors' Community Center in Grodno and the Belarusian Young Generation Theater in Minsk, and renovate the Castle of Bykhov.