Kazakhstan develops technical and vocational education - statistics
Technical and Vocational Education
In 2015/16 academic year, there were 780 colleges in Kazakhstan with 499,000 students pursuing studies there.
The number of technical and vocational education institutions has increased by 1.6% in a year.
On the contrary, the number of students reduced by 5.6% which is explained by demographic indicators. Thus, the number of young people aged 15-18 (when young people are allowed to enter a college after the 9th grade) fell in 2015 by 4.4% to 909,900 people. The number of young people at the age of 19-24 (when 11th grade graduates are allowed to be admitted at colleges) also reduced by 4% to 1.75mln.
Under the 2016-2019Governmental Programme of Education and Science Development, the system of technical and vocational education will be modernized soon.
The colleges of Kazakhstan are experiencing a number of problems now.
Compared to developed countries, the coverage of students with technical and vocational education in Kazakhstan is significantly lower (in 2015, the share of young people aged 14-24 in technical and vocational education institutions makes only 16.1%). 22% of population only believes that technical and vocational education can be prestigious (71% of EU population are positive on working profession).
Governmental spending on technical and vocational education is 2.5-3 times lower compared to the indicators of the world’s developed countries.
Besides, as a result of a survey conducted by the OECD, 70% of Kazakhstani companies believe that low level of personnel training remains an obstacle for the development of business. The workers of the country do not have computer-aided design skills; they are less experienced in complicated welding constructions and in technical English.
The country attracts 30,000 foreign workers annually, with 24,900 (83%) are attracted to industrial sector.
The Programme aims at:
- updating the content of technical and vocational education with the consideration of industrial and innovative development of the country
- improving image of technical and vocational education
- ensuring availability of technical and vocational education and quality of personnel training
- improving management and monitoring of technical and vocational education development
- ensuring high-quality training of competitive personnel
It is notable that on the background of decreased number of students, the staff of colleges was raised, on the contrary. Thus, in 2015/16 AY, the number of teaching employees in technical and vocational education system rose by 0.3% reaching 37,500 people. In 2011, there were 17 students per each teacher while in 2015/16 AY this figure made 14 per each teacher.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the project “Technical and Vocational Education Modernization” implemented due to the World Bank’s loan, in 2015 Kazakhstan developed 147 modular educational programmes.
In order to make technical and vocational education more available, education officials of the country introduced amendments to the Law “On education”, namely in guaranteed obtaining of free technical and vocational education by citizens.
348 colleges have introduced dual education with the involvement of 1,715 enterprises and covering more than 22,000 students in 10 most priority areas. The main partners of the colleges are Ust-Kamenogorsk Valve Plant, ArcelorMittal Temirtau, Kazakhmys Corporation, Pavlodar Machine Building Plant etc.
132,900 people (85%) out of 156,400 students studying as per the governmental contract will be able to pass an on-job training at these enterprises. 40.7% of college laboratories and workshops were provided with all required equipment.
In Q3 2016, technical and vocational education sector rendered services to Kazakhstanis to the amount of 32.9bln tenge – that is 17.8% more than in the same period a year before.
The biggest volume of services was rendered in Almaty (4.2bln tenge, +16.7% per year), densely-populated South Kazakhstan region (3.9bln tenge, +33.1% per year) and industrially developed Karaganda region (2.9bln tenge, -5.2% per year).
Source: ranking.kz