The number of university, college, and vocational school graduates in the Vitebsk region increased by 13.2% to 19.2 thousand over the decade.

March 16, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. The annual number of graduates from educational institutions in the Vitebsk region that provide vocational training has increased by 13.2% over the past decade to 19.2 thousand people in 2010. This was announced by Ivan Shchurok, head of the education department of the regional executive committee, today at a meeting of the council of the regional Employers' Union on the issue of training specialists for the real sector of the economy, a BELTA correspondent reports. Significant changes have also occurred in the structure of university, college, and vocational school graduates. Thus, last year the share of university graduates was 32.1% (in 2000 - 18%), the proportion of young specialists who graduated from colleges decreased from 30.8% in 2000 to 29% in 2010, and the share of vocational school graduates decreased from 45.9% to 38% over the decade. In addition, in the future, due to the decrease in the region's population aged 15-18, educational institutions will face the problem of a decrease in the number of applicants. For example, last year the number of graduates from basic and secondary schools in the region applying to educational institutions decreased by 30% compared to 2008 and amounted to 14.2 thousand people. The training of specialists with higher education in the region is carried out by five state universities and one branch of a non-state university, with 192 departments established in 39 faculties. The total number of students is about 19 thousand people, and the teaching staff numbers over 2.3 thousand people, of whom about 42% have academic degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences. Today, universities are creating educational, scientific, and production complexes and branches of specialized departments at enterprises, and are actively conducting research work commissioned by and in the interests of economic entities. This provides an opportunity to form innovative thinking in future specialists, allows them to gain maximum practical skills, master new technologies, and navigate freely in the information space. "One of the main tasks for universities is to create an educational and material base that meets modern requirements for training specialists," noted Ivan Shchurok. At the same time, a imbalance in personnel training has emerged today, in particular, there is a shortage of specialists in exact sciences, for production and humanitarian spheres of activity. In this situation, the structure of paid services of universities is focused on meeting the demand from applicants (mainly concerning the training of lawyers, economists, accountants) and takes into account the needs of the economy to a lesser extent, while about 60% of students study on a paid basis. Another problem of the vocational training system is the increasing gap between the social demand for training specialists for an innovatively developing economy and the existing training system. "A rethinking of the role of the teacher, their knowledge of the problems of the real sector of the economy, as well as the formation of competencies that ensure the training of specialists for an innovative economy are required," believes Ivan Shchurok. -0-