Industry educational clusters are being created in the Vitebsk region

The creation of two industry-specific educational clusters is underway in the Vitebsk region, as reported by Sergey Kovalenko, Deputy Head of the Education Department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee.

According to the source, the creation of industry-specific clusters is a promising development path for the vocational education system, which is currently facing challenges. "Such associations will help solve many problems in both education and the economy, as the training of specialists and workers for a specific industry will become more targeted and aligned with demand. Work is currently underway in the region to create educational and production clusters in the construction industry and the light industry sector," said Sergey Kovalenko.

A cluster implies the integration of a specialized university, a vocational college, and vocational education institutions. In such a partnership, the university is assigned a coordinating and guiding role. "In this case, the methodological base is fully utilized for training professionals. Furthermore, it will be possible to more clearly direct the flow of young people depending on the economy's demand for specialists of different levels," noted Sergey Kovalenko.

The first two clusters in the region are planned to be established based on Polotsk State University (construction) and Vitebsk State Technological University (light industry). "Serious work is being done in this direction. We are still a long way from the final result, but a clear scheme is already being developed," said the source. "In the future, it may be possible to talk about creating an agricultural cluster based on the Vitebsk State Academy of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to the university, there are 5 specialized colleges and more than 10 vocational education institutions in the region, and it would be logical to consolidate them into a single scheme," the deputy head of the department shared his plans.

Alena Tikhonova, BELTA.