The vocational training system of the Vitebsk region is capable of meeting the immediate economic demand for skilled labor

March 16, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. The vocational training system of the Vitebsk region is capable of meeting the immediate demand of the real economy sector for skilled workers. This was stated by the head of the education department of the regional executive committee, Ivan Shchurok, today at a meeting of the regional Employers' Union council on the training of specialists for enterprises, a BELTA correspondent reports. The vocational training system for skilled workers includes 25 secondary specialized educational institutions and 34 vocational-technical education institutions. Secondary specialized institutions train specialists in 85 specialties for a wide range of economic sectors of the region, with a total student population of about 17,000. Vocational-technical educational institutions train personnel in 62 educational specialties, including 134 individual qualifications, and the number of students exceeds 14,000. In 2010, over 8.6 thousand young people became students of secondary specialized institutions, or 107% compared to 2009, while the number of students admitted to vocational-technical schools decreased to almost 5.9 thousand, which was 65% compared to 2009. "Analysis shows that the region's vocational training system can meet the immediate demand of economic sectors for skilled workers, but today, considering the improvement of the training structure and the demographic situation, we need to look for approaches to solve these problems in the future," believes Ivan Shchurok. At the same time, the problem of balancing the labor market and the educational services market is becoming more acute in the region. Solving these problems is possible through close social partnership between enterprises of the real economy sector and educational institutions, Ivan Shchurok is confident. Secondary specialized institutions and vocational-technical education institutions are assigned to basic enterprises, which allows for a clear system of interaction in all areas. Educational institutions have a serious need to update their material and technical base. The personnel problem of the teaching staff remains acute, especially a shortage of specialists with practical work experience in production. The salary level does not allow attracting highly qualified specialists to teaching positions. The need to change approaches to financing secondary specialized institutions, which are departmentally subordinate, with their transfer to the Ministry of Education, has also matured. An important problem is the level of material support for young specialists, noted Ivan Shchurok. The higher the demand for personnel at an enterprise, the lower the wage level. In 2010, at some enterprises in the light industry and public catering, the salaries of young specialists ranged from Br320 thousand to Br500-700 thousand. During career guidance work in schools, there is an unwillingness of students to pursue these professions. "Educational institutions will not be able to form groups and open training for students in such specialties if labor incentive issues are not resolved," emphasized Ivan Shchurok. Enterprises of the real economy sector must make maximum efforts to retain young specialists in production. Moreover, the demographic situation is complex, and in the near future, the region's specialist vocational training system will have to fight for every graduate of basic and secondary school.-0-