The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan has given its support to the development and approval of an action plan aimed at involving large companies, enterprises and employers’ associations in the training process to meet the needs of the machine-building sector. Similar measures are being developed with the ministries in charge of the agricultural, transportation and construction sectors. The implementation of these plans represents a good basis for social partnership in continuing training and will lead to a dissemination of the experience to other sectors.

Training within different sectors

Only some medium and large enterprises can afford to have their own training programmes: other enterprises have to hire trained workers. In the financial, transport, communication, mass media and industrial sectors, virtually all companies offer training programmes for their staff. In the food, hotel and catering sectors, 70% of all enterprises have in-company training programmes.

The financial sector has the broadest variety of training programmes. In general those benefiting first from training are middle management staff (much more than low level and top management staff). Many enterprise managers consider that their main partners in recruitment, training, retraining and qualification upgrading are training centres, professional associations, recruitment agencies and employment services. The main incentive to organise training is the need to increase the quality of services and products delivered. (ETF: Review 2003)

The role of partners in training

The role of the private sector and social partners in education and training still has to develop, though there are examples of the effective involvement of these organisations at a local level. Some employers participate in the funding of VET institutions through targeted training programmes and contracts to train their employees, or get involved in redefining occupational standards. Valuable experience of social partnership is being accumulated in the framework of pilot projects, carried out mainly by non-governmental organisations. But on the whole, social partners have not yet recognised human resources development as a priority and there are insufficient incentives for making good initiatives more widespread. (ETF: Country Analysis 2005, Kazakhstan)

How standards are developed

			The procedure for developing standards is briefly described below:
			The Institute for Professional Education of the Academy of Education develops guidelines and conducts seminars for methodologists of education and training institutions on the issues of standard development.
			The Institute for Vocational Education and Training provides a list of occupations for which standards should be developed based on the Classifier of Occupations.
			The Institute for Vocational Education and Training launches a tender for the development of standards.
			Standards are submitted to an expert committee, which reviews them using the agreed criteria.
			The selected standards are submitted to the ministry for approval.
			Standards are approved by an order of the ministry.

Curriculum Development

The functions of the Ministry of Education and Science include drafting and adopting state educational standards, curricula and syllabuses. Universities, colleges and schools can define their own curriculum within the framework of state educational standards.