Kazakhstan advancing technical education to international level

Kazakhstan’s technical and vocational training will be provided in special colleges at international quality level, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan Vice-Minister of Education and Science Sayat Shayakhmetov as saying at the briefing in Astana. “The current system of technical and vocational training in Kazakhstan is behind the ones in developed countries in many aspects. At the same time the needs of the country’s economy for personnel and the goals of the industrial modernization require implementation of new methods and approaches to training the experts. In this relation the President set a task in 2011 to create a network of the world-level colleges. Kassipkor holding was established to perform this task,” Sayat Shayakhmetov said. According to him, four world-level colleges will open by 2015 in Astana, Almaty, Aktobe and Shymkent. The colleges will train experts in such areas as energy, construction and utilities, information and communication technologies, design, tourism and hotel business. Inter-regional training centers in Atyrau (oil and gas sector), Ust-Kamenogorsk (engineering and metallurgy), Ekibastuz (fuel and energy) and Shymkent (light and food industry) will be transferred under Kassipkor holding's management. “The first holding’s college, an inter-regional vocational center for training and retraining of oil and gas sector personnel in Atyrau APEC Petrotechnic, will start working in February 2013. It was established jointly with the world’s leader in oil and gas education, South Alberta Institute of Technologies (SAIT Polytechnic), Canada,” Sayat Shayakhmetov said. According to chairman of Kassipkor holding Ayana Manassova, the teaching will be done in English and thus, the requirements to the students are quite high. The student's IELTS score must be at least at 5.5. The first test for students was held last December. There were 180 applicants, but only 30 of them passed the test. The second test will be held on February 4-8, 2013. “The preparatory work for establishment of the center in Atyrau was performed last year. We were selecting from the world’s leading colleges. We considered the colleges of the United States, Canada, Norway and Great Britain, but Canadians suggested the most all-round solution for the institutional development of the center. And the most important is that they agreed to issue international diplomas at the territory of Kazakhstan. This means that the quality of the students’ education and skills will be equal to the high quality of Canadian education. This gives the future graduates a huge competitiveness and opportunities to work all over the world,” Ayana Manassova said. According to her, foreign instructors, professors and managers will be invited for the first 5 years. During that time all foreign employees will be doubled by one or two local experts and gradually replaced by them when they are ready to perform the functions. “That means that in 5 years we will have a world-class college under Kazakhstan management. I cannot talk about the exact costs yet, but the education will cost approximately $15-18 thousand per one student,” Manassova said. In his turn, Vice-Minister of Education Sayat Shayakhmetov said that “there were no obligations of compulsory work in Kazakhstan after such education and there probably would be none of such”. “The Education Ministry has to serve the citizens. We help Kazakhstan citizens get the double-diploma (Kazakhstan and Canadian) education and receive the qualifications that make them competitive. If they work abroad, I think this will be beneficial for Kazakhstan. It is expensive for the government, but prestigious for the citizens,” Vice-Minister said. By Baubek Konyrov