The improvement of the National Qualifications System (NQS) is aimed at solving three important tasks: creating a mechanism to ensure a balance between personnel training and demand for specific qualifications, prompt updating of the National Qualifications Framework, and recognition of informal education.
The improvement of the National Qualifications System (NQS) is aimed at solving three important tasks: creating a mechanism to ensure a balance between personnel training and demand for specific qualifications, prompt updating of the National Qualifications Framework, and recognition of informal education. This was announced by Andrey Lobovich, First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection, at the BELTA press centre.
The need to improve the NQS is explained by the fact that traditional training methods lag significantly behind the real needs of the economy. Employers often have to retrain specialists on the job. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions not only for full but also for effective employment, for which it is important to bring the sphere of education closer to the labour market.
"We have studied international experience. And in 2014, we began implementing a pilot project for which two sectors of the economy were identified – IT and management. We have worked out new elements of the National Qualifications System, such as sectoral councils and professional standards. In 2016, the concept of a "professional standard" was enshrined at the level of regulatory legal acts," said Andrey Lobovich. Methodological recommendations for the preparation of professional standards have already been prepared, other preparatory work has been carried out, and a draft regulation on sectoral qualification councils has been approved.
The main outcome was the approval by Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 764 of 24 October 2018 of the strategy for improving the NQS. In essence, this is the first systemic document defining the state's policy aimed at aligning the economy's need for personnel with the quantitative and qualitative indicators of their training.
The development of the NQS involves improving existing elements and introducing new ones, such as national and sectoral qualification frameworks, sectoral qualification councils, professional standards, and a system for independent assessment and certification of qualifications.
Andrei Lobovich explained some of these elements. Thus, the national qualifications framework will show the correlation between the qualification level and the education level. Sectoral councils should identify promising types of employment for which the development of professional standards is required. "Together with the working groups created under them, they develop draft professional standards for specific types of employment. Then, such a standard is approved by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. And the education system, based on the approved professional standards, develops educational standards for training specialists in certain professions," the First Deputy Minister explained the algorithm of actions.
The measures will be implemented in two stages: 2018-2020 - formation of the legislative framework and organizational work for the introduction of new elements of the NQF; 2021-2025 - introduction of new elements of the NQF in the spheres of labour and education. Since the process is lengthy, at the stage of introducing new elements, employers will be given the right to independently decide whether to apply qualification characteristics or professional standards.
Currently, work is underway to establish sectoral councils. They already exist under the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Architecture and Construction, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the State Property Committee, and the administration of the Hi-Tech Park.