They Plan to Unite Inefficient Agrarian-Technical Colleges in Pavlodar Oblast

Organizations of technical and vocational education, graduates of do not work in accordance with their speciality; want to consolidate to improve the quality of education. In addition, in this way, the colleges will begin to train specialists who are really in demand in the region.

At a meeting in Bayanaul District chaired by Pavlodar Oblast Akim Bulat Bakauov they discussed what to do with inefficient agrarian-technical colleges that are located in rural areas. The Oblast Head immediately remembered that the main indicator of the work of VET organizations is the employment of their graduates. And with this, most colleges in districts are in big trouble.

“Take for example Bayanaul Agrarian Technical College,” – the Oblast Akim turned to analytical data. – “Of 55 graduates of this year, only 16 were employed. At the same time, none of them works in the speciality they have trained in. They are cooks, welders, and electricians. Over the past 5 years, only 39% of graduates have been employed, only 19% of them are in the speciality. And the situation is the same in almost every agro-technical college. At the same time, more than KZT 1.2 million annually is spent on training one qualified specialist from the Oblast budget.”

As an example, Bulat Bakauov introduced Pavlodar College of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy and Aksu College of Ferrous Metallurgy, more than 95% of their graduates are employed in metallurgical enterprises of the region.

“Quite recently, the audit service checked Shcherbakty Agro-Technical College, as there 6 girls study as a mechanic and a welder,” – said the Oblast Head. – “Will they work in their speciality after graduating from college? Surely not. There should be vocational guidance among young people, and this should be done at the school level. Look at the same Bozshakol mining and processing plant. Today, there are specialists from Karaganda, Astana, and even from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. And we, having a material and technical base in the industrial region, cannot provide such an enterprise with personnel!”

The leaders of the agrarian-technical colleges did not deny – yes, there are problems. One of them is that young people often go to college only for the sake of a “wallpaper degree”, without paying much attention to their speciality. In addition, after graduation, many graduates go to earn only during planting or haymaking.

“It turns out, we run a college to train seasonal workers” – the Akim was indignant. – “We teach them for almost four years, spending a total of more than KZT 4 million on the teaching of one specialist and graduate an employee for only 2 months? This is the wrong approach.”

It was decided to change the approach in the work of agrarian-technical colleges by combining them, which has already been agreed with the Ministry of Education and Science. The plan is to reorganize Krasnoarmeyka Agrarian Technical College into Pavlodar Oblast Agricultural Innovation College and to include in it the rest of the small VET organizations. According to the proposed structure, all theoretical classes for students will be held in Krasnoarmeyka, and colleges in other districts will begin to be used as a base for practical training. Bulat Bakauov instructed to work out everything in detail and in the near future to proceed with the reorganization of the management system of agricultural and technical colleges in the region.