Uzbekistan

This report presents an overview of policies and actions in support of lifelong learning in the ETF’s partner countries in South Eastern Europe and Turkey, Central Asia, the Eastern Partnership region, and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. Our analysis explores the extent to which the creation of lifelong learning opportunities is a priority in the reform agenda of these countries in the field of education and training, and the ways in which they are influencing the formation of that agenda. The report also discusses the efforts of authorities and stakeholders in implementing their reform plans in the wake of changing circumstances before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, and identifies policy gaps and lessons to be learned before providing a handful of policy recommendations in a cross-country perspective.

This report contributes to Uzbekistan’s Vision 2030 Strategy by offering a policy-relevant assessment of the impact that skills gaps have on employment outcomes. The report presents findings of a multi-year project involving a large World Bank team and a group of researchers in Uzbekistan. This report builds on existing labor market studies and makes an additional contribution by measuring and analyzing various types of skills in the working-age population.

The main finding of the report is that worker skills gaps are hindering employment outcomes in Uzbekistan. In fact, beyond worker characteristics and educational attainment, Uzbek employers—particularly formal sector employers—seek workers who possess both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The higher employability and higher wage rates among higher skilled workers is mostly explained by the use of those skills in the workplaces. But, despite the higher employability and higher wage rates among higher skilled workers, skills gaps persist in Uzbekistan. Inactive and discouraged individuals have significantly lower cognitive and non-cognitive skills than employed individuals. And, a large share of employers report shortages of high-skilled workers.

This booklet focuses on making TVET accessible to more young people in Asia and the Pacific. It gives an overview of vocationalisation as a concept and introduces ways of integrating TVET at secondary level. The study also considers the question of whether vocationalisation of secondary education is a valid policy option at all.

Given the diversity of the region, there is a range of ways in which vocationalisation is taking place in practice. Drawing on the experiences from five countries in the Asia-Pacific region (China, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Republic of Uzbekistan), the booklet paints a picture of vocationalisation strategies within the region and, by discussing them critically, provides valuable policy advice.

The main purpose of this booklet is to be a useful resource document for policymakers and practitioners, enabling them to make informed decisions on policies which could allow their countries to benefit from TVET at secondary level, and thereby permit young people to develop their full potential and lead productive and fulfilled lives.

This policy handbook offers country-specific recommendations on how to improve human capital and close the skills gap by supporting vocational education and training (VET) systems and make them relevant to the labour markets in the Central Asia region.

It builds on the key findings with regards to Human Capital Development in Central Asia of the Central Asia Competitiveness Outlook, which was published by the OECD in July 2011. The Outlook notes that Central Asian economies can boost their competitiveness by building on the strengths of their education systems, which in most parts of the region include high literacy rates, high primary and secondary enrolment for both sexes and an above-average enrolment in tertiary education. The publication contains the conclusions related to human capital development and provides guidance for policy makers on implementing VET systems in order to better equip graduates with skills they need to get jobs. While VET systems in Central Asia differ in their respective levels of development, all suffer from a misalignment between worker skills and job market requirements. Overcoming these challenges would result in significant progress for all countries in the Central Asia region.