Employment, housing, microcredit: What was done in 2019 for Kazakhstani youth

In order to comprehensively support the young generation, 2019 was declared the Year of Youth. The First President – Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev believes, it is the development of the family institution and youth policy that should become one of the priority areas of the Government’s work. According to the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the young generation has a decisive role to play in the development of Kazakhstan — to become the driving force of progress.

Throughout 2019, various events were held aimed at supporting the young generation of the country. One of the main events was the formation of the presidential personnel reserve. Today, modern youth of Kazakhstan is actively involved in the public and political life of the country, as a part of society plays an important role in the life of the state. Today's youth is the main strategic resource, the locomotive of upcoming reforms. At present, another, innovative youth is being formed with a new program and valuable positions, economic projects aimed at achieving high goals.

So, in 2019, 2 million people are covered by youth policy measures. Funding growth has grown 40 times, a special state program for youth support is being developed. Seven national projects for the development of volunteering are also being implemented. In addition, 2020 is declared the Year of the Volunteer.

Today there are 3.8 million young people aged 14 to 29 years in the republic. In the third quarter of 2019, the youth unemployment rate is 3.8% or 84.7 thousand people.

2,206 thousand people are economically active, of which more than 2,121 thousand people (96.1%) are employed.

In terms of sectors of the economy, the largest number of people employed is 388.8 thousand people (18.5%) in the wholesale and retail trade. More than 253 thousand people (12%) are engaged in car and motorcycle repair, 239.7 thousand people in agriculture, 218 thousand people (10.4%) work in industry.

In terms of education, 44.2% (936.7 thousand people) of employed youth have higher or incomplete education.

 

What Activities Implemented in Kazakhstan in the Year of Youth?

The Government has adopted and is implementing the Roadmap for the Year of Youth. The Roadmap includes measures to provide young people with affordable housing, education, employment, business development, support for a young family, etc.

In 2019, 3 thousand young people received rental housing in three large cities of Kazakhstan. In the city of Nur-Sultan, youth received 1,050 apartments, in Almaty — 1,050 and in Shymkent — 900 apartments.

More than 3 thousand young specialists received budget loans for housing worth 13.5 billion tenge.

The participants of the project “With a Diploma – to the Village” are envisaged to provide a budget loan in an amount not exceeding 1,500 MCI (3,787,500 tenge).

About 172 Thousand People Employed under Enbek State Program

In order to develop the labor market and take additional measures to improve the standard of living of the population, including youth, the Enbek State Program for the Development of Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship for 2017-2021 is being successfully implemented.

As of Dec. 1, 2019, the share of youth among program participants was 34.3%.

For the indicated period, more than 213.5 thousand young people are included in the program participants, of which 189.6 thousand people or 88.8% are employed.

Within the framework of the Program, the project “Free Technical and Vocational Education” is being implemented, thanks to which school graduates who have not been able to continue their studies after the 9th or 11th grade have the opportunity to study for the first working specialty for free.

Thus, for the reporting period, 22 thousand were sent for vocational training, and 20.2 thousand for short-term training.

Along with this, short-term courses have been organized for retraining and improving the skills of youth, including youth in the NEET category (Not in Education, Employment, or Training — youth at the age specified in the legislation who do not study, work and do not improve their qualifications) vocational training (for up to 6 months) in the professions that are in demand on the labor market.

Implementation of the project "Zhastar – El Tiregi" has begun, including the projects "Zhas Kasipker" and "Zhas Maman." The indicated projects are being implemented within the framework of the Enbek State Program; in total, more than 209 thousand young people have been covered by state support measures, of which 172 thousand people have been employed.

The implementation of the national project "Zhastar – El Tiregi" has reached 1 million young people over three years.

The Zhas Maman project provides for the training of specialists in 100 of the most popular industrial and service professions on the basis of 200 modernized educational institutions (20 advanced universities and 180 advanced colleges) with coverage of about 200 thousand young citizens over three years in all regions of the country.

The Zhas Kasipker project is a set of measures for the development of youth entrepreneurship throughout the country, including the NEET categories, within the framework of which it is planned to expand measures to train business skills and assist in the implementation of startup projects. Within the framework of the project, 20 thousand people were trained in the basics of entrepreneurship.

In 2019, 9.5 thousand young people received grants for the implementation of new business ideas, 10 thousand young people will receive grants annually. At the same time, 2.5 thousand young entrepreneurs received microloans for the development of their business, 15 thousand people will receive within three years.

Within the framework of the Zhasyl El project, more than 20 thousand people were employed. In 2019, about 33 thousand young people were sent to youth practice.

Under the program "With a Diploma - to the Village" the size of the lump-sum allowance was increased from 70 MCI (176,750 tenge) to 100 MCI (252,500 tenge). About 6 thousand young specialists received lifting allowance for 1.2 billion tenge.

It is worth noting that the second direction of the Program is aimed at the development of mass entrepreneurship through training in entrepreneurship under the Atameken Bastau-Business NPP project and microcredit. To date, 20 thousand people have been covered by the basics of entrepreneurship under the Bastau-Business project, of which 2.8 thousand people received microloans, 15 thousand people received grants.

At the same time, an instrument is being implemented aimed at developing new business ideas in the form of providing state grants free of charge up to 200 MCI.

The third area of ​​the Program provides for the promotion of internal mobility and support for employment.

In order to fill the shortage of personnel in the regions of the country for 9 months of 2019, 353 able-bodied family members were resettled from labor-surplus regions. Of these, 310 people are employed.

The Program also provides for the project “Mangilik El Zhastary – Industriyaga!” (“Serpin”), aimed at providing higher, technical and vocational education for young people from labor-surplus regions and their employment in labor-deficient regions. This will help provide labor-deficient regions and rural areas with young qualified specialists, help immigrants settle in a new place, including through training, employment, housing and places in kindergartens and schools of migrant children.

Also, within the framework of the Program, especially for socially vulnerable groups of the population, social jobs, youth practice and community service were organized, to which over 64 thousand young people were sent for 11 months of 2019.

At the same time, the Program also provides for the creation of mobile working groups by local commissions to form a list of candidates from among NEET youth categories. Training includes the basics of entrepreneurship, advocacy, coaching and psychological support.

In addition, by order of the Head of State, the Ministry launched a unified labor market information base, the Electronic Labor Exchange (www.enbek.kz), last year.

Electronic Labor Exchange is a single digital employment platform, which was created with the aim of providing the possibility of publishing vacancies and resumes at no cost, without visiting employment centers and free access to posted information.

For applicants, a functional has been implemented for posting resumes, automatic selection of vacancies, as well as the ability to respond to your favorite vacancies and receive invitations to interviews, job notifications from employers. All services on Electronic Labor Exchange are free.

As of Dec. 10, 2019, about 36.4 thousand vacancies and 161.5 thousand resumes from employers, employment centers were posted on the Electronic Labor Exchange.

Electronic Labor Exchange services were used by 182.5 thousand employers and 858.7 thousand applicants. 476 thousand job seekers were employed through the Labor Exchange (338.6 thousand people for permanent jobs and 137 thousand people for temporary jobs).

In order to address the issues of employment and training of the population, including youth, according to the qualifications and skills that are in demand on the labor market, the ministry takes a number of comprehensive measures.

To assess the current and forecast demand and supply of labor resources, the National System for Forecasting Labor Resources was introduced in 2019.

The system include a modular system for short-term, medium-term, long-term forecasts, taking into account the demographic forecast, projections of inflows from the education system, flows between sectors, world labor market forecasts.

The main result of the National Labor Forecast, which will be the basis for the formation of the state educational order, determining the balance of supply and demand in the labor market, as well as determining the professions that are in demand for short-term training and retraining.

Three Billion Tenge Allocated for Grant Funding for Applied Research of Young Scientists

In the Year of Youth, the Ministry of Education and Science allocated 53,785 grants, which allowed every second applicant to apply for UNT to enter universities.

As part of the work of family resource support centers, 270 families were saved. At the Youth Resource Centers of the country, departments of free legal advice are open.

In 2019, 56 grant projects aimed at supporting youth were implemented. In general, more than 2 million young people are covered by government support measures under grant projects.

Along with this, the ministry is currently developing an information system “Atlas of new professions and competencies that are in demand on the labor market” (will be launched by March 2020), and work is underway to develop professional standards.

“Atlas of new professions and competencies demanded in the labor market” is an electronic portal of promising professions for the next 15–20 years. It will help to understand which industries will actively develop, which new technologies, products, management practices will be born in them and what new specialists will be required by employers.

The atlas will be developed in nine priority sectors of the economy: mining, oil and gas, agriculture, transport and logistics, mechanical engineering, ICT, energy, tourism and construction, mining and metallurgy.

In addition, in order to develop the skills and competencies of personnel meeting the requirements of the new economy, in the framework of the project “Development of labor skills and job stimulation,” the government bodies are working on the development of professional standards in conjunction with the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

The professional standard defines the requirements for the level of qualification and competence of the employee, for the content and quality of his work for a certain professional activity.

On the basis of professional standards, educational programs are developed that allows you to interconnect the requirements for labor market skills and the proposal of these skills on the part of the education system.

This year, 480 professional standards will be completed with mandatory coverage of 100 popular service and industrial professions, professions for which a quota of foreign labor is granted.

For effective and timely work on the development of 480 professional standards, a Project Office has been created, which includes representatives of central government agencies, the National Chambers, “leading” enterprises, and educational institutions.

At the same time, industry associations of employers were involved in the development of professional standards in accordance with the Labor Code.

Taking into account the previously approved professional standards, 70 educational programs of secondary and higher qualifications have been updated.

Since 2018, a pilot implementation of 12 educational programs in individual educational institutions has been carried out.

Since 2020, it is planned to train personnel in educational programs developed or updated on the basis of new 480 professional standards. The measures taken are designed to help young Kazakhstanis realize their potential and be in demand on the labor market.

In order to encourage employers to accept young people without first-hand experience in the first job, as well as to increase the competitiveness of young people in the labor market, the project “First Workplace” is proposed as part of the Enbek program.

The organization of employment under the project "First Workplace" is carried out for graduates seeking work for the first time among young people in order to provide them with the necessary labor skills and adaptation in the first workplace, in organizations of all forms of ownership.

The pre-emptive right to employment under the First Workplace project will have college and university graduates from large and low-income families, able-bodied disabled people who have completed their studies.

Under the First Workplace project, the employer, on the basis of an agreement with the employment center, employs a participant in the Enbek program for permanent work for a period of at least twenty-four months, with a monthly employment wage subsidized by the employment center in the amount of 20 monthly calculation indices (50,500 tenge ) for the first year of work.

The Generation Contract project is also proposed, which provides for employment with the subsequent replacement of an existing employee who has reached retirement age. The priority right in employment will be given to young people, able-bodied members of large families and low-income families.

According to this project, people of pre-retirement age, after leaving for a well-deserved rest, will pass on their knowledge to young specialists.

The Generation Contract is that the applicant is accepted by the employer for a state-subsidized workplace for up to 6 months (with a salary of approximately 20 monthly wages – 50,500 tenge).

After the expiration of the contract, the applicant is accepted for permanent work with the mentor’s wages.

At the same time, the Enbek program proposed additional measures for the professional training of workers under an employment contract, including young specialists (with a training period of 1 to ten months), based on the characteristics of the qualifications and skills of the employee, subject to co-financing by the employer of at least 50% of the cost of retraining courses.

The organization of professional training for employees may include training at the workplace within working hours, with a partial separation from work or in free time from work (evening hours, weekends).

For members of large families and low-income families, it is envisaged to provide microcredits on preferential terms with an interest rate of not more than 4% per annum for up to 7 years.

At the same time, people living in rural areas, people with disabilities, people over fifty years of age, youth, including those in the NEET category, members of low-income and / or large families have a priority right to receive measures to promote entrepreneurial initiative.

The Enbek program also provides for the organization of special jobs for the employment of persons with disabilities and for jobs within the framework of quotas for certain categories of citizens.

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