Kazakh President’s 7 employment and labor tasks
In attendance were deputies of the Parliament, members of the Government, representatives of nonprofit organizations, investors, and heads of major companies.
The President of Kazakhstan highlighted that the government policy on employment should be focused on ensuring that people will have decent jobs with fair pay. In the furtherance this goal, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev set the tasks to be accomplished in the coming period.
"First. Personnel training in accordance with the labor market needs. The Fourth Industrial Revolution gives rise to completely new professions. Nowadays, knowledge is rapidly becoming obsolete. Therefore, training of personnel with professional competencies has become a global trend. The Government should ensure a comprehensive update of educational programs for the most in-demand specialties," the Head of State said.
To that end, it is necessary to improve the material-and-technical infrastructure and the staff of 180 colleges and 20 universities over the next three years.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev entrusted the Government with constantly monitoring the matter of the higher and vocational education quality and demand.
As the second crucial task, the President named the creation of high-quality jobs.
"Presently, most of the jobs being created in the country are of short-term nature. Such an approach does not ensure effective employment of the population but only stabilizes the labor market for some time. Therefore, above all, we should create permanent jobs in the sectors which experience personnel shortages, such as manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, services, and information technology," the Head of State noted.
As the third task, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined regulation of new forms of employment. According to him, global technology trends lead to a large-scale transformation of the labor market.
"The conventional characteristics of the labor market, such as an employment contract, trade unions, vacation, sick leave, are no longer universal as before. The number of so-called freelancers, outstaffers, and others is increasing. In this regard, we need to provide for the regulatory control of new forms of employment," said the President of Kazakhstan.
The Head of State designated the employment of young people as the next task.
"The rate of university graduates employed in line with professions mastered is only slightly above 50%. It is necessary to improve the efficiency of our programs, such as ‘Jassyl Yel', ‘With a Diploma to the Village', ‘Serpin', ‘Zhastar - Yel Tiregі', and "Youth Apprenticeship'. Which of them are in effect, which are not being implemented? It is necessary to reconsider them. This matter should be constantly monitored," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev underlined.
The fifth task the President has set is to ensure inclusiveness of the employment policy. The Head of State instructed the Government to provide for specific employment mechanisms for people with disabilities in the Yenbek State Program.
"As of today, in Kazakhstan, the total number of people of working age with disabilities is 410,000. Of these, half cannot work under normal working conditions. 120,000 people are in need of employment," said the Head of State.
As the sixth task, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev set the rise in labor mobility.
"[We] need a comprehensive approach to tackling this issue, we need tools that are convenient not for officials but for people. I am instructing the Government, jointly with the governors, to develop additional effective mechanisms for improving labor mobility," said the President of Kazakhstan said.
The seventh task the Government is entrusted with is to strengthen gender equality.
"We must consistently protect women's labor rights. It is necessary to develop a package of measures ensuring women's participation at all levels of public administration and in the corporate sector," the Head of State concluded.
