The problem of employment of university graduates

The problem of employment of university graduates remains acute

      Entering the market era has made such a concept as unemployment familiar to us. And, according to professional economists, this situation is quite logical. At the same time, in Kazakhstan, unemployment has a specific aspect, related to the employment of young people with higher education diplomas.
       In Soviet times, this problem was solved with the help of the so-called distribution, when a graduate of an educational institution was sent to work in the profile of his education. With the transition to a market economy, this practice has been abandoned, as the state has abdicated its responsibility for guaranteeing the employment of young professionals. How sad it is, but they were not ready to take responsibility for themselves. As a result, the labor market began to accumulate a large number of young people with university diplomas, but without work.
      Recruiting agencies also say that today companies and enterprises are reluctant to hire young people. From their point of view, the unemployment of young people is growing also because it is more profitable for organizations to hire people with experience. During the crisis employers are not ready to invest in an inexperienced employee burdened with high ambitions, because this is exactly how a modern young person looks to an employer. Recruiters believe, however, that sooner or later companies will return to recruiting young people. Meanwhile university graduates will have more difficulties in job search than before the crisis. However, according to experts, this situation has its advantages.
       For example, a hopeless situation will force the current generation of young professionals to radically reconsider their views on career and become less picky in their requirements. And this will allow them to adapt more quickly to the labor market. There is, however, one more problem, which is the passivity of the graduates themselves, or rather their unwillingness to work for the price offered in the market.
       According to experts, domestic legislation on regulating the employment of university graduates looks vague and unspecific. For example, the Law on Education states only that "...local executive bodies... promote employment of graduates of educational organizations through employment services...". In addition, the Concept of State Youth Policy states that "social assistance to the youth will be implemented through the development of the existing network of social services for the youth providing assistance... in obtaining consulting, practical, organizational assistance in matters of employment". In short, there is a general form, but the specific content leaves much to be desired.

However, the Ministry of Education and Science has a slightly different opinion, giving more optimistic figures in this regard. According to its estimates, on average, employment of graduates with higher education is 60-65%, and with technical and professional education - from 70% and higher. And Kazakhstan's minister of education and science, speaking in parliament, noted that there is a downward trend in youth unemployment in Kazakhstan. "Over the past decade we have seen positive dynamics. Thus we rely on the data of Agency of RK on statistics. If in 2000 our youth unemployment was about 18%, in 2009 this figure dropped to 8.5%. In 2014, youth unemployment was 4.3%. For the first time the youth unemployment rate was lower than the national unemployment rate, which was 5.5%," said the head of the Ministry of Education and Science.
      Meanwhile, Kazakhstani experts suggested introducing a special term - "diploma unemployment. It implies unemployment among young citizens with professional diploma who are not in demand by their specialty and do not wish to work in other areas in the long term. One more specific side of this phenomenon in Kazakhstan was profile bias - lawyers and economists make up the bulk of the unemployed specialists. As we know, in the initial period of our sovereign history practically all school graduates tried to enter those faculties, which gave education on these directions. They were considered the most prestigious. Since demand creates supply, all sorts of private schools started to multiply in the country like mushrooms after the rain, which in fact put the training of lawyers and economists on a conveyor belt. Paradoxically, but today the frenzy has not subsided, and now we are ahead of the entire planet in the number of holders of such diplomas.
       The process has gone so far that even the president of the country from time to time has to appeal to young compatriots, urging them to change their life direction and go in technical professions. But appeals alone are not enough, it's necessary to change mentality, and it's not a matter of one day. That is, the problem of diploma unemployment is not only economic, but also psychological. Often school graduates do not choose their future profession independently, but under pressure from their parents. And the latter have their own scale of values, into which the latest trends in the labor market do not fit unambiguously.

Another factor directly affecting the growth of diploma unemployment is the chaotic - or should I say chaotic - policy in the sphere of higher education. By this we mean, first of all, the virtually uncontrolled process of opening private and not always justified expansion of the profile of state universities. We have already written and spoken about this many times, but it would be worthwhile to mention it once again. In fact sometimes it came to the absurd, when even in district centers all sorts of "academies" and "institutes" were opened, which stamped all the same lawyers and economists. As a result, Kazakhstan confidently broke into the group of world leaders by the number of universities and students studying in them. But, as you know, quantity does not always mean quality. More often it is vice versa.
       Though, to be fair it is worth noting that in recent years the Ministry of Education and Science has begun to show political will in this matter and raises the issue of optimization of private universities. Bringing the Russian system of higher education into a more or less decent shape will take time. To speed up the process we need a strong will at the highest political level. There are too many powerful interests tied up here for them to be so easily turned away from such a nourishing trough.
       Strengthening the role of the state in the system of higher education training is also important because the need for rigorous planning in this direction has been long overdue. Hardly anyone today can even approximately define what kind of specialists and how many of them Kazakhstan's economy needs. And precisely such approach can become a cardinal step on the way to decrease the level of diploma unemployment. There is hope for this, given that it was the active intervention of the state that helped save the country's system of technical and vocational education (TVET) from final collapse. By the way, as the experience of some neighboring countries, such as Russia, testifies, as a result of the improvement of the system of technical and vocational education the unemployment rate among graduates of secondary special educational institutions decreased twice as much as the same indicator among university graduates. Two factors come into play here. First, young specialists with higher education often have excessive requirements when applying for a job, especially in terms of salary. In most cases, however, these requirements are not backed up by either experience or relevant practical qualifications. Second, TiPo graduates are employed in in-demand segments of the economy. For example, in the service and sales sectors.
       In short, we can only reiterate that the TVET system is an important primary link in the education process. And, in addition, a specialist who already has qualifications will be more discerning in his choice of university, and subsequently more in demand in the labor market.
       One cannot say that the state has been an outside observer all these years. It is enough to remember the state programs "With diploma to the village", "Youth practice" and "Youth personnel reserve". But this was clearly not enough, since the problem took on an almost nationwide scale.

Well, in conclusion, we would like to list a set of measures proposed some time ago on the site Zakon.kz and designed to help solve the problem of employment of graduates of Kazakhstan universities and educational institutions of the TPE system (the authorship, unfortunately, is not specified):
1. Provide tax incentives for enterprises that hire graduates of universities and specialized secondary educational institutions.
2. To monitor employed (officially, under labor contracts) and unemployed graduates of universities and colleges within five years after receiving their diplomas. And based on the results of such monitoring to establish a rating of educational institutions in Kazakhstan.
3. The results of monitoring to publish before the admission commissions of universities and colleges.
4. To establish a numerical limit for admission to the specialty "law" and to increase the number of grants for engineering and technical specialties.
5. Inform students in grades 10-11 about personnel shortages in certain industries in order to reduce the imbalance in the regions.
Perhaps these measures will not solve the problem of diploma unemployment overnight, but as the eastern wisdom says, "the road of a thousand steps begins with the first step.

 The results of the best and worst employment rates of SCSU graduates in 2019