Uzbekistan, the most populous central Asian republic, continues to be a country of contradictions. It has a centralistic system of government with complicated political and administrative structures. Poverty is a widespread problem, particularly in the provinces outside the capital, Tashkent, and the internal political situation is made more difficult by fundamentalist leanings in sections of the population. The state also dominates economic activity and the general conditions under which private companies operate are greatly in need of improvement. It therefore takes a long time for structural reforms in this area to achieve any effect.
On the other hand, the state is seeking to establish international economic cooperation, to develop the structures of a market economy and to improve international competitiveness. In order to achieve these goals, 38% of the country’s entire budget is allocated to the education and training sector. Technical and vocational education and training has particular priority: the long-term plan – a primary national goal – is for the extensive expansion of the TVET system.
The overriding aim of the InWEnt programme is to provide long-term support to efforts to reform the TVET system. A properly functioning TVET system is the basis for developing and producing competitive products and for generating employment. It also, hence, contributes significantly to poverty reduction.
As a result of demographic trends, around 500,000 young people a year will in the near future be looking for vocational training. In order to be able to cope with this influx the number of vocational training schools is to be increased from just 600 today to 1,700 by 2009 and the number of teachers and instructors from 57,000 to 167,000.
During the project, which will last for an initial three years, technical teachers will receive both technical and vocational teacher training in six-month courses. On completion of their training they will be qualified to act as multipliers in the field of teacher in-service training. This will ensure that the large number of Uzbek teachers in the TVET sector can engage in further training after their initial university qualification.
These training courses will be flanked by seminars on subjects such as “Managing educational establishments”, “Developing teaching and learning resources”, “Work safety” and “Environmental protection“. All the subjects have been agreed with the partner institutions in Uzbekistan and will be continuously updated during the course of the programme.
Parallel to this main approach, the programme will also strive to support the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, the programme will join forces with local partners with the aim of facilitating business start-ups and building a bridge between the requirements of the jobs market and state-sector training courses.
The programme currently consists of 30 individual measures; in the course of its first 20 months over 150 specialists and managers have already received training in seminars and training courses in Germany and Uzbekistan. Women make up a little more than one third of the total, an encouragingly high proportion. A relatively large number of participants come from regions outside the capital.
A workshop on bilateral cooperation in the field of technical and vocational education and training which was staged in Tashkent in September 2004 confirmed the effectiveness of the approach. The Uzbek partners have requested an extension of the programme beyond 2005.
Meanwhile the programme was extended to 30.06.2009
2003 - 2005 (I. Phase)
2006 - 2009 (II. Phase)
In addition to the programme measures outlined above, TVET specialists in Uzbekistan can also take advantage of further professional development measures.
