TODAY.AZ / Business

Minister: Over 500 professional standards to be developed in Azerbaijan

08 December 2017 [16:51] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Sara Israfilbayova

Conference entitled “Using professional standards to develop the workforce in Azerbaijan” kicked off in Baku on December 8.

Addressing the conference, Azerbaijani Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Salim Muslimov stressed that over the next three to four years, it is planned to develop more than 500 new professional standards in Azerbaijan.

The minister said that during this period it is planned to update 300 existing professional standards.

“In 2010-2015, 289 professional and 63 qualification standards were prepared in Azerbaijan within the framework of the project “Social Protection Development” jointly with the World Bank (WB). This process was slowed down because of a lack of finance, and from the beginning of 2016 we prepared another 61 professional standards. All of them are posted on the website of the Ministry of Labor, and only over the past eight months, the standards have benefited more than 35,000 times,” the minister said.

The objective of the project “Social Protection Development” for Azerbaijan is to improve delivery of labor market and social protection interventions through strengthened institutions, enhanced institutional and human resources capacity, and improved targeting of social safety net programs.

There are four components to the project. The first is the labor market reform, which will help to significantly improve labor market institutions, policies and programs and strengthen capacity for labor market and employment policy formulation and implementation.

The second component is capacity building of the Ministry of Labor and development of social safety net programs The third is the pension system development, while the fourth component is the project management.

Azerbaijan joined the World Bank Group in 1992.  Since then, commitments to the country totaled over $3.78 billion for 50 projects.

Muslimov noted that next year the Ministry, with the support of the European Union representation in Azerbaijan, will launch a new project in this field.

Further, the minister noted that only 32 percent of the Azerbaijani working-age population have professions that are required by the market today, adding that the discrepancy between vocational education of job seekers and modern requirements of the labor market is one of the causes of unemployment.

"On the other hand, many existing specialties have become obsolete as a result of the rapid development of science and technologies,” the minister said. “Therefore, the creation of professional standards plays the role of the main tool in planning the recruitment process and further career growth of an employee, the formation of human resources that meet the requirements of employers, as well as in providing unemployed and job-seekers with jobs."

More than 400 professional and qualification standards have been prepared and are being used in Azerbaijan. Moreover, 300 existing professional standards are planned to be updated and over 500 new ones – to be prepared over the next few years.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/business/167627.html

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