Minsk, 30 July. This year, the number of applicants to colleges in Belarus has exceeded the number of applicants to universities by almost 1.5 times. This was announced today by the Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets during his visits to the capital's secondary specialized education institutions.

According to him, such dynamics indicate a balanced structure of personnel training that meets the needs of the labor market. The growth of the prestige of secondary specialized and vocational education is highly noted.

High competition is observed in many areas: the average score of applicants' certificates reaches 9-10 points. Professions in the field of pedagogy, cooking and high-tech production - automation, robotics, microelectronics are the most in demand. For a number of specialties, the competition is up to three people per place.

The Ministry of Education is adjusting recruitment depending on demand: training has been suspended for about 70 qualifications, but for 86 it has increased, focusing on the requests of employers.

This year, it is planned to enroll about 28 thousand people to the vocational education level, and over 38.6 thousand to colleges. Most of the applicants are 9th-grade graduates.

The acceptance of documents from ninth-graders ends on August 1, the entire campaign on August 17 for colleges and August 23 for vocational schools. The Minister expressed confidence that each applicant will find their place in the education system and a successful job to start a career.