Yesterday, Vitebsk State Technological University, which is a leading university in training personnel for the light industry, received a visiting meeting of the expert advisory council of the Presidium of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus under the leadership of the Chairman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova.

Among the attendees of the offsite meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Parkhomchik, Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets, and Chairman of the Bellegprom concern Tatyana Lugina. The participants discussed prospects for the development of light industry as well as issues of motivation of school graduates, their interest in their profession.

On the same day, Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets held a meeting with the teaching staff of VSU named after P.M. Masherov. The focus is on teacher training, early career guidance and enrollment figures for the upcoming admissions campaign.

The head of the department stated that today the education system in terms of personnel training is working stably. At the same time, the industry faces major challenges that need to be addressed right now in order to work on the next prospect tomorrow.

The minister noted the fact that in Belarus the number of workers of retirement age in preschool and general secondary education is quite balanced - about 11%. However, the forecast for the next three years shows that this figure may double. In this regard, in Vitebsk region the need for teaching staff is not as acute as in some regions, however, even here there are certain issues indicating a shortage of teachers and lecturers.
The Ministry of Education takes the training of teaching staff quite seriously. Thus, for the first time in the last five years, last year’s target numbers for admission to teaching specialties in universities were increased by 1 thousand places. This was facilitated by significant preliminary work on the formation of reception control figures. Experts have begun preparations in advance to formulate admission target numbers for this year as well. Thus, according to preliminary forecasts, universities will admit about 61 hundred applicants in the pedagogical profile in the 2023/2024 academic year, i.e. plus another 800 people compared to last year. Thus, over two years the growth will be approximately 140%. This suggests that for young teachers it will be necessary to create high-quality conditions for their professional development.

Considerable attention is paid to the retention of young specialists. Andrei Ivanets is convinced: “Those young people who entered the teaching profession should remain in it. This is the vector where it is necessary to make efforts in terms of support and mentoring. At the same time, we must understand who will come to pedagogical universities and what kind of specialist we will receive. Therefore, today we do not set the task of speeding up enrollments in pedagogical specialties and for us it is not so much quantity but quality.”

The Minister also noted that every local manager must see what kind of personnel he lacks in order to send children to training on time. About 80% of young teachers return to the schools from which they themselves graduated, and here career guidance work rests with the directors.

As for improving the qualifications of teachers in the preschool education system, Andrei Ivanets emphasized that more than 80% of college graduates improve their level of education at universities, and this is welcomed at all levels, including the innovative level in master's programs.

Another important point is labor training. There, the task of replenishing personnel can be successfully solved by the level of secondary specialized education.

The minister also said that there is currently a downward trend in the enrollment of applicants to the capital's universities, with the exception of medical and pedagogical specialties. There is a high-quality innovative base for training highly qualified specialists in regional universities. And the Ministry of Education purposefully supports the regions. In this regard, opportunities are expanding for medalists who wish to enter regional universities. By the way, there is no territorial restriction - a medalist can enter any regional university in the country without passing any exam.

Graduates of engineering classes will also have certain preferences, who will be able to enroll without exams not only in technical specialties, but also in pedagogical ones, and then teach computer science and mathematics.

The head of the department paid special attention to graduates of the National Children's Technology Park. This year, in accordance with the Decree of the Head of State, the most gifted graduates of the Children's Technology Park entered lyceums, secondary specialized educational institutions and higher education institutions. Unfortunately, a very small number of graduates who received recommendations from the supervisory board of the National Children's Technopark took advantage of the unique opportunity to enter regional universities without entrance examinations and this needs to be seriously studied.

During the substantive meeting, issues of the educational process in rural schools, regional subject Olympiads, as well as the work of social educators and psychologists were additionally discussed.

Special attention is given to broadly informing parents of graduates and students about the real costs the state pays for education. The number of paid spots will be optimized. The budget will train as many specialists as the real sector of the economy needs.