The admission campaign for secondary specialized education will start in Belarus on July 20
Colleges get ready! The applicants are at a low starting point. While most universities of the country are summarizing the first results of the admission campaign for budgetary education, while the applicants-payers in universities have started to pass internal tests, those who want to study in colleges at the level of secondary specialized education have the final preparation of documents (certificate of general secondary education, photo, medical certificate). After all, the start of the admission campaign is already this Saturday. It will last until August 15.
More and more young people realize that professional education is prestigious and, most importantly, promising. Our President made this statement on Knowledge Day 2017 during his visit to the Minsk State Auto-Mechanical College named after academician M.S. Vysotsky. Back then, Alexander Lukashenko pointed out that at one of the Republican Pedagogical Councils it was decided to prioritize graduates of vocational and specialized secondary education institutions - those who have tasted the future profession.
We would like to remind you that this year the admission campaign for technical and vocational education (TVE) began on June 15. It will end on August 23. It involves 157 educational institutions.
The deadlines for admission for secondary specialised education are as follows. Ninth-graders can apply for the budget from 20 July to 3 August, eleventh-graders - from 20 July to 6 August, and on a fee basis - until 13 August.
This year 39 thousand people are planned to be admitted to the level of secondary specialized education. More than 27 thousand of them - at the expense of the budget. At TVE level - about 27 thousand people, all at the expense of the budget.
The trend of recent years is a decrease in the paid share of students at the SSE level and in the number of students admitted after 11th grade. The potential contingent of TVET is graduates of the basic school. For them, this is an opportunity not only to obtain a profession, but also general secondary education, and after receiving a diploma to continue their studies at a higher education institution, including graduates of secondary specialized education - in a shortened form.
Today, the country's colleges train specialists in more than 300 professions at the TVET level (a student receives two or three related professions) and in more than 200 SSE specialities (for a specialist qualification and an additional worker's profession).
As for the TVE level, there are creative (culture and arts) and sports specialities. In this case, it is necessary to pass the appropriate entrance tests. This is the only exception, when the college enrolment is based on the average score of the entrance test and the average score of the education document.
Admission by targeted study at the SSE level is also popular. This year's admission figures have grown to over 5,000 places. Many people consciously come to target studies. It is understandable. Applicants and their parents have more specifics even at the start. Pupils know what enterprise the training is aimed at, they are familiarised with the conditions of work on it in the future and technologies at the production facilities, as well as where they will undergo practical training.
The Ministry of Education is studying the needs not only in terms of quantity and based on the order of personnel, but also qualitative indicators. These are the competences that college graduates will need at enterprises. In our country there are two directions of co-operation with personnel customers at once. Representatives of the real sector of the economy are immersed in the educational process to the maximum extent possible - mentoring during internships, final interim certification, writing training programmes. Special attention is paid to advanced training, which implies the demand for middle-level specialists and workers in the future.
There are 52 competence centres in Belarus. People come to such centres to study the latest equipment, which is not available in any particular college. This is an opportunity not only to see the technologies and the process of their work, but also to try to work with their own hands.
In 2024, new specialities were opened in TVE institutions. For example, in Minsk - ‘technical operation of mechatronic systems for electronic production’, ‘production of micro- and nanoelectronics products’, in the Gomel region - ‘laboratory analysis’. In short, the country will train specialists necessary for the development of the economy, who will be engaged in the operation of modern equipment with elements of automation and other information and communication technologies at industrial enterprises.
Secondary specialised education in our country remains in demand among young people. It is noteworthy that passing scores in some colleges are close to ten on the ten-point system.
Medical specialities, IT, pedagogical specialities are popular among entrants at the SSE level. Traditionally, the largest number of applicants are admitted to engineering specialities.
Alexandra Petrova, Deputy Head of the Main Department of Vocational Education - Head of the Department of Vocational and Secondary Specialised Education of the Ministry of Education, gave the applicants and their parents a word of advice: ‘On the RIVE website in the section “To the Applicant” and on the website of the Ministry of Education, it is necessary to look at the index of professions and specialities at the TVE level. You should decide who you would like to work for in the future, in what sphere you want to realise your abilities, and then choose an educational institution, because, as a rule, for the same profession we have a choice in Belarus, where to study, so I recommend everyone to take a look. There are virtual excursions on many websites, one could come somewhere within the framework of all kinds of career guidance exhibitions and open doors’.