The department of advanced training and retraining of personnel is a structural subdivision of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus. The key aim of the department is to ensure and develop the system of advanced training and retraining of personnel.

The main tasks of the department are:

- development and implementation of state policy in the field of advanced training and retraining of personnel with secondary specialized and higher education, as well as continuous professional training of workers;

- ensuring the functioning and development of the system of advanced training and retraining of personnel;

- coordination of the activities of republican government bodies, departments of education of regional committees and the education committee of the Minsk City Executive Committee, organizations for advanced training and retraining of personnel;

- development and implementation of normative legal acts regulating relations in the field of advanced training and retraining of personnel with secondary specialized and higher education, as well as continuous professional training of workers.

The department in accordance with the tasks assigned has the following functions:

- develops, considers, coordinates drafts of legislative, regulatory legal and other acts, concepts, state programs in the field of advanced training and retraining of personnel with secondary specialized and higher education, as well as continuous professional training of workers, analyzes and summarizes law enforcement practice;

- determines the main directions of development and improvement of the control system in the field of advanced training and retraining of personnel;

- organizes the development and approval of educational standards, the preparation and publication of textbooks, manuals and other educational and methodological literature in the field of advanced training and retraining of personnel with secondary specialized and higher education, as well as continuous professional training of workers;

- carries out educational and methodological guidance and coordination of the activities of all educational institutions (their divisions), regardless of the form of ownership and other organizations on issues of their competence;

- makes proposals on the creation, organization and liquidation of educational institutions (their divisions providing advanced training and retraining of personnel);

- interacts with the republican government bodies and local executive and administrative bodies in resolving issues within its competence;

- prepares materials for meetings of the Coordinating Council for advanced training and retraining of executives and education specialists and the Council for additional adult education;

- ensures the organization and conduct of fundamental and applied research work on the problems of advanced training and retraining of personnel;

- gives explanations and recommendations on issues within the competence of the department;

- considers in due time letters and complaints from citizens, takes measures to eliminate the identified shortcomings;

- ensures a unified procedure for working with documents in the Ministry in accordance with regulatory, legal, methodological documents on office work and archiving, their preparation and execution on time;

- carries out international cooperation on the issues of advanced training and retraining of personnel.

The system of advanced training and retraining of personnel in Belarus began its functions 50 years ago. By the beginning of the 1990s, it comprised 136 educational institutions and about 400 thousand workers, specialists and heads of the national economic complex.

 

From January 1, 1988, educational institutions and subdivisions for advanced training and retraining of personnel were transferred to work under conditions of full cost accounting and self-financing, which allowed them by 1991 to gain experience in direct relations with customers, improve the content of training, and strengthen the educational and material base. This made it possible not only to preserve, but also to ensure the further development of the network of institutions.

Today, the system of additional adult education in the Republic of Belarus is one of the most important factors in the socio-economic development of the country and is a flexible, mobile and constantly evolving system. It is designed to solve and generally solves the problems of providing sectors of the economy with professional personnel of the required level of qualification, personnel support for innovative processes, and meeting the needs of citizens in professional development. The advanced training and retraining of executives and specialists, as well as workers and employees, is carried out by about 400 educational institutions and other organizations, different in status, departmental affiliation, forms of ownership.

  With the adoption of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Education, the concept of “additional adult education” has expanded. If earlier additional education for adults was seen only as advanced training, retraining and internships, now it includes the implementation of 12 educational programs, including:

- an educational program for advanced training of managers and specialists;

- an educational program for retraining of executives and specialists with bachelor’s degree;

- an educational program for the retraining of executives and specialists with secondary specialized education;

- an educational program for internships for executives and specialists;

- an educational program of special training necessary for holding certain positions;

- an educational program for advanced training of workers (employees);

- an educational program for retraining of workers (employees);

- an educational program for professional training of workers (employees);

- an educational program of training courses (lectures, thematic seminars, workshops, trainings, officer courses and other types of training courses);

- an educational training program in organizations;

- an educational program to improve the capabilities and abilities of the individual;

- an educational program to prepare individuals for admission to educational institutions of the Republic of Belarus.

The system of additional education for adults includes state bodies subordinate or accountable to the President of the Republic of Belarus, republican state bodies, other state organizations subordinate to the Government, local executive and administrative bodies.

A distinctive feature of the system of additional adult education in the Republic of Belarus in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Education is the inclusion of other organizations in the system, along with educational institutions, as well as individual entrepreneurs, who, in accordance with the law, have been granted the right to carry out educational activities. Consequently, educational programs for additional education for adults shall be implemented in the manner prescribed by law not only by institutions of additional education for adults, but also by other educational institutions, other organizations, as well as individual entrepreneurs.

In the transitional economy, the fastest growing category of workers are specialists with higher and secondary specialized education, which is caused by the complication of the general system of economic relations, the process of informatization, and the development of knowledge-intensive industries. In recent years, there has been a trend towards an increase in demand for educational services among young people and among the working population. Specialties in the petrochemical, gas production and processing industries, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, culture, sports and tourism, education, finance, economics, jurisprudence, computer technology, and management turned out to be especially in demand.

The training of managers and specialists in the system of advanced training and retraining of personnel is becoming more flexible and mobile. It is carried out both on the base of educational institutions and directly at work through various forms, including internships.

The leading institutions of higher education in Belarus play an active role in the development of the system of additional education. To date, each university has established institutes and faculties for advanced training and retraining of personnel in the profile of the university.

A process aimed for the successful development of the system of advanced training and retraining of personnel, to identify in each industry the leading institutions of additional adult education, which are entrusted with the functions of scientific, educational, methodological and organizational support.

At the same time, work is underway to streamline the structure of the system for advanced training and retraining of personnel. A significant step was the process of licensing educational activities, which made it possible to optimize the structure and content of the work of institutions and to improve the quality of education.

The organization of training for the unemployed and unemployed population is important for the republic. In Belarus, taking into account the experience of other countries, a network of regional employment services has been formed and training for the unemployed has been organized on the basis of existing educational institutions.

The main tasks of improving the system of additional education for adults include:

- ensuring effective interaction of a wide range of social partners (ministries, local authorities, educational institutions, organizations, etc.);

- improvement of the regulatory legal framework;

- marketing research of the needs of sectors of the economy in workers, employees, specialists, the study of labor markets;

- optimization of the structure of the system of additional education for adults in accordance with the real needs in the regions, industries and the republic as a whole;

- improvement of educational, methodological, informational and logistical support for the system of additional education for adults, taking into account modern trends in the development of this activity;

- expanding the scale of international cooperation, etc.

The primary task is to determine the prospects for the development of a system of advanced training and retraining of teaching staff, the main purpose of which is to provide the educational system of the republic with workers of the necessary qualifications and a high level of professional competence, ready for productive work.

The implementation of this goal involves the improvement of the system of advanced training for managers and specialists in education, the creation of a modern system of scientific, methodological and informational and methodological support for pedagogical activities.

Intersectoral cooperation in advanced training and retraining of teaching staff will be further developed. In this direction, the educational institutions “Republican Institute of Higher Education”, “Republican Institute of Vocational Education”, “Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Maxim Tank", "Minsk State Linguistic University", "Academy of Postgraduate Education", regional (Minsk city) institutes for the development of education, etc.

Professionaldevelopment and retraining of teaching staff is carried out in full-time,evening and part-time (distance) forms of education, mainly at the expense ofbudgetary funds. The annual number of students is about 50,000, including over35,000 in regional institutions for the development of education. This is thehighest quantitative indicator among the sectoral systems for advanced trainingand retraining of personnel in the republic, including the frequency oftraining for each teacher.