On August 8th, during an expanded meeting dedicated to the employment of university graduates, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated that the current system for training personnel does not meet real-world needs and criticized existing shortcomings in employment calculations.
The President noted that in the last 7 years, enrollment in universities has increased by 4.5 times, with higher education coverage reaching 42%. However, the system for training personnel still does not meet the demands of the market. He cited the BYD factory as an example.
According to reports, the factory, which produces 20,000 cars per year, has 100 job openings. A quarter of these are for engineers in robotics, painting, and robot programming. Due to a shortage of personnel, the factory employs 80 foreign specialists. When the factory reaches full capacity and begins producing 500,000 cars per year, it will require 4,000 highly qualified specialists.
“And these are calculations for just one project. Thanks to major projects worth $83 billion that will be launched in the next 3-4 years, industry alone will require about 500,000 personnel,” the head of state emphasized.
The meeting highlighted a significant gap between the skills of university graduates and the requirements of employers.
It was noted that the light industry alone requires 4,000 highly qualified specialists. Despite the fact that an average of 2,500 students graduate in this field each year, 42% of them cannot find employment because they do not know how to work with modern equipment. As a result, entrepreneurs are forced to hire ready-made specialists from abroad.
The President also criticized the calculations for the employment of graduates. According to reports, out of 231,000 university graduates this year, 125,000 have found work. However, it turned out that 42,000 of them are self-employed. The head of state noted that the government spends 25-30 million soums annually on the education of one university student, but more than half of the graduates are forced to work in low-skilled positions after receiving their diplomas.