Regional
Vocational Institutes Providing Basic Training to Tackle Rural Poverty in Central Asia
A new regional skills development program across the Central Asian region is helping to redefine outmoded vocational institutes in the countries of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Using a network of higher education institutions, small landholders and livestock herders on the Central Asia Steppes are being taught basic agronomics in a pilot scheme designed and supported by the European Training Foundation.
By teaching simple arithmetic techniques, such as knowing the right amount and type of fodder to feed cattle, sheep and hens, or simple blood analysis techniques to prevent livestock diseases, farmers are able to move from subsistence to small and profitable business practices.
The initiative is funded by the European Union’s Skills Improvement for Poverty Reduction program, and it sends a small team of foreign experts to support local teachers and lecturers employed at established state-run rural vocational education and training colleges at an annual cost of just US$120,000. Not only is the program helping to train local farmers, it is also raising the profile of post-Soviet vocational schools that have long been disregarded as little more than a dumping ground for the poorest students. Backers of the three-country poverty reduction project, running since early 2007, believe that rural vocational schools can become motors for change.
At a time when demand for skills-based and market-responsive training has probably never been greater in the emerging economies of Central Asia, such vocational schools can play a very important role. Addressing that challenge – as a way of tackling the wider issues of rural poverty – is a key component of the ETF project.
The five-month long programs are run on farms in the three countries by lecturers retained for the project. The scheme works by tying a simple curriculum of mostly practical lessons into an agreed raft of small loans of up to $600 to get the graduates of the courses set up in business. The students are all farmers with some experience and a bank consultant helps them create tailored business plans as part of the course. Although no special terms are given for the loans, the 15 percent interest charged last year compares very favorably with rates of up to 32 percent charged by commercial banks for similar unsecured credit.
– University World News [1]
April 6, 2008
Russia
New Business Schools to Meet Management Needs of a Booming Economy
With record-high oil and gas prices fueling Russia’s booming economy, lawmakers in the country are focusing on one of the major constraints on the new Russian economy – a shortage of adequately trained executive-level manpower. According to government statistics, only three out of every 100,000 Russians have an MBA, compared to 70 in the United States.
In a bid to address this need, the Russian government has developed a high-priority national educational project, part of which has been the establishment of two new business schools, one located in Moscow and the other in St. Petersburg. Both projects are backed by the government, which is keen to see its institutions rival top business schools in Europe and the United States. The two schools also have private support from a range of well-healed and influential Russian businesses and business leaders, in addition to a number of international backers. The Skolkovo School of Management is being built from the ground up, and will focus on training managers for developing markets, while Saint Petersburg State University’s Graduate School of Management is based upon the existing management department within the university.
The Skolkovo School of Management was launched in Moscow on September 21, 2006, and is officially scheduled for a September 2009 opening, although short programs began in 2007 and enrollments for the 18-month full-time MBA begin this year. The school is planning to offer four study options: customized programs (oriented towards a specific corporation or industry); short programs (for specific managers); full-time MBAs; and executive MBAs. The school is purposely geared toward the elite, admitting no more than 300 students paying an average annual fee of US$50,000, and receiving lectures from some of Russia’s most influential business leaders (or oligarchs).
The Graduate School of Management at Saint Petersburg State University began operations on November 29, 2006, and has plans that would see an enrollment of 1,800 students by 2015 at both the undergraduate and primarily the graduate level. The school will offer an international executive MBA, an executive MBA, a full-time MBA, a doctoral program, master programs, and a bachelor in management program. In addition, the school is hoping to offer open and customized executive education programs to 4,000 participants a year by 2015.
– Russia Blog [2]
May 25, 2007
Carnegie Release Progress Report on its FSU Scholarship and Research Program
Carnegie Corporation has issued a new report, “The Carnegie Review: Strengthening Scholarship and Research in the Former Soviet Union” to describe the activities of its Higher Education in the Former Soviet Union (HEFSU) initiative, launched in 1999 to strengthen research, scholarship and publication in the social sciences and the humanities in response to the deterioration of Russian academia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The program established Centers for Advanced Study and Education (CASEs) in Russia and other former Soviet states, which are now vibrant academic hubs engaged in collaborative research projects, faculty exchanges and related activities. The new report reviews the programs and centers, in an effort to inform future endeavors.
– Carnegie Corporation [3]
April 2008
Turkmenistan
President Cuts Duration of Military Service to Lure Overseas Students Home
Many Turkmen of university age leave to study abroad as a means of avoiding two years of mandatory military service. Now the government is trying to lure these students home by shortening the period university graduates are required to serve in the forces from 18 months to a year.
However, some analysts say graduates will continue to evade conscription until conditions in the armed forces improve substantially and the widespread problem of bullying has been eliminated.
President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov changed the law on military duty and military service on March 3 at a session of the country’s Security Council. The changes are due to came into effect on April 1.
National service in the army is currently obligatory in Turkmenistan and applies to all citizens between the ages of 18 and 30. Volunteers can enter the armed forces from the age of 17 onwards. However, many young Turkmen bribe their way out of military service, but far more evade enlistment by studying abroad. Many youngsters studying abroad do not return home precisely because they do not want to enlist, or pay the fines.
– The Institute for War and Peace Reporting [4]
March 27, 2008