An important issue today is the establishment of reliable contacts between universities and potential employers. It should be noted that the information about future employment and the requirements that a particular enterprise or organization imposes on a young specialist is imperfect, which creates serious problems for quality control in education.
According to the National Statistical Committee, the number of university graduates who are unable to find employment is increasing every year. In 2000, this number was 15.1 thousand people, and by 2001 it had reached 17.9 thousand, while the number of graduates from secondary and vocational schools decreased by 15.5% and 31.5% respectively.
Every sixth young person registered with the employment service is a graduate of educational institutions of secondary general, secondary vocational, and higher professional education. Only in 2000 and during the first nine months of 2004, more than 21.7 thousand graduates from all educational institutions, including nearly 4 thousand graduates from higher educational institutions, sought employment through the employment service of the Kyrgyz Republic. With the assistance of the employment service, a total of 3.3 thousand graduates from universities and technical schools were employed across the republic.
These data indicate that the education system still does not respond flexibly enough to changes in labor market demands. In other words, the labor market and the market for educational services operate separately. This is particularly characteristic of universities. The number of study places is planned based on the demand for a particular educational service and is completely unrelated to the need for certain specialties in the labor market. This is further confirmed by the lack of a feedback system and control over the employment of young specialists in most universities in the republic.
Today, finding suitable work is not easy. Due to a lack of qualifications, work skills, and experience, graduates cannot compete on equal terms with experienced workers in the labor market. For instance, while the share of employed youth aged 16 to 35 among those who approached employment services in the republic was 43%, the share of employed graduates from all educational institutions was only 38%. Meanwhile, the share of employed university graduates was 47%.
