“Uzbekistan is a young country – its population grows by almost one million children every year. Only around six per cent of the population is over 65,” explains Volker Falch, Managing Director of bbw gGmbH bbw International Division. “This makes a sustainable, practical education system a priority.”
The aim of the cooperation is to fundamentally modernise vocational training in Uzbekistan: in future, teaching is to be made more practical and action-oriented, and young people are to be specifically prepared for the requirements of the national and international labour market.
To this end, the Uzbek government is seeking close cooperation with German institutions such as the bbw in order to provide technical support for the reform process and improve it in the long term.
In June of this year, bbw CEO Sandra Stenger met with the Uzbek Prime Minister at the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations in Berlin. He reaffirmed the goal of further developing vocational training based on the German model and establishing partnerships.
Key points of the agreement now concluded:
- Introduction of dual training structures based on the German model
- Secondment of vocational training experts from Germany
- Organisation of specialist delegations and exchange programmes
- Support in establishing efficient educational institutions
- ‘Train-the-trainer’ courses
- Career guidance and individual counselling for young people
- Programmes for recruiting and migrating skilled workers
"Uzbekistan is a very dynamic country in Central Asia. I am deeply impressed by the Uzbek government's truly consistent and targeted approach to modernising vocational training,‘ said Falch. ’We at bbw can certainly make a valuable contribution here – and perhaps in the future we will be able to place motivated and well-trained Uzbek workers in Bavarian companies as skilled workers or trainees."
