Round table in Ashgabat raised the issues on employment and career guidance of Youth

At the event 36 participants attended: young leaders, participants of youth programs, representatives of public organizations and state ministries of Turkmenistan. They are the Ministry of Sport and Youth policy, Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance, Ministry of Education, Centre for Young Scientists under the Academy of Sciences and the Central Council of the Magtymguly Young organization, the International University of Humanities and Development and the Institute of telecommunications and informatics of Turkmenistan.

The main goal of the round table was to create a platform for bringing together key stakeholders in order to discuss the relevant issues of employment and vocational education of young people. Therefore, the representatives of active youth played the main role in this event, whose opinion, interests and needs must be taken into account in resolving these issues.

Director of USAID in Turkmenistan Nino Nadiradze addressed to the participants of the event with an opening speech. She noted that in Turkmenistan a special attention given to the demanded and perspective professions. In this regard, we delightedly support the top-priority tasks of the Government of Turkmenistan regarding the youth activity. USAID is ready to provide a comprehensive assistance to the youth and their initiatives that will help to discover the capacity and increase the competitiveness of the youth on the labor market.

Further, the participants were welcomed on behalf of Azat Atajanov, Head of the IOM Representative Office in Turkmenistan. It was stated that the youth policy of Turkmenistan is multivariate that is based on “the human values of the old generations and modern international standards” and covers all relevant areas of spirit and patriotic upbringing, health, education, employment, and involvement of the youth. Also, young people are one of the main beneficiaries of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) till 2030.

During the plenary session, Myahri Achilova, the specialist of the Department of the youth policy and sports activities of the Ministry of Sports and Youth policy of Turkmenistan presented the current outcomes of the State Programme on youth policy for the period of 2021 – 2025 and planned 56 events. Law of Turkmenistan “Of state youth policy” underlines “the economic independence of the young citizens and execution of the labor rights” through an active “support by the centers and employment agencies, young student groups, unions, that have been undertaking the programmes on employment and career guidance of the youth, also training, and upgrading the qualification. In addition, the actions have been developed on stimulation of the employers to establish the jobs for the youth.

"For me, as a graduate of the CAYLA program, the round table first became a unique opportunity to build networking with public organizations and the state sector for further cooperation, in particular the development of joint projects. Along with this, actual issues of youth employment and career guidance were touched upon, which became fruitful Bank of ideas for me. Thanks to the organizers for this event for the interesting event and productive discussion!" said Leyla Jumayeva.

“Round table was very interesting for me. I have met many talented young people. I want to appreciate the organizers for the event and the invitation. I liked the atmosphere of the event, the speeches and the presentations of the young people and the specialists. Especially, it was interesting to learn about the possibility related to the development of the youth in the rural area, - said Kasym Jumayev from NGO “Eco Durmush”, Dashoguz velayat.

The round table covered such topics as: professions of the future, new skills, career, education, as well as the revealing of the intellectual and creative potential of young people. Moreover, the topics of youth participation in the implementation of the State program in the field of state youth policy of Turkmenistan for 2021–2025 and inter-sectoral collaboration were actively discussed.

In addition, the discussion was about the future professions forecasting, training of required specialists, insurance of employment and active introduction of online education. Also, the possibility of establishment of clubs on modelling or robotics in the rural area was discussed, where youth could spend their time with the interest and testing yourself in new activity. At the same time, the participants indicated the importance of increasing motivation regarding to labor, sports, education, and science among the youth.