July 3 at a press conference in the Government’s press center, Director of Employment Department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Yerbolat Abulkhatin spoke about the work being done to provide youth employment.

According to Abulkhatin, out of 3.8 million young people, 3.6 are considered able-bodied. Of these, 2.1 million young people are employed: 1.6 million are employees, 492 thousand are self-employed.

The director of the department noted that work on providing employment within the framework of the Enbek state program is being carried out with young people. As of July 1, 2019, the number of participants in the Enbek program is 258 thousand people, 37% of them are young people. Training within the framework of the Free Vocational Education program covered 19.8 thousand people, short-term courses — 16.4 thousand people.

In 2018, more than 2 thousand young people received microcredits, 8.5 thousand specialists were trained in Bastau Business.

“If we talk about forecasts of young people entering the labor market, then about 300 thousand graduates annually enter the labor market for the first time. We determined the forecast need: for 5 years — from 2020 to 2025 — we will additionally get almost 1.8 million young people to the labor market. Starting from 2020, the annual influx of young people into the labor market will increase. That is, we have a question: “How to provide them with employment?” Abulkhatin noted.

At the same time, he said that the NEET category — young people who do not work or study — was defined. This year, special attention has been paid to this category within the framework of the Year of Youth.

Thus, within the framework of the program “Zhastar – El Tіregі,” the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population implements two projects — Zhas Maman and Zhas Kasіpker.

Under the programs Zhas Kasіpker and Bastau Business in 2019 it is planned to train 20 thousand people. By order of the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the financing of the Bastau Business project has been doubled, which will allow to train another 40 thousand people. In general, free training on the basics of entrepreneurship in Bastau Business will cover 75 thousand people, most of whom are young people.

Also, Abulkhatin said that from 2019 grants will be issued for starting a business to people from low-income and large families. For these purposes, 12 billion tenge is additionally allocated from the republican budget, which will cover 23 thousand people.

In 2019, it was planned to cover 14 thousand people with preferential loans, including 5 thousand young people. After the revision of financing, the volume of lending was increased by another 5 thousand loans. Thus, in a year, 19 thousand people will receive preferential loans. About 30-40% of them are for young people.

Within the framework of Zhas Maman, the youth internship was expanded. In 2019, it was planned to send 15 thousand people to youth internships. At the same time, since July 1, 2019, this number has been increased by another 10 thousand people. So, by the end of this year, 25 thousand people will participate in youth internship.