AIFC proposes to create EduTech Center and Educational IT Alliance

At the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, Governor of Astana International Financial Center Kairat Kelimbetov made a presentation on the ongoing work to develop human capital for the digital economy.

According to the model of development factors stimulating the economic growth of countries, the level of development of human capital is a catalyst for qualitative structural reforms in the economy. Today the creation and management of knowledge actively go beyond the academic world and become a priority and guarantor of the dynamic development of the economy.

“The development of human capital is no longer just the task of relevant government departments and educational institutions. Human capital is an urgent agenda and an acute challenge for all sectors of the economy from small businesses to large holdings and national companies,” Kelimbetov said.

To timely modernize and meet the ever-growing demand from the economy in the field of digitalization, it is extremely important to train qualified IT personnel.

Previously unfamiliar words like EdTech, HR-tech, talent-tech are taking on quite tangible forms in the new era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Large-scale initiatives are being created around the world, such as the One Million Arab Coders Program (the UAE), which aims to massively prepare people in the countries of the Middle East for the technological skills necessary for employment. Similar initiatives were announced in our region.

The tangible result of the development of human capital in the digital age can be achieved only with the help of initiatives at the national level aimed at educating and training personnel not only in IT, but also in related sectors of the economy.

“In this regard, we propose to scale the experience of the Singapore Skills Future program. The AIFC Bureau for Continuing Professional Development successfully adapted it to train specialists in the financial industry,” Kelimbetov said.

The key aspects of this program are continuous professional development on the job, the application of the project approach and active teaching methods and the applied nature of training programs due to the close interaction of the industry and the academic educational community.

Over the past three years of activity, the AIFC Bureau has trained more than 5 thousand financial industry specialists in the best international certification programs.

Based on the experience gained, a multivector approach to the development of human capital has been proposed.

Thus, the horizontal vector of development offers an increase in basic digital literacy, including interdisciplinary literacy in such areas of the industrial revolution as agrotech, fintech, EduTech and so on.

“It is proposed to update all educational programs at the level of schools, colleges and universities and introduce a design approach into training. It is important to develop modules of varying intensity and duration for different levels of training. In our opinion, this initiative can reach over 1 million people in the next 5-10 years,” Kairat Kelimbetov said.

In order to correctly structure training programs, it is proposed to create a Center for the Development of Educational Technological Programs — the EduTech Center — together with the Ministry of Digital Development and Aerospace Industry, the Ministry of Education and Science, the AIFC on the bases of the existing Zerde institutes, the AIFC Bureau and other relevant departments.

The vertical development vector aims to create a critical mass of highly qualified IT specialists who are able to compete in regional and world markets — at least 50 thousand specialists by 2025.

To accomplish this task, it is proposed to create an Educational IT Alliance with the participation of all interested actors on the basis of existing projects — Astana IT University, Alem Programming School, QWANT High-Tech School.

“In addition, the work is currently underway on reaching an agreement between the AIFC and the World Economic Forum on the creation of an affiliate Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the basis of the AIFC, which can also take part in the activities of the Alliance,” the AIFC Governor informed.

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