New hiring rules: Kazakh firms trade university degrees for real-world skills
Large businesses in Kazakhstan are more likely to need workers with technical training than those with traditional higher education degrees, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek said during a parliamentary session on Monday.
Survey highlights workforce mismatch
Nurbek said the findings are based on a survey of 73,000 enterprises across all regions of the country. The results point to systemic risks in the labor market.
On one hand, official workforce demand reflects an outdated economic structure. On the other, the evolving economy increasingly requires specialists in technology and artificial intelligence, he said.
Demand for higher education roles by sector
According to the minister, the distribution of demand for workers with higher education degrees is as follows:
- Education — 44.8%
- Services — 10.3%
- Agriculture — 6.6%
- Public administration — 6.1%
- Health care — 5.8%
Growing need for technical specialists
Despite these figures, Nurbek emphasized that the strongest overall demand is for workers with technical and vocational training, rather than university degrees.
