Skills Development for a Modern Economy Project

Closed

The growth of Uzbekistan's economy has not led to commensurate job creation. Annually more than 600,000 graduates from colleges and academic lyceums are entering labor market, while the annual increase in jobs is only about 200,000-300,000. Very recent economic downturn was accompanied with significant flow of returning migrants (300,000-400,000) from 2015 to 2017, adding pressure to the labor market. Unemployment rate was reported at 9.3% in 2018, and even higher at 17% for people aged 16-25 years. The proposed project will support the government to expand and upgrade reskilling service to the unemployed through selected professional training centers (PTCs), modernize skills development in selected TVET colleges (TVETCs), and promote performance-based partnerships with the industries including private sector. The overarching priority is to ensure market-driven skills learnt by students and jobseekers. The proposed project will be fully aligned with the country's Action Strategy for the Five Priority Areas (2017-2021), Strategy on Innovative Development (2019-2021), and the Education Sector Plan (2019-2023), and with the ADB's Country Partnership Strategy (2019-2023) and Country Operations Business Plan (2019-2021).