Non-formal education - Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

For educational training programs for managers and professionals a special permit (license) issued
by the Ministry of Education is needed.
Thus, system of training and retraining of specialists in the field of public economics and management
in the Republic of Belarus is preserved and is functioning quite well. Almost all universities, as metropolitan
and regional, have faculties or centers for retraining and skills development, in many ministries and
agencies similar independent departmental institutes and training centers are created and functioning.
Every year over 530 thousand peopleof 5 thousand professions go through training. The greatest
number of workers covered by one year of professional training, there are in the following industries:
“Industry” (220 thousand people), “Education” (60.5 thousand people), “Construction” (57.3 thousand
people), “Health, Physical Education and Welfare” (42.9 thousand), “Transport” (29.4 thousand).
Trainings for the released and the unemployed citizens are provided by employment services 29 .
Despite the impressive numbers, there are a number of disadvantages, which are due to just a low
degree of reforming the sector, they are:
– A low level of response to changes in external social and economic conditions, progress in the
development of science and technology, especially of the Belarusian economic model;
– A clear predominance of fundamental and theoretical knowledge over practice orientation
rarely brought to the teaching faculty of practice;
– Excessive conservatism in the educational process, dominated by lectures and seminars,
where active forms and methods of teaching are rarely used;
– Lack of evidence-based set of requirements to the frequency, duration and purpose of
professional development;
– Weak association of institutions of training and retraining to the real economy and the labor
market requirements.
3. Problems and prospects of development of non-formal adult education
in the Republic of Belarus
The Republic of Belarus is now feeling the effects of the majority of trends that define and promote
the development of adult education in Europe. Directly it concernsnon-formal education as an important
tool not only for the development of human capital and the quality of life, but also to strengthen the
country’s competitiveness in the context of globalization and internationalization as well: the next 10
years, about 80% of currently used technologies will obsolete, 80% of employees will have education,
received more than 10 years ago, an increase in the quality requirements of the labor force, due to the
aggravation of international competition, the rapid development of technology, increasing the need
for continuous updating of knowledge and skills and the development of professional and personal
skills 30 .
Global challenges such as the threat of ecological disaster also put new challenges in changing
the world and updating the knowledge of adults who should be responsible for making decisions that
determine the lives of future generations. Participation in decision-making requires not only understanding
of current issues and ideas about how the political system and the willingness to participate in the
political process. Without the development of civic education to achieve this objective in Belarus will be
impossible.
At the beginning of our review of the prerequisites for the development of non-formal adult education
in present-day Belarus, we highlighted the emergence of a new type of query on the result of education
on the part of consumers. At the same time, it should be noted that the role of the “customer” of nonformal
education today should be played not only by citizens, but also by the state itself. Moreover, in
29
Проект «Концепции Государственной программы развития дополнительного образования взрослых на 2012-
2016 годы». Access mode: http://edu.gov.by/ru/main.aspx?guid=17771
30
Проект «Концепции Государственной программы развития дополнительного образования взрослых на 2012-
2016 годы». Access mode: http://edu.gov.by/ru/main.aspx?guid=17771
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