Azerbaijan job market suffers from lack of professional standards: World Bank official
By Nigar Orujova
The lack of professional standards in different sectors not only has created problems for employers and employees, but also has interfered with normal activities of the country's employment agencies, Head of the World Bank Baku office Larisa Leshchenko said.
"This situation has negatively affected the labor market, and to varying degrees all sectors of the economy," she said.
Formation and subsequent application of the professional standards are equally important, Leschenko added.
Azerbaijan's Labor and Social Protection of Population Ministry and the World Bank continue to build a labor resources development agency in the framework of their joint project for the development of social protection.
"In the framework of our project some 200 such standards were created. Meanwhile, the work continues and it is necessary to create a special agency that would deal with issues of their application and further development of personnel potential of Azerbaijan," she said.
Labor and Social Protection Minister Salim Muslimov said establishment of the agency is being discussed at the working group.
"We need to continue the work. We will present our ideas as well to the market participants - confederations of trade unions and employers, will listen their opinions. A further step will be a national classifier of professions, and after the application of the professional standards, issuing of the corresponded certificates to employees, accredited companies or associations, will be possible in the future," Muslimov said.
The purpose of formulating professional standards is the training of competitive staff amid the dynamic economic development of the fast-growing South Caucasus.
The project covers 100 standards of training, evaluation forms on 200 standards, proposals on the classification of professions, as well as the preparation of institutional and legal framework of the Center of Professional Standards.
Also, the ministry is keen on cooperating with the country's largest enterprises in the sphere of human resource development, and holding an operative information exchange over the shortage of qualified personnel.