Event Highlights: Launch of the Russian Edition of NORRAG Special Issue 08 “The Education-Training-Work Continuums: Pathways to Socio-Professional Inclusion for Youth and Adults”
The Russian Edition of NSI 08 was launched as a hybrid event on Wednesday 16th of October 2024. It was prepared by Kairat Kurakbayev, Assistant Professor at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, and Regional Editor of NORRAG Special Issues (NSI). The Russian Edition of NSI 08 offers two regional contributions by two groups of authors from Kazakhstan and the translations of 12 articles specially selected as relevant to the regional context of post-socialist educational systems.
The launch began with an overview of the previous NORRAG Special Issues and the partnership between Nazarbayev University and NORRAG, underlining its importance in fostering regional dialogues on educational challenges in post-socialist contexts. This was followed by a brief introduction of the thematic directions of the 8th Special Issue and the relevance of this special issue to the post-socialist education systems and contexts.
As in many parts of the world, the discontinuities between the fields of education, training and work are relevant to the contemporary educational contexts in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The two regional contributions focus on the post-socialist context of Kazakhstan. The paper by Anar Tastanova and Kuandyk Taibolatov (National Academy of Education, Ministry of Education, Republic of Kazakhstan) argues that significant deficiencies exist in the training of professional career guidance teachers, and there is ambiguity in their roles, which hampers the effective support of students’ professional self-determination in secondary education. Furthermore, the lack of dedicated career guidance teachers in many schools prevents students from receiving the comprehensive career support needed to make informed decisions about their future professions. The study by Alima Ibrasheva, an independent researcher, and Marina Tyutyunnikova (Almaty Management University) discusses the challenges and limitations in supporting NEET youth in Kazakhstan, noting that despite a halving of NEET rates over the past 20 years, issues of marginalization and exclusion persist. It emphasizes the need for a more nuanced approach that considers the specific needs of NEET subgroups and advocates for the use of experimental economics to better predict behavior and evaluate policy effectiveness.
In conclusion of the event, an overview of the thematic areas of NSI 09 “Foundational Learning: Current Debates and Praxes” was presented and researchers and academics were invited to contribute regional articles to the next regional edition of NSI.
The launch was concluded by Kairat Kurakbayev who thanked the authors and the editors of this special issue.