Youth Policy Kazakhstan

Introduction It is 8 o’clock in the morning. The alarm clock rings and everybody in the house wakes up. Kids get ready for school, adults go to work. Only Almas is not in a hurry, it has been six months since he graduated from university and cannot find a job that suits him. While studying at university everything seemed so easy: “Graduate, find a good job, become rich”. However, in reality, getting a job came out to be not as easy as he expected. Youth unemployment is one of the problems in the world nowadays.

The percentage of unemployed young people in Kazakhstan is equal to 28. 6% (“?????????? ???????? ???????????”, 2006). This means that the big portion of youth cannot find proper jobs. It is a recognized fact that unemployment is one of the dynamics through which the social condition of a country can be defined. First of all, how can “youth” be defined? Youth is considered as either a phase of life or as a social category. The phase of life refers to youth being the period between childhood and adulthood. In this report I will consider young people at the age of 20 to 24.

Secondly, what is considered as “unemployment”? According to Investopedia (2012), unemployment is “when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work”. According to the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe (UNECE, 2011), youth unemployment was one of the drivers of the worldwide financial crisis in 2008. Thus, a governmental youth policy is one of the main policy directions in which a lot of countries all over the world are trying to improve nowadays. The Republic of Kazakhstan is also in the list of these states.

The attitude of the Kazakhstani government to young people is seen in the law “About governmental youth policy” ?581 from 7th of July 2004 (Kazahstanskaya Pravda, 2004). This law points out that youth are the future of the republic and this law is created to reduce the number of unemployed youth. According to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2003) the percentage of youth of the overall population was equal to 29. 1% in 2003 (cited in: A Social Portrait of Young People in Today’s Kazakhstan, 2006).

This means that the youth is a significant fraction of the country’s population. Nowadays, young people face difficulties in receiving health service, good education, employment housing and other social issues. By providing support to this portion of the population and paying more attention to the development of youth policy, the Kazakhstani government could give the country an opportunity to build the basis for the brighter future for Kazakhstan. The main research question of this report is: What factors are contributing to youth unemployment?

I will be investigating the reason young people cannot find jobs; despite the fact that the government is making everything they can to reduce the number of unemployed young people. As I am graduating soon this issue has a direct connection to me, so I also want to find out what can I do to avoid this problem. In order to answer the key research question I will follow the three research objectives. Firstly, as I have written in the previous paragraphs young people have a huge influence on the economy of any country.

That is why I will analyze the current economic, social and political situation in Kazakhstan. Secondly, I will estimate the effectiveness of youth policy of the government in Kazakhstan. Finally, I will consider the opinions of young people on the issue of youth unemployment. The research project will consist of a survey and interviews. Questionnaires will be distributed among the alumni students of universities as Kazakhstan Institute of Economics, Management and Strategic Research (KIMEP), University of International Business (UIB), Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU) and others.

The reason I’m choosing exactly Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU) and others. The reason I’m choosing exactly this kind of survey is that results are likely to be objective because of to the anonymity of the surveyed people. Moreover, through questionnaires I will be able to gather information from a significant amount of people in a short time. The surveys are planned to be held during the midterm break (October, 2012). The representatives of such governmental youth organizations such as KIMEP Students Association (KSA) and “Zhas Otan” Youth Political Party will be interviewed.

I will interview them, as they know the problem from the inside: from the governmental point of view. Also, they are university graduates, so they can analyze the problem by combining the two different sides. Interviews are helpful, as during the interview I will be able to ask questions I’m interested in and find new information from the knowledge and experiences of the representatives. Interviews will also be held in October, 2012. The first paragraph of this report gives information on the general background of research problem and also identifies the main research uestion. Moreover, introduction includes the short description of the research methods. It also consists of the work plan. The second section addresses the literature review, which is based on the information collected from academic articles of Google Scholar databases, EBSCOhost, magazines, Kazakhstani newspapers, different Internet resources, and books. The third chapter covers the data and methodology information. The next chapter focuses on the analysis of received data and its discussion. The last chapter is the conclusion. It summarizes the done work.

The sources used and gathered are provided in the bibliography section. Each section is approximately from four to seven pages. References: Eshpanova D. D. & Nysanbaev A. N. (2006). A Social Portrait of Young People in Today’s Kazakhstan. Russian Education and Society, 48, 75-96. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Database ????? ?????????? ????????? «? ??????????????? ?????????? ???????? ? ?????????? ?????????» ?? 7 ???? 2004 ???? #581 (Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “about Governmental youth policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan” July 7, 2004, ?581).

Kazahstanskaya Pravda, 158. ?????????? ???????? ??????????? ????? ???????? (The problem of unemployment amoung young people). (2006). Zakon. Retrieved from http://www. zakon. kz/77840-obsuzhdeny-problemy-bezraboticy-sredi. html United Nations Economic Committee (2011). Men are more affected by rising youth unemployment in most UNECE countries. Retrieved 10, September, 2012, from: http://www. unece. org/statshome/news/newsyouth-uneployment-rate. html