Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Executive Summary

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Low tertiary enrollment rates suggest access to higher education remains a 
challenge for many. Centrally determined student admission quotas and high 
fees make higher education inaccessible for 9 out of 10 school leavers. 
Low university enrollments and little interaction between private sector 
employers and universities have a negative impact on the economy’s capacity 
for technological innovation, adoption, and value creation. 
More generally, Uzbekistan’s education system is misaligned with the needs 
of the growing private sector, and is unable to catch up with the economy’s 
rapidly changing structure and labor market demands. The skills supply is 
not matched with employment opportunities: the academic qualifications 
of graduates, especially from vocational institutions, do not match the 
qualifications for available jobs. The incidence of labor discouragement among 
the young in Uzbekistan is higher than in comparator countries, suggesting 
weak labor market information. 
There is no single accountable agency that ensures proper governance of the 
education sector. On the contrary, there are many actors with overlapping 
responsibilities playing partial roles. Nor is there a single national qualification 
framework in Uzbekistan to simplify the process of developing and modifying 
the qualifications structure. 
The government would benefit from an evidence-based responsive 
education policy and careful monitoring and evaluation of education reforms 
of both public investments and public–private partnerships. Overlapping 
responsibilities between state actors should be reduced through consolidation, 
and the government should ensure a holistic approach to the development 
of the education system so as to improve the sector’s overall governance and 
institutional efficiency. 
Policies are needed that integrate education, skills, and human capital 
development with entrepreneurship, SME development, and research and 
innovation policies. Effective policy formulation and implementation require 
multilevel governance as well as effective coordination between government 
agencies and relevant stakeholders.
A national qualification framework should be adopted and integrated into 
a national occupational classification to reduce the mismatch between 
labor market demands and learner qualifications. Any investment should 
aim at increasing the number and enhancing the qualifications of teachers