Kazan hosting WorldSkills will enhance the prestige of working occupations – Engel Fattakhov

Kazan hosting WorldSkills will enhance the prestige of working occupations. Tatarstan Education and Science Minister Engel Fattakhov said it to journalists on Tuesday.

In 2019, Kazan will host the world vocational skills WorldSkills Competition. The news came on Monday, after the WorldSkills General Assembly took place in Brazilian San Paulo. Acting Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in the presentation of Kazan as a bidding city.

“It is a joyous event for us today, of course, as we have won the right to host the 2019 world vocational skills WorldSkills Competition. It mostly means the prestige of working occupations for us,” Engel Fattakhov said, recalling Russia had joined the WorldSkills movement in 2012.

“Tatarstan has, in 2014-2015, been the Russian leader in WorldSkills,” he went on to note.

Within the bidding campaign, Kazan successfully held the 3rd national working skills WorldSkills Russia 2015 event, as well as a Future Professions forum, participated by WorldSkills member countries. In 2016, Kazan is expected to host the national working skills championship as well.

At the time of Tatarstan’s rapid economic progress, said Engel Fattakhov, utmost attention was given to training highly qualified personnel. The work to improve higher education is in progress as well.

“We optimise the number of higher education institutions in Tatarstan. The task was set by Rustam Minnikhanov in 2012. In the past four years we have optimised and restructured 23 state and private university branches,” the minister claimed, adding another ten institutions were scheduled to be restructured in the near years.