At a Government meeting, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek reported on the ongoing work to train engineering personnel for the automotive industry.
He noted that personnel training for the automotive industry is currently being
carried out at 19 universities across the country through 34 educational
programs. Nearly 4,000 students are studying in engineering fields needed by
the automotive industry.
This year, more than 3,000 state grants were allocated for these fields. In
addition, world-class specialists are being trained through the “Bolashak”
program. A total of 176 specialists have been trained, and 23 scholarship
holders are currently studying and undergoing scientific internships in
Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Czech Republic, Japan,
China, Italy, and other countries.
“By directive of the Head of State, since 2024 we have been moving to a new
model for training engineering personnel. A transition to a unified training
trajectory is planned, an interdisciplinary transitional standard for
engineering education has been introduced, integration of education, science,
and industry has been strengthened, and new mechanisms for continuous
professional growth have been defined. To date, 9 sectoral and 20 regional
atlases of new professions and competencies have been developed. The sectoral
atlases for ‘Mechanical Engineering’ and ‘Transport and Logistics,’ as well as
the regional atlases of the Karaganda and Kostanay regions, directly cover the
mechanical engineering sector. As a result, 31 new professions have been formed
and 22 existing professions will be transformed. In addition, a large-scale
survey was conducted with the participation of 73,000 enterprises, including 92
enterprises from the automotive sector. The demand for engineering and skilled
workers in this sector over the next three years will amount to 10,201 people,”
the minister said.
The minister also said that training engineers with digital competencies is
being carried out in two main directions. The first direction is access to
global educational programs. Through the Coursera platform, students are
obtaining international certificates in modern engineering fields. Over the
past three years, students have received more than 3,000 certificates from over
80 courses related to the automotive industry.
The second direction is the introduction of artificial intelligence into the
educational process. Through the AI-Sana program, the majority of students have
mastered the basics of artificial intelligence, and more than 60,000 students
have completed courses on using AI in entrepreneurial activity. During their
studies, students take part in solving real production tasks.
One example is the NOVA–Allur project, which students of Kostanay Regional
University named after Akhmet Baitursynuly are implementing jointly with Allur.
Within the project, an artificial intelligence system was developed to
automatically detect defects in automobile paint and coating. The ministry
plans to widely scale up this experience in the future. Six engineering
specialists from Astana Motors, as doctoral students at Satbayev University,
are developing engineering solutions to automate quality control at the
production and assembly stages of passenger cars. They are also working on
improving enterprise productivity by optimizing production processes.
In Kazakhstan, training personnel for robotic and intelligent production is
developing systematically. For example, modern robotics centers have been
opened at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Satbayev University, where
students are being trained in industrial robotics, automation, and artificial
intelligence. In the Lu Ban Workshop opened on the basis of East Kazakhstan
Technical University, more than 500 students are studying autonomous control,
artificial intelligence, digital twins, and intelligent transport systems. In
2025, the SMART Driving Technology engineering center was established together
with international partners. Applied scientific research is also being
conducted. This project is now gaining international scope.
In August, an international certification center will begin operations at the
Lu Ban Workshop at East Kazakhstan Technical University, with the participation
of Great Wall Motor, Tianjin Vocational Institute, and Astana Motors. This
center will train specialists in vehicle diagnostics and intelligent systems
and will issue qualification certificates. Such a qualification certificate is
mandatory for working in dealerships of Chinese vehicles.
This is the first certified center in Central Asia. There are more than 100
dealership companies in Central Asia (34 dealership centers in Kazakhstan), and
all of them will be certified at the Lu Ban Workshop in Oskemen. Graduates of
Serikbayev University will automatically receive a qualification certificate. A
car cluster is being formed in Kostanay. Therefore, the regional university is
becoming a key center for training engineering personnel for the automotive
industry. In cooperation with Dong-Eui University, a double-degree program is
being implemented at Akhmet Baitursynuly University. Twelve students studied
and completed internships in laboratories of the partner university in Korea.
More than 5 capstone projects have been developed together with industrial
partners, and some of them are being implemented at the KIA plant in Kostanay.
The model for training engineering personnel is also being modernized. The core
principle is learning at production sites.
For this purpose, by order of the Head of State, the industrial PhD project has
been implemented since 2024. Doctoral students work on solving real engineering
problems faced by enterprises. Enterprises receive ready-made engineering
solutions. At present, 13 doctoral students from four universities are
conducting their research in the automotive industry directly at enterprise
sites. The number of scientific projects in technical fields is also
increasing. Currently, 839 projects are being carried out in the field of
technical sciences.
As part of a project by the Institute of Mechanics and Machine Science named
after U.A. Dzholdasbekov, the country’s first Center for Production
Robotization, Automation and Artificial Intelligence Technologies was opened
this year at the Allur production site. The institute’s scientists have
introduced five domestic robotic systems into production for automating
marking, welding, in-factory logistics, and warehouse operations.
The minister said that in the future, the development of engineering centers
and departments at production sites will continue. Effective partnership among
the state, universities, and business will make it possible to provide the
automotive industry with engineering personnel of a new generation.