Experts name priority professions for Azerbaijan after pandemic
By Vafa Ismayilova
The coronavirus pandemic has clearly demonstrated that the labor market has created a need for new professions not only in the world, but in Azerbaijan as well.
Azerbaijani education expert Kamran Asadov stated that during the pandemic, people are isolated, spend most of their time at home, allocate a lot of time for their work. The expert believes that the transition to the online format in 2021 actualizes the increased demand for IT-related professions in the future. He predicts a computer games designer to be in the lead among future professions.
"In 2010, the share of this sector in the global economy amounted to 55.5 billion dollars, and it is expected that in 2021 this figure will reach 92.4 billion dollars. Graduates of universities who are trained in this specialty, work in the field of production, development, design of computer games, programming, computer graphics. They can work in architecture, medicine, jurisprudence, and other sectors where interactive simulation is used," Asadov said.
In the expert's opinion, in the future, there will also be a demand for specialists in such areas, as digitization of health care, information security, and nanotechnology.
"The transition of all services to the online mode during the pandemic contributes to the growth of demand for specialists in the field of information or virtual security. The nanotechnology sector, the share of which made up 2.4 trillion dollars in a global scale until 2015, can provide employment for about two million people in the future, " he said.
Earlier forecasts published in the local media suggested that the ICT-related professions will secure a dominant position among the 20 most promising specialties until 2025.
It is interesting, what professions do those who want to get higher education, as well as those who study in Azerbaijan, prefer? Do the requirements of the new world affect the choice of profession of our students? Also, what is the level of education in modern professions in our country?
In an interview with the local media, education expert Elchin Aafandi explained the situation in Azerbaijan in this sphere.
He said that specialties are always formed on the basis of demand in the labor market. But, unfortunately, there are a number of specialties that are no longer in serious demand.
Moreover, there are newly created specialties. Afandi stressed that the Cabinet of Ministers approved the "Classification of specialties (programs) at the bachelor's (basic (higher) medical education) level of higher education". Under the decision, the number of 175 specialties in the previous classification was reduced to 148. In particular, 18 specialties were renamed, about 70 specialties were merged or removed, 46 new specialties were created.
The expert underlined that the main purpose of updating the classification is the development of new educational programs in line with international practice and the modern labor market's requirements and their application in higher education institutions.
"All this suggests that during the pandemic there is no need for additional changes in specialties. When choosing a specialty, I recommend applicants and their parents to prefer only promising specialties. In order to build a career in the future, as well as to turn to the specialties that are in high demand in the labor market, they should choose those specialties," Afandi added.
He noted that almost all specialties in the world are related to information technology and Azerbaijan also has specialties in this field.
The expert named information security, information technologies, system engineering, computer engineering, computer game engineering, nanotechnology engineering, space technology engineering, robot coordinator engineering, artificial intelligence engineering, 3 D printer engineering, digital marketing engineering, economic information engineering, biomedical technology engineering, brain surgery engineering, biomedical engineering, and health information as the specialties that will be demanded in the Azerbaijani labor market in the future.
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