EMPLOYABILITY BEYOND THE DIPLOMA: REASSESSING THE ROLE OF PRACTICAL TRAINING IN UZBEKISTAN'S HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Among developing education systems, the importance of higher education has been shifting from simply graduating students to ensuring that graduates enter into the workforce successfully. This is not an exception in Uzbekistan. The country has made a huge step towards higher education in the last ten years, with the opening of new universities, raising the number of students per university and positioning education as an important pillar in the national process of modernization. However, there is a growing concern that is shared by both students and employers and by educators in general: many graduates from universities are still entering the labor market without the skills necessary to operate in the workplace.