Russian cabinet to promote blue-collar occupations

An action plan aimed at promoting workers and engineering professions was approved by Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev recently. 

The need for such a plan, as explained in the accompanying statement, "is related to the increasing demand for highly-skilled workers for vacant high-performance jobs." It is expected that the plan will cover about 0.6 million people.

The document was prepared by the ministry of labor in accordance with the decree "On measures for the implementation of the state social policy" of the President of Russia of May 7, 2012, in which the Russian government was instructed "to ensure an increase in the number of highly-skilled workers by 2020, so that it would be at least a third of the number of all workers," TASS reports. 

The plan includes such activities such as the All-Russian competition of professional skills "Best in the Profession", the National Work Skills Russia Championship, the national career-oriented festival "Pro", the All-Russian Forum for Young Employees and others. 

The cabinet of ministers stressed that "responsibility for implementation of these activities will fall on the federal executive authorities, and also on commercial and non-profit organizations."