While Central Asian (CA) countries have a growing education system, they suffer from a malfunctioning labour market, with large parts of graduates unable to find qualified work and unable to develop their talent within their job. This problem is increasingly recognised by CA government institutions and employers. Universities have a double interest in developing HRM master programmes: (a) graduates can be locally or nationally employed as HRM specialists, and (b) these graduates can study and improve the labour market within the university’s region. However, an HRM master programme only makes fully sense if it is adapted and backed up with local experience and research. The latter point requires cooperation with i.c. EU universities and cooperation between the CA universities. With this context, the project has three main objectives:

In each of the 6 CA universities a master programme on “HRM and Talent Development” (TALENT) is being developed (120 ECTS). This involves 8 HRM specific courses (40 ECTS), which are new and common for all 6 CA universities; supplementary and supportive courses (40 ECTS), which are chosen from the pool of existing courses within each university; internship (10 ECTS), and a master thesis (30 ECTS). 

The 8 HRM specific courses are being developed in 4 Workgroups (2 courses per workgroup). Each CA university has one representative in each workgroup. Each workgroup is coached by one of the four EU universities. The courses are (1a) Strategic HRM, (1b) Comparative HRM; (2a) Organisational behaviour and leadership, (2b) Work, organisations and society; (3a) Labour law, (3b) Employment relations; (4a) Applied HRM, (4b) Talent management. 

In two Course Development Meetings (Tashkent, March 2019; EU cities, February 2020) and via a knowledge sharing platform, first the course syllabi and then introductory texts, readers and case studies are being developed. 

On a more formal and organisational level, licences and accreditations are being prepared and acquired for the courses to start in all 6 CA universities by September 2020. 

The meetings of the project are also being used to have a deepening of the HRM knowledge in Central Asia. There are 7 seminars within project time, each with a topic that is of special interest for the organising CA university and its regional stakeholders. This will allow to catch the interest of the public and to inform potential students. 

To guarantee the sustainability of each master programme, each CA university will prepare a business plan for its HRM master programme. This will be based on a further need analysis in each region and on feedback from students during the first year of the programme. A selection of stakeholders will be made part of a board that supports the university management in making strategical choices in the further development of the programme, i.c. after the end of the project. Stakeholders will anyway be encouraged to be the promotors of the master programme, and the employers of future graduates.