Advanced Training

(povyshenie kvalifikatsii), in the USSR, a state system that provides the workers with an opportunity to obtain new, up-to-date theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for work in a specialized trade. The advanced training of workers is carried out through individual and team training, both on the job and in a variety of short courses. Various educational institutions are associated with the system of advanced training for administrators and specialists in such fields as industry, construction, transport, communications, agriculture, public education, and public health. Thus, there are programs of continuing specialized education in evening and correspondence divisions of higher educational institutions and specialized secondary educational institutions. Such training is offered by institutes for improving the skills of managerial personnel and specialists and by the departments of advanced training of higher educational institutions. There are also advanced training courses organized by various ministries, government departments, institutions, and enterprises. Advanced training does not usually require taking time off from work. The period of instruction in the institutes, in departments, and of courses for advanced training is usually two to six months (one to three months when time is taken off from work). Supervision of advanced training of specialists in all branches of the national economy is carried out by the USSR Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education.

In 1973, 17.3 million persons, including 12.4 million industrial workers, went through advanced training at enterprises, institutions, and organizations, while 5.4 million persons, including 5.2 million industrial workers, obtained the qualifications for new professions and specialties. The on-the-job training schools at industrial enterprises, together with schools at other enterprises, trained 231,000 skilled workers. On the kolkhozes, 2 million persons improved their skills or qualified for new professions. In the 1973-74 academic year, more than 2.2 million workers attended the evening and correspondence divisions of higher educational institutions, and more than 1.7 million attended specialized secondary schools. The number of specialists who had completed evening and correspondence programs at higher educational institutions totaled 300,000 persons, and at specialized secondary schools more than 406,000.

Measures to organize self-education of the workers have a significant place in the advanced training system.

Abroad, advanced training is carried out in the process of the postgraduate training of employees in socialist countries, or it is viewed as the continuation of the education of young specialists on the job.