By 2015, at least 800 professional standards will be developed in Russia

Currently, the State Duma of the Russian Federation is considering a draft law on a number of amendments to the Labor Code. The draft law defines such concepts as “employee qualification” and “professional standard”, and also provides that the procedure for the development and approval of professional standards will be established by the Government of the Russian Federation.

According to the draft law, an employee's qualification is the level of knowledge, skills, abilities and experience of an employee necessary to carry out his professional activities; professional standard - requirements for the qualification of an employee in order to carry out his professional activity.

In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation , the plan for the development of professional standards is to be approved by December 1, 2012, as well as the development of at least 800 professional standards by 2015. Currently, the plan (and in the future, apparently, the standards themselves) is being prepared by the Ministry of Labor of Russia together with interested all-Russian associations of employers and trade unions.

There are a number of advantages that employees, employers, and the vocational education system will receive if they implement these legislative initiatives:

• employees are given the opportunity to determine their professional level and improve their professional knowledge, improve their qualifications, confirm qualifications with a certificate, and obtain a basis for further professional growth;
• employers receive criteria for evaluating personnel in order to improve the professional level of workers, enhance their motivation, improve efficiency and quality of work, therefore, to achieve high economic results;
• employers can control the professionalism of workers, maintain and improve industry quality standards;
• the system of vocational education in the form of standards receives a substantive basis for updating educational standards (applied component), developing curricula, modules and teaching materials.

For subjects of labor relations professional standards will be recommendatory in nature. Based on the requirements of professional standards, it is planned to create a personnel certification system to identify and confirm the level of qualification of workers. Thus, an employer, when hiring a certified specialist, will receive an additional guarantee of his competence. It is assumed that certification will be mandatory for those whose work involves technological risks, and voluntary for all others.