Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed proposals to expand support measures for higher education graduates. According to forecasts, approximately 320,000 students will graduate from universities in 2026, so authorities intend to strengthen efforts to employ them and support entrepreneurial initiatives.
One of the key instruments will be the "Step into the Future" program, which provides preferential financing for graduates' business projects. While 378 billion soums were allocated for over 6,000 projects in 2025, funding will increase to 500 billion soums in 2026. This is expected to enable the implementation of over 8,000 projects and provide employment for about 10,000 young specialists.
Employment monitoring will be conducted through the career.edu.uz platform. All universities plan to strengthen the work of career centers, and the best of them will receive 500 million soums for development. In addition, 360 university job fairs, 750 faculty-level fairs, and a series of meetings involving over 1,000 employers are planned throughout the year. This should simplify the transition of graduates from education to work and increase their demand in the labor market.
