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A trendy choice for youth: BT hosts tout a nonexistent boom in technical majors
Technical colleges, vocational schools, or universities — Ilona Volynets and Yevgeny Gorin got the trends in Belarusian education wrong.
In Belarus, as in the rest of the world, young people are choosing blue-collar and technical fields — that was the claim aired on News.by. Weekly Top Fake journalists fact-checked the statements by channel hosts Ilona Volynets and Yevgeny Gorin and found they had overlooked key details.
Enrollment in Belarusian colleges in 2025 is one and a half times higher than in universities, Education Minister Andrei Ivanets said July 30. He clarified that most students entering secondary specialized education programs are ninth-grade school graduates. Discussing the topic on News.by, hosts Ilona Volynets and Yevgeny Gorin agreed that Belarus is seeing a new trend.
“Are blue-collar and technical professions becoming a fashionable and, more importantly, a sensible choice for young people?” Volynets asked her co-host.
“Ilona, this is happening all over the world,” Gorin replied. “If a person can work with their hands, as they say, they’ll never be left behind.”
WTF reporters found that in recent years Belarus has seen the opposite trend. From 2020 to 2024, the number of ninth-grade graduates grew by 25%, while enrollment in technical colleges and vocational schools rose by only about 7%. In other words, the share of those choosing vocational education has declined. In 2024, Belarusian vocational schools admitted 28,300 applicants, and colleges took in 39,100. The figures are similar to the 2025 enrollment plan. That means there is no sharp increase.
Statistics from a decade ago also confirm the decline in the share of students choosing vocational education. At that time, vocational schools and colleges enrolled more students than they do now, even though there were fewer high school graduates. This means interest in blue-collar professions has been falling, not rising, over the past decade.
