However, the higher education sector faces structural challenges in strategic vision, educational project reserves, professional talent, and technical standards: AI governance frameworks remain underdeveloped, ethical oversight and industry standards are still being established; domestic AI technology enterprises and research capabilities are limited, leading to insufficient supply of practical talent; and universities lack teaching staff with actual development skills, making AI education difficult to implement effectively.

The Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index 2023 indicates that Kazakhstan ranks 72nd among 193 countries globally in comprehensive indicators such as government digital governance capacity, technological infrastructure, and AI talent ecosystems. Accelerated expansion is still needed in digital skills cultivation and AI course provision.

Against this backdrop, the lack of systematic course resource development, sustainable teacher training mechanisms, and insufficient AI teaching competencies among educators have become key bottlenecks hindering systemic reform in higher education. As noted in the Concept for the Development of Artificial Intelligence for 2024–2029, "the higher education sector still faces issues such as talent shortages, lack of specialised knowledge, insufficient AI education projects, and a lack of sustainable teacher training mechanisms."

In recent years, local universities and research institutions have undertaken various efforts to address these challenges. For instance, Nazarbayev University and its Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) have actively promoted the development of local large language models and collaborated with universities to pilot courses like "AI-Sana", providing students with foundational AI training. However, the successful integration and implementation of AI in higher education institutions ultimately depend on building teachers' multifaceted capacities to apply AI in teaching, research, and institutional management.

The National Centre for Professional Development "Orleu" localised two Russian-language micro-certificate courses—Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Tool for Higher Education Teaching and Prompt Engineering for University Teachers—jointly released by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE). By rapidly organising large-scale training nationwide, Orleu enhanced teachers' AI literacy and competencies.

Building upon this established curriculum framework, Orleu undertook localised adaptation of the content—integrating two Russian- language courses into a cohesive whole while adding a Kazakh-language version. Cases were also further tailored to national educational priorities, such as prompt usage proficiency, interdisciplinary curriculum design, and classroom data utilisation protocols. For Kazakhstan, which has long grappled with regional disparities in educational resources and linguistic imbalances, offering bilingual courses effectively lowers the linguistic barrier for teachers seeking access to high-quality digital resources.

Teachers studying the localised curriculum (Image source: Orleu)

The course is compact and efficient, covering essential content such as prompt engineering, practical applications of generative AI in the classroom, visual resource generation, and academic integrity and privacy protection—all within a concise duration of 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Orleu organised large-scale training across the country, achieving 324,000 registrations and 252,000 completions with certification in a short period, covering urban and rural areas, multiple educational levels, and subjects. Orleu also incorporated the training into the national in-service teacher training system, realising a systematic implementation path of national certification, mass-scale dissemination, and nationwide sharing.

Upon completion of the course, teachers will receive a certificate accredited by the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan (Image source: Orleu)

Aidana Shilibekova, current Chair of Orleu, told UNESCO-ICHEI, "Many teachers feedback that this is the first AI training that truly allows them to 'immediately apply it in teaching', significantly enhancing capabilities, particularly in prompt design, classroom creation, and multimedia material generation."

This initiative is timely for Kazakhstan's ongoing AI education reform in higher education. With the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) introducing the "Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy" assessment domain for the first time in the next cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2029), there is an urgent need for teachers nationwide to guide students in understanding AI logic, ethics, and creative applications. This course provides a high-quality, scalable solution to bridge this structural gap.

Since 2021, the two organisations have jointly implemented the Central Asia Higher Education Digital Transformation Project, co-developing IIOE's first Russian-language basic information literacy training courses and providing open resources via the IIOE platform to over ten countries. Building on this foundation, in June 2024, the cooperation entered a new phase: deepening the joint operation of the IIOE Russian-language platform, through the joint development of cutting-edge courses on generative artificial intelligence, provided upgraded, systematic AI skills training for higher education professionals in Central Asia and neighbouring countries.

All four courses are now available, including Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Tool for Higher Education Teaching, Prompt Engineering for University Teachers, Generative Artificial Intelligence and Learning Outcome Assessment, and Guiding Students in Applying Generative AI.

Screenshot of the localised course (Image source: Orleu)

In the future, both parties will engage in more in-depth collaboration, including online and offline training programmes, thematic forums, and regional promotional activities. This will further enhance the professional development of educators in Central Asia and neighbouring regions, providing sustained support for the digital and intelligent advancement of higher education locally.

Shilibekova indicated that the country will continue to promote in-depth application of the courses, such as providing multi-level AI training for rural school teachers, early-career university lecturers, and higher education administrators, and linking with the "Ustaz" national platform for teachers' lifelong professional development. This will enable precise support through big data and AI-assisted teacher growth path planning.

Moving forward, UNESCO-ICHEI and UNESCO IITE will continue to partner with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian stakeholders to support the localisation and country-specific implementation of more IIOE Micro-certification courses, cultivating a larger, practice-oriented teaching workforce for higher education systems in Central Asia and neighbouring countries. Through sustained cooperation, the partners aim to foster a more inclusive, innovative, and sustainable regional AI education community, helping more countries build future-ready higher education systems.