On 28 September 2018, a marz-level forum entitled “Vocational Education and Job Market, Public Education and Professional Orientation: Main Problems and Solution Avenues” was held in the Kapan community.
The forum was organised by the “Partnership and Teaching” NGO in the scope of the “Social Partnership and Education: Community-Based Opportunities for Young People” sub-grant project funded by the EU-financed “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue.”
The purpose of the marz forum was to identify the problems existing in the processes of vocational education and job market, as well as professional orientation in public schools together with other stakeholders and come up with suggestions to solve them.
The marz forum took place in the Syunik Regional State College. Among the participants were: directors, employees and students of vocational education institutes of Kapan and Kajaran, directors, deputy directors, and students of public schools, employees of the Kapan Community Administration, CSO representatives, employers. Overall, 50 persons participated.
Artashes Torozyan, the Executive Director of the “Partnership and Education” NGO, and Anjela Makyan, the Director of the Syunik Regional State College, greeted the marz forum participants. Ms. Makyan highlighted the forum topic in her opening speech and called on her partners to actively participate in the identification of the problems existing in the sector and suggesting possible solutions to them.
The marz forum was moderated by Anna Danielyan, an employee from the “Partnership and Teaching” NGO.
In the first part of the forum, A. Danielyan concisely presented to the participants the “Social Partnership and Education: Community-Based Opportunities for Young People” sub-grant project, its goal, implementation process, and expected results. Later, the participants worked in 4 thematic groups, 2 of which discussed and identified the problems related to professional orientation in public schools, and the remaining 2 targeted the problems of vocational education and the job market.
The participants also drafted recommendations of solving the problems they were facing in respective groups, and made presentations.
Group presentations were accompanied by active discussions.
The marz forum was summarised in a very constructive atmosphere. The interested parties thanked the NGO for the interest towards the issues in the sector and expressed readiness to support the project implementation.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by a Consortium of civil society organisations, which are the Armenian Lawyers’ Association (lead organisation), Agora Central Europe (NGO based in the Czech Republic), the Armenian Centre for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, the International Centre for Human Development, the SME Cooperation Association and the Union of Communities of Armenia.
The project aims to enhance the influence of civil society organisations (CSOs) and CSO coalitions/networks on public policies in Armenia. This will allow organisations that are already working in sectoral coalitions to access additional resources, new groups of civil society experts to come together and to encourage them to place their causes on the local and national policy agenda, to identify common concerns and priorities and approach government bodies with constructive and strategic policy engagement initiatives.
The project will provide sub-grants to CSOs and CSO coalitions for developing public policies and bringing significant changes in the 9 target sectors selected within the project, including those of justice, human rights, public finance management, business, education, and the social sector: social inclusion of children with disabilities, agriculture, economy, and energy.
