Armenia’s pathways towards Strategic Planning of Skills Development

The forth meeting of the Technical Woking Group (TWG) on Strategic Planning for Skills Development took place in Yerevan, where representatives of the Armenian government, workers’ and employers’ organizations, academia and experts on Education and Skills Development convened to discuss the findings of the research work undertaken to supplement the baseline data collection for the already identified and approved 20 indicators of 2018-22 Skills Development Strategic Plan.

Article | Yerevan, Armenia | 10 July 2018
Yerevan, Armenia (July 10, 2019) – The forth meeting of the Technical Woking Group (TWG) on Strategic Planning for Skills Development took place in Yerevan, where representatives of the Armenian government, workers’ and employers’ organizations, academia and experts on Education and Skills Development convened to discuss the findings of the research work undertaken to supplement the baseline data collection for the already identified and approved 20 indicators of 2018-22 Skills Development Strategic Plan.

The research work was mainly focused on the employability of TVET Graduates (2018 cohort) as well as on issues related to quality assurance in education, inclusiveness and social partnerships for TVET. Analyses of the information gathered across TVET sector clearly show that there is plenty of room to address quality assurance challenges in TVET by introducing a unified system with thoroughly defined set of quality assurance indicators and a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism.

According to the 2018 TVET Graduates data, more than 46% of the graduates have not been employed during the past 3 months and only half of them are looking for a job. Among the survey findings, it is important to note that almost 50 % of the employed graduates are involved in occupations that are not related to their professional background.

In this respect, Ms. Hovhannisyan, ILO National Coordinator for Armenia stressed that the Skills Development strategic plan to be tentatively completed and presented in mid-November, 2019 should have strong linkages with the Employment Strategy , which is also being developed with assistance from the ILO and expected to be completed by the end of the year. Both strategic documents are expected to become an integral part of the recently signed (May 14, 2019) Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) in Armenia, which in turn is closely correlated to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

After presentation of the main findings of the research work, the TWG members exchanged information and discussed effective models of social partnerships aimed at youth employability, inclusion, as well as lifelong learning practices and its linkages with TVET. The 4th TWG meeting closed with the agreement to circulate the baseline data for the selected indicators. In the cases where baseline data is unavailable, very limited, non-representative or unreasonably costly for further gathering, the given indicator will be omitted or modified accordingly.

The next meeting of the TWG is planned for the end of August or beginning of September 2019, where projections for finally agreed indicators for the 5-year horizon will be presented and underpinned by the Implementation Plan and List of Agencies to be responsible for the implementation of the identified objectives of the draft Skills Development Strategic Plan.

The fifth meeting of the TWG among other issues will look at the draft Skills Development Plan from a quality assurance, inclusion, and social dialogue perspectives. Moreover, its importance and potential impact on lifelong learning and the green transition will also be assessed.

For more information on the G20TS Project please visit: www.ilo.org/g20ts