Albanian Government Council of Ministers

A group of craftsmen, thanks to their hard work and craftsmanship, have turned an old repair workshop into a true enterprise of adjustment and production of mechanical angle iron and steel beams. Borjan company in the city of Elbasan provides refitting services as well as production of various parts for the heavy industry. Prime Minister Edi Rama visited the company premises that also offers training courses and teaching practice for vocational school students.

“We serve to the entire heavy industry, ranging from mining, ferrochrome, cement plants and brick factories. They all need our products to keep their production lines going. We are unique in this aspect. We have carried out turbine maintenance, repairs, and retrofit operations at the Vau i Dejes hydropower,” said the workshop owner, who has set up his enterprise for over two decades.

With over four decades of experience, his and his team’s greatest concern is the lack of skilled craftsman, appealing to younger generation to attend vocational school, pursue fresh paths through industry-specific training and develop skills as an opportunity to pursue a career and real employment.

“There is a number of skilled specialists, but many of them are close to retirement age. These specialists have over 40 years of experience in this trade. This is our main problem. In 2002, we signed a contract with the high vocational school and students attend training course in our workshop. Despite our efforts to encourage them, they are not very interested in working in this trade,” he said.

Prime Minister Rama stated that his government will attach greater efforts and more attention to technical and vocational education system.

“Younger people are showing less interest and desire to work as they all want to complete master of science degree programs. And they all want to do so for free. They don’t want to take the trouble and get calluses on their hands. However, we have started to change this reality and significant, yet insufficient, steps have been made towards the vocational education. On the other hand, we will also cut the university admission quota and open more vocational schools and training programs. We will open two-year vocational colleges in order to increase the number of skilled specialists in manufacturing and production sector, because we put emphasis on the word “production” but when it comes to the real production it turns out that over 20 or more years we have produced university diplomas only,” PM Rama said.

The entrepreneur said he has continuously sought to inspire and teach the trade to young people.

“I had the idea of launching some vocational training courses to young people. My workers are able to teach the trade to students,” he added.

PM Rama encouraged this idea and urged the entrepreneur to prepare a concrete project in order to benefit support and also set a good example for similar ventures. “I would invite you to design a project and forward it to us in order to gain support from the Ministry of Finance and Economy. We will then discuss and turn it into a model, because it can be a model to serve us as well. So, a manufacturing unit provides training courses and we will then find a way so that the private sector and the government co-finance it.”

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