“Go Pro”, the Fair of Professionals “Education, specialization, employment”, opened its doors at Expo City with the support of the Ministry of Education and Sport. This is an opportunity to shorten distances between the labour market and the market of education in Albania.
The four components that society invests in its future, Education, Vocational Training, Internship and Employment, meet for the first time in this fair to communicate and interact for achieving success in the most strategic and vital sector in the country. Stakeholders of respective sectors provided the necessary information and promoted innovations, new flows and approach to sectors.
This fair comes at the right time, when students complete their studies and start looking for jobs, and when education institutions close one academic year and start working on the curricula of the next one.
Prime Minister Rama and Minister of Education Lindita Nikolla visited the fair and talked to leaders and representatives of companies and education institutions attending the fair.
Companies of different areas submitted their demands for young professional that have studies in vocational schools. One of them was an Italian company with over 500 employees, which operates as mediator in the sector of crediting and insurances. The experience of this company was brought in Albania by Lorenc, who has lived in Italy for 16 years. He said that the company intends increasing the number of employees in our country, and the fair represents a good opportunity to recruit them.
Representatives of the companies said that the market supports the young people, and the most required professions are in the sectors of economy, tourism and ICT.
The Prime Minister visited the stands of some renowned vocational schools and training centres, which have improved their performance from year to year and have provided young students with the most required skills in the market.
The director of a training centre informed that many young people show interest in a profession as a second chance, after they have studied in another branch. “We provide opportunities to young people, because we are very close to the problems of the labour market and to their solutions. Currently, we have 80-90 students who have been employed prior to finish their studies. For 15% of them this is a second school”, he said.
Upon visiting the fair, the Prime Minister said that activities of this kind are necessary and will always be duly supported by state institutions. The Prime Minister noted that the revival of vocational education is one of the most important steps in the transformation of the education system.
“We support strongly this activity and every activity of this kind. From our point of view, a silent revolution has started in the transformation process across our education system. Firstly, we have opened the lane of vocational education which is the only sure lane for guaranteeing a significant employment growth in the middle term. There are here as well many vacancies for middle-level technicians, but we lack capacities. In two decades Albania has had only lawyers.”
In addition, the Prime Minister noted that the new law on education brings a radical transformation in the relation between universities and the market, between education and the growth of professional capacities in real time. The Prime Minister said that it is important to enhance vocational education infrastructure in relation to the market and companies.
“The new law on higher education brings a radical transformation as far as relations between universities and the market, school and the growth of professional capacities in real time are concerned. We are convinced that the trend has been very encouraging this year, with an increased interest on vocational schools. Infrastructure of vocational education will be enhanced further, but it will always be connected to the market and companies. 50-60% of the time per week will be spent in school, and the remaining 40-50% in the enterprise, otherwise professionals will be an illusion because we have nothing, and a much bigger void has been created during this period.”
The Prime Minister assured that the government will continue supporting enterprises, because the challenge of unemployment can be overcome only thanks to a strong cooperation with enterprises and thanks to their support.
“We are in the right direction, but we need to continue enhancing support for them to be in the right direction. Fortunately, there are a lot of people in the business world who are in the right direction, but who have been affected a lot by the lack of support until 18 months ago. So, we have started supporting them and we will support them even stronger, because the challenge to win over unemployment and to increase employment can be overcome only through strong cooperation with enterprises and through the creation of conditions that will free enterprises from bureaucracy, in addition to removing barriers of different kinds in the relations with the state. On the other hand, the state will be a partner for increasing professional capacities through vocational education.”
The Prime Minister said that a big opportunity is provided by the big state portal e-Albania, which has started operating with other portals connected to employment.
