Speech delivered by Prime Minister Edi Rama during graduation ceremony at vocational education school “Hermann Gmeiner”:

First of all, I felt at home here as soon as I noticed the number of those combining classic suit with sneakers is considerable. I would like you to insist upon this and you will see for yourselves that those raising an eyebrow today would acknowledge: “It was not a big deal. We were together with you, but we are not that close as to understand you.”

It’s a great pleasure to come back here at a moment of finalization of a process designed to build a literally true hotbed of excellence for vocational education and training. We all know the story and it is needless to always recall it although history itself helps us to figure out the reasons why we are here right where we are and what we should do in order to move forward. History is merciless when it comes to the reasons why employment is a big issue in Albania and when it comes to helping, supporting, encouraging to work many people who, for many reasons, don’t know anything to do first and foremost because nobody in the past provided them the opportunity to learn how to do something.

Trust me that although it is interpreted in 1001 different ways, the already popular expression that “Albania has jobs, but no professionals” describes the dramatic reality of many enterprises of today that offer vacancies but are unable to find recruit skilled workers for the job. Some entrepreneurial representatives are here with us today and I am convinced they can prove me right. Based on their experience, they can testify that their companies still offer vacant position waiting for the right skilled people to fill the vacancies and address that company’s needs.

I have repeatedly said and I won’t cease repeating it that from the “Zogu i Zi” area all way to the city of Durres one can find a job on every door you enter, in every business on both sides of the road. But on the other hand, you will also find quite worried entrepreneurs due to the fact that they are unable to find the right people with the right skills to take up the jobs still available. What we have found out as part of our great efforts to put people back to work is that many of those who have been recently excluded from the social assistance program are not unskilled people who completely lack any qualifications, or certain skills to do a job. For this reason, we have decided to provide 55,000 leks in cash, an amount higher than the cash assistance benefit they receive and a figure equal to the average of economic assistance, in order to order to provide vocational training for 1, 2, 3 or more months so that they get the skills they need to find a job.

After saying all of this, here we are in completely different situation since you end today an important part of your very long road of training and career development in getting the skills you need to meet the increasing labour market demands. This will undoubtedly be the reason why those who attend the vocational education will also have the highest probability and chances of finding a job, which is very interesting, since statistics show that apprentices increase their employability and likelihood of finding a job after completing their studies by around 20% compared to those who graduate from the higher education. If we take into account the fact the individuals who  have a secondary school diploma find less paid jobs and their number is considerably high, those who attend vocational education account for 12% more than those who finish the high school and succeed in finding a job. Thus, professional education represents undoubtedly an opportunity, an investment, a major impetus for the individuals’ employment, but also for the employment as a whole.

It is no coincidence that the most developed countries, including Austria that is part of the today’s ceremony – since this school is an excellent vocational education institution thanks to the twinning project and the direct support from our Austrian friends – ranks high in terms of employment figures  as part of Europe’s most developed countries, because Austria has a very solid vocational education system. In most developed countries in Europe, the number of those graduated from the vocational education institutions is much higher than the number of those attending the vocational education and training in the least developed countries. If the Europe’s most developed countries handled more easily the hard credit crunch and global economic crisis that hit across Europe at the end of the first decade of 2000 and then at the beginning of the second decade, this is explained with the very solid employment system, based on vocational education.

We are still far behind, but if look back we will see that out of 3,000,000 students enrolled in vocational education, but a completely ghost vocational education as schools were completely out of the question to provide the appropriate vocational education, today, we have registered 25 300 students in the vocational education system. They are roughly 20% of the total, but still less than what they should be to address the labor market demands.

In this context, it is very important to say that even the findings of a survey conducted with entrepreneurship and foreign investors about the obstacles they face to invest more in Albania suggest that the first obstacle they identify are neither taxes, nor legislation and the courts, which are the biggest problem of all, but the lack of a skilled labor force. Addressing this deficiency is a must. We have embarked on efforts to tackle this issue since the very beginning of term in office, but on the other hand it takes time to reach a balance between the market needs and the skilled labor force that emerges from the vocational education system.

I would like to express deep respect for the managers, teachers and the entire team of this school, which is one of the newest vocational education institutions in the country, but it is probably one of the best examples of how the vocational education should be. Those seeing their efforts being rewarded today are the evidence of what I just said, a truly elite school for Communication and Information Technology, designed and built according to the Austrian model, which is a reference point of how all vocational education schools should be. Our objective is to enhance the number of vocational training and education institutions across the country. Indeed, our idea is to have a vocational education school in each of the country’s municipalities, at least one, by the end of the term in office. On the other hand, we will work to ensure that vocational education schools to establish relations with a sister school of a country where vocational education is a genuine development model. So, based on this logic, 8 new vocational education schools have been already designed and are being built and, based on this logic, we will move forward in the future.

On the other hand, it is a reason to respect all this school’s students, because this school, which applies very high criteria, has a very high grade-point average, which shows that admission selection is quite careful and performance is at its best and above all the students’ commitment is at their maximum. So, since only those who took the floor drew applauses, I think it’s up to us to applaud those who won’t be able to address this ceremony, who represent the overwhelming part, the the school students who deserve all our respect for the example they provide, first for their own good and for the benefit of their family, but also for our entire society.

I want to congratulate everyone who is preparing to be the first generation to be part of the labor market today. I am convinced that your employment will be a matter of months. I am very pleased you will add up to the small number of those to whom finding a job doesn’t mean employment only if in the state and public administration, but rather eye the private sector because there you can receive much higher salaries and there you can further develop your ambitions to become a much richer one day than all the wealthy people combined, who are today entrepreneurs here.

Not long ago, I happened to meet a 21-year-old boy here in Albania who owned a company with nine employees and it is most likely this number is now up because he is working on an exclusive contract with Google. When he told me how much he earned each year, I really had a sense of extraordinary pleasure, because he was a genius. I’m convinced that many people will achieve huge success in this field, which is obviously not a matter of geography, it is not a matter of original opportunities, but it is a matter of talent and simply instruments this school makes available to anyone who dreams of becoming the Albania’s Zuckerberg on the condition the he or she creates a system where data is not so easily stolen. So this is the only element we need to study in the system you so enthusiastically introduced.

Thank you very much!