Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the presentation of the draft law on craftsmanship:

For me it is definitely always a pleasure – and I don’t say this as a formality, but because it’s true – when works gives me the opportunity to be among working people, including those who create jobs, those who find a job and do not wait for it to fall from the sky or come out of the coffee cup, but try, insist and find it among those who are our strategic partners, entrepreneurs and all those who seek the way to live with honesty, patience, persistence and sacrifice.

We are aware that we have inherited a battered Albania, not due to economic poverty but primarily because of the poverty of aspiration, because it is the poverty of aspiration that brings any other kind of poverty. All those aspect that were mentioned previously by Erion, and that have been the focus of his work, were left in the scandalous situation we inherited precisely because of the poverty of aspirations.

Because of the poverty of aspirations, economic support was shared as a tip among those who do not deserve it, instead of being increased and given to those who deserve it.

Poverty of aspirations has provided support to persons with disabilities just for the sake of appearances, and no policy has been made to integrate and to support them for real, for their dignity.

Poverty of aspirations has made young people in Albania believe for many years that university was the only possible destination. But university was often just a factory that would produce diplomas that were not earned through knowledge, but bought with the money of their parents, who would waste their savings and sacrifices for the illusion that their children would become economists, lawyers, engineers and so on. In fact, after graduation their children were jobless.

I am very proud that first of all we have declared war to the poverty of aspirations.

First of all we have declared war to the poverty of aspirations that has constantly fed this country with illusions, lies and ultimately with the phrase “this is Albania and this is how things go in Albania “.

Certainly, we had to engage in a deep operation because we have decided to look the truth in the eye. We decided to deal with the cancer spread to all sectors and fueled by the poverty of aspirations. We decided not to keep lying to Albanians, to not continue giving them the sugar of lies, but to share together with them the great truth that only the bitter medicine of truth can heal this country and, from a ruined country make it a prosperous country.

 

So, vocational education is one of the appropriate responses in the right direction, because it creates for young men and women a new opportunity, it opens a new lane and tells them that in order to have a job tomorrow, they must learn a craft and this craft will always give them a chance that others do not have, either to be employed or to start their own small business. This is a simple but meaningful example of all the countries where the battle with unemployment has succeeded, as a battle that extends on a large scale and that has its foundation on skilled labor.

Actually today, since the first year this new lane was opened, 40% more girls and boys are knocking at the doors of vocational schools. Of course, there are very few compared to how much they should be, but if vocational education would have been a priority 20 years ago, today we would not be where we are.

We cannot overturn what was done in the wrong direction or wasn’t done at all in 20 the last years, but we have set a clear turnaround in the right direction within a year.

Figures speak for themselves.

Today, statistics prove that one young graduate from vocational education has 20% more chances to find a job than someone who completes general high school, and just 1% chances less than someone who graduates from university. So, in relation to the need for work, those who have learned a craft have a lot more opportunities and are a step ahead of others.

We will deepen further the transformation we started. We will put a very strong emphasis on vocational education, whose key of success is cooperation with entrepreneurship. Until yesterday, existing vocational schools would teach crafts through pictures, and students wouldn’t take a single hour of practice and were lacking even basic materials for learning. Those who wanted to become electricians were shown the picture of a lamp and were told: this is a lamp. Then they were told to look outside the window at the cable that supplied electricity, and then to look at the pole that held the cable that provided electricity to the lamp, and so on. So, no practice and no people prepared for a craft.

While today, based on the excellent German model, which many countries have adopted, we have joined theory to practice, and students spend 30%, 40%, 50% hours of vocational practice in enterprises.

They are ready to find an employment immediately after graduating. And not only do they find employment here, but also in the European market.

The reason why vocational education is important is directly connected with the fact of having an opportunity tomorrow. The need of the European market for skilled professionals will never be over. There will always be a need for people that know a craft and through it provide services. Let me bring here just the example of nurses. There are endless demands for nurses today in EU countries, of course for skilled nurses who are ready to be included in the system.

Crafts will be one of the weapons in the hands of young Albanians today to be used in the free EU labor market tomorrow.

Today, we are here to talk about a project on craftsmanship that is the fruit of cooperation with the German chamber of commerce.

Actually, we are in an enterprise which is a model enterprise and is based on skilled work. But this is not the only one, and it will be followed by others if the skilled labor force in these processes is increased. So, we are creating a synergy between the need for jobs and job opportunities, and we firmly base this synergy on the struggle with the poverty of aspirations.

We believe that the deep wound of unemployment, which was opened, deepened, infected and become gangrenous throughout 20 years, can healed steadily through increased knowledge and qualified labor force. This is why many Albanians living in Greece today are much more integrated than they were many years ago. If they were only poor people when they went there in search of a better life, today they are people with crafts through which they guarantee their lives not only where they are, but anywhere they go they have an additional instrument.

In conclusion, I want to thank the German friends for their special assistance. I want to thank also “Business Albania” which has become an irreplaceable partner of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. We are committed to do our best, to find a worthy person who will replace one of the most successful, the most willing and hard working minister of our government. In a few days he will commit completely to a new effort to take the capital city in the right direction and to do for Tirana, in the 4 coming years, what unjustly has remained undone in the last 4 years, and even more than this, to make for Tirana, in the coming 4 years, together with the central government what was not done in the last 20 years taken together.

Thank you!