The vocational-technical school “Karl Gega” in Tirana has become a model of the vocational education system in the country. The school’s complete reconstruction, along with the newly-built facilities and teaching and training infrastructure, will allow for the increase of the student numbers from a previous 700 to over 1300 students. Few days ahead of the new school year, Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Finance and Economy, Arben Ahmetaj, visited the vocational school Karl Gega, named after one of the most prominent Albanian-Austrian railway engineer in the nineteenth century.
In addition to increasing the school’s capacity, the most significant investment has been made on equipping the school’s with technical training equipment and machineries for professional workshops, construction, geodesy, mechanics, car mechanics and wood processing. The goal is to turn the school into a multifunctional centre to serve booth students and businesses. According to Economy and Finance Minister Arben Ahmetaj, turning the school into a multifunctional centre will help learning process to meet highest European standards by combining learning with the vocational training. “A multifunctional centre to allow students develop their creative abilities, while businesses will be offered the opportunity to train their employees. The goal is to become a multifunctional centre operating just like any multifunctional centre in other countries that have set high technical qualification and vocational training standards,” Ahmetaj said.
The assistant head teacher Indrit Gorçe said that the vocational school has established a good cooperation with the employment service offices. “The newly built school is a multifunctional centre designed to serve not only our school students, but we have also established cooperation with the employment service offices to provide training for unskilled jobseekers,” Gorçe said.
Urging young people to enrol in vocational schools, Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that the vocational education and training offer a direct path towards youth employment and career pursuit in the labour market. PM Rama said that the vocational education and training institutions should also provide training opportunities for unskilled and jobless individuals benefiting social welfare payment. “We should strengthen the vocational education. The citizens and young people have grasped this and the growing demand for vocational education highlights the need for an enhanced infrastructure. The young people understand that vocational education is the right path towards their employment. It is not just a matter of becoming an electrician, or a plumber, but attending vocational education would help them to start their small business. The largest part of small business entities in Germany are run by vocational education graduates,” Prime Minister Rama said.
