Better Opportunities in the Labour Market

Reforming Vocational Education and Training in South Eastern Europe

Fundamental economic, social and political changes have exerted considerable pressure on education systems, also in the countries of South Eastern Europe.

Having become aware that high-quality education can, in the long term, reduce poverty, improve standards of living and enhance international competitiveness, the various education systems in this region are undergoing fundamental reforms.

In Albania, for example, the government has set itself the goals of making vocational education and training more practice oriented and labour market relevant and of increasing the proportion of pupils in vocational schools to 40% in the long term. This is all the more important since this sector – as in most of the countries of South Eastern Europe – was particularly hard hit by the economic transformation processes. On the one hand, the traditional partner firms – and with them, a large percentage of the practical training – were lost; on the other hand, radical changes took place in the labour market (e.g. the privatisation of large-scale, state-run agricultural and industrial enterprises and the resultant structural shift to small and medium-sized enterprises).

In order to enhance the quality of vocational training and provide the needed practical experience, the lost cooperation between the schools and the business sector has to be re-established in new ways. This is a major focus of the support provided by KKA through cooperation projects in the field of vocational education.

The project “ALBIZ”, for instance, supports the reform of commercial school education in Albania. In addition to areas such as curriculum development, further training for teachers and the development of teaching materials, ALBIZ focuses on the development of innovative forms of cooperation between schools and businesses. The business coaching programme developed specially for ALBIZ plays an important role here. Its objective is to help Albania’s 11 commercial schools re-establish cooperation with business enterprises over the next two years. An additional aim of ALBIZ is to promote the access of women to the labour market.

Another KKA project related to vocational education is ECO NET, which, since 2001, has successfully supported the introduction of training firms and entrepreneurship learning in all countries and regions of South Eastern Europe. ECO NET develops the schools’ contacts to real business enterprises by finding real partner companies for the pupils’ virtual training firms. The interest of business enterprises in such cooperation is growing. For example, Raiffeisen Bank Romania has become a partner in a Romania-wide business plan competition. The competition, being held this year for the second time, awards internships and other opportunities for practical training.
/KKA Editorial Staff

ALBIZ and ECO NET are financially supported by Austrian Development Cooperation and the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.
http://www.k-education.at/