ArmInfo. The educational system of Armenia does not have an established dialogue with the employer regarding the requirements of the labor market, in particular from the point of view of the necessary qualifications of personnel.
On November 15 Armenuhi Poghosyan, Head of Vocational Education and Training Policy Development and Strategy Division of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, expressed an opinion during a press conference of the Club of Economic Journalists dedicated to the DUAL-education system.
According to her, in 2017, a pilot project on introducing the DUAL-education system has been launched in Armenia, which provides for the passage of the educational process in an educational institution and practice at a particular enterprise, as part of a previously signed memorandum of cooperation between the educational institution and the employer. The project implemented by GIZ in Armenia, as Poghosyan noted, is being implemented in 12 educational institutions of secondary specialization in 10 specialties, including tourism, IT, winemaking, precision engineering, etc.
In turn, head of the Department of Continuing Education and Retraining of Yerevan State Economic University, Aghavni Hakobyan, noted that in today's reality, employers should be actively involved in the process of "reconstruction" of the education system. "No one thinks that it is first of all necessary to contact employers with the question of what kind of personnel is needed today, with which set of professional competence," she said.
Yulia Stakyan, Expert at Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training South Caucasus, GI noted that within the framework of the program, studies are being carried out to identify the personnel of secondary specialization needed in the labor market. She emphasized that today special attention is paid to the introduction of new specialties, in particular in the field of robotics, mechatronics and solar energy, since, as the study shows, these areas are promising.
Answering a question from ArmInfo correspondent, Stakyan explained that the program does not oblige employers to employ students after the training process, although such experience is being applied in the West. <That is, within the framework of the program, the employer provides students with such skills and knowledge that will allow him to be competitive in the labor market in a particular field, "the expert concluded.