Republic of Albania
Capital: Tirana
Area: 28,748 km²
Population: 2.4 million (2024)
Official language: Albanian
Republic of Albania
Tirana
In close cooperation with the Albanian Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation, the Ministry of Education and Sport, the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Qualifications, the National Agency for Employment and Skills and other Albanian educational institutions the Regional Office Tirana implements projects in the focus areas of vocational education and training, school quality development and digitisation.
Key focuses:
- Vocational education and training (all 29 public schools of vocational education in Albania and all 10 public vocational training centres, with a focus on tourism and IT education)
- School quality development and gender mainstreaming
- Strengthening co-operation between schools and the business sector
- Digitisation at schools
Examples:
Development cooperation lead project of the municipality of Vienna: “AL-VET – Quality for All”: High-quality and socially inclusive vocational education and training in Albania
Co-financed and implemented by the OeAD
Duration: 2021-2024
Background: In its national strategy for training and employment (2019-2022) Albania has set itself the goal of strengthening employment, especially for disadvantaged groups of persons, by increasing the labour market relevance and quality of its vocational training. In Albania, too, educational disadvantage leads to fewer opportunities on the labour market. The economic growth sectors of tourism and hospitality and IT are of particular importance for strengthening employment in Albania.
Objective: By increasing the quality of and access to vocational training in the tourism and hospitality and IT sectors the project “AL-VET – Quality for ALL” contributes to increasing the employability of disadvantaged groups of people in Albania. A special focus is on access to vocational qualifications for girls and women. This is done in two ways:
- Increasing the quality of vocational training offers for tourism/hospitality and IT
- Increasing access to vocational training for disadvantaged groups of people, especially girls from rural areas, and strengthening girls' access to atypical training
Direct target group: 16–21 schools of vocational education and training for tourism and hospitality and IT: teachers, headmasters and headmistresses, business liaison officers, quality development officers, gender officers; 4 boarding schools for pupils: boarding school management, educators, other staff. Approximately 60 companies in the tourism/hospitality and IT sectors: entrepreneurs, mentors
Indirect target group: Approximately 7,700 young people during the project period
Results:
- Approximately 300 teachers have been trained in the organisation of practice- and skills-oriented practical lessons
- New job profiles relevant to the labour market, descriptions of qualifications and curricula for chefs and tourism/hospitality assistants and elective modules in “Technical English” are available in a piloted form.
- Approximately 25 teaching/learning materials are available online to all schools of vocational education and training.
- Approximately 60 companies have been trained in the organisation of high-quality internships.
- A cooperation network of business liaison officers of at all schools of vocational education and training in Albania contributes to the continuous expansion of business contacts.
- A training course for school quality coordinators is available in a piloted form.
- The school QA coordinators and headmasters and headmistresses of all schools of vocational education and training in Albania have been trained to exercise their role and implement effective school quality development.
- The management and staff of four boarding schools have acquired the skills to implement an inclusive boarding school culture and the corresponding quality development measures.
- Three administrative authorities have introduced quality assurance mechanisms at four boarding schools as examples of good practice.
- Four boarding schools and pilot schools have been equipped with appropriate infrastructure.
- Tools for effective career guidance and career counselling and skills enabling their application in vocational education and training have been developed.
Regional project: Quality assurance for the work of business liaison officers
Countries: Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia
Objective: To increase the quality of in-company learning in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia
Duration: 2022-2024
Direct target group: Approx. 180 business liaison officers, approx. 180 headmasters/headmistresses and teachers, 10 heads of adult education centres and trainers in Albania, approx.100 companies.
Indirect target group: Pupils, apprentices in Albania.
Background:
“Business liaison officers” at schools of vocational education are the interfaces with businesses, they are responsible for communication and cooperation with companies, especially with regard to the organisation of different formats of workplace learning.
The project strengthens the vocational education and training providers as competent partners of the private sector. The focus is on increasing the quality of in-company learning in the three partner countries.
Results:
- Establishment of national “learning communities” for continuous professional development of the “business liaison officers” to support them in fulfilling their role as an interface with the private sector.
- Introduction of quality assurance and quality development measures that support the effectiveness and efficiency of the business liaison officer function, especially in the organisation of work-based learning.
Creation of a gender-sensitive school culture as part of school quality development
Background: Girls are underrepresented in vocational education and training in Albania (less than 20%). Increasing access for girls and women to vocational qualifications and thus to the labour market is therefore one of the priorities of the Albanian strategy for employment and training.
Objective: Based on the results of the project "Promoting girls' access to technological occupations using the example of IT" the focus of this project is on integrating gender aspects into school quality development. In Albania school self-evaluation (SA) has been implemented in vocational education and training since 2018/2019 as a first step towards the introduction of a QA system. A school quality framework and corresponding self-evaluation instruments have been developed for this purpose. Within the framework of the project Creation of a gender-sensitive school culture as part of school quality development gender indicators have been integrated into the school self-evaluation tools in close cooperation with the National Agency for Vocational Education and Qualifications and gender officers of Albanian schools of vocational education and training. School teams (gender, quality and self-evaluation officers, headmasters and headmistresses) are trained in the use of the results of school self-evaluation for school quality development and thus the creation of a gender-sensitive school culture.
Direct target group: Headmasters and headmistresses of all 34 schools of vocational education and training in Albania, coordinators for self-evaluation and quality development at schools of vocational education and training in Albania, representatives of the Agency for Vocational Training and Qualifications
Indirect target group: Teachers and pupils of all schools of vocational education and training in Albania, companies that have school partnerships
Results:
- Headmasters and headmistresses and coordinators in charge of this project at all public schools of vocational education and training in Albania will be able to use self-evaluation results for continuous school quality improvement (school development plans).
- Guidelines for school self-evaluation in vocational education and training will contain relevant gender indicators and gender criteria. Gender indicators will be taken into account in the school development plans at all schools of vocational education and training.
- Quality development officers at all public schools of vocational education and training in Albania will be qualified to successfully consider gender aspects as part of school self-evaluation and to integrate the evaluation results in the school development plans.
- Access and equal opportunities of girls in Albanian vocational education and training and in the labour market will be improved by the integration of gender aspects into school quality development.
Updating the "Software Engineering" profile for the Hermann Gmeiner School in Tirana
Background:
The Hermann Gmeiner School was founded in Tirana in 2014, modelled on Austrian technical colleges. An Austrian curriculum adapted for the Albanian context was developed and introduced with the support of Austrian expertise. After nine years of implementation the profile needs to be revised due to the changing requirements of the international labour market.
Objective: After updating the vocational education and training profile and the qualification description for the occupation "Software Engineer" an international labour market-relevant curriculum is to be developed for the Hermann Gmeiner School.
Direct target group: Headmaster/headmistress and teaching staff of the Hermann Gmeiner School
Indirect target group: Pupils of the Hermann Gmeiner School
Result:
- A labour market- and internationally relevant curriculum for "Software Engineering" for the Hermann Gmeiner School is available. The new curriculum will be implemented in the school year 2024-2025.