Swiss-Georgian Conference on Vocational Education & Training (VET)
On June 7, at the 6th Authorized School, the Embassy of Switzerland and the Georgian-Swiss Business Association organized a conference on vocational education and training (VET). The purpose of the event was to share Swiss experience and expertise in the field and to assist Georgia in revitalizing and generalizing VET as an educational model.
Education reform is one of the priorities of the Georgian government and aims to establish and promoting a labor market-oriented VET system. Switzerland, with its dual track VET system combining practical work and theoretic lessons, enjoys a worldwide reputation in this regard and is highly successful both in terms of youth employment and economic competitiveness.
“I’m well aware of the Georgian educational reform, in particular, the vocational educational training,” Swiss Expert on VET, Marc Bloch told GEORGIA TODAY. “The Swiss funded project is working with the Ministry of Education, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, to put the reforms into practice step by step. These governmental reforms in education undoubtedly need time to be implemented, and there is a room for improvement,” he said.
The reform process began in 2012 and the last four years have seen a lot of policies changed and many new systems being put forward. “The challenge now for Georgia is to put these policies and concepts into practice,” Bloch said. “In many countries, not only in Georgia, people look at vocational education as something inferior. This is very different in Switzerland where we highly appreciate vocational education. A person with a certificate in vocational education is as welcome in society as someone with a university degree. In general, societies believe that academic knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge. This is a mistaken perception and the Swiss example proves that”.
In his presentation at the conference, Bloch pointed out that unemployment rates in Switzerland, Germany and Austria are the lowest in Europe due to the vocational education system. “You don’t need to have an academic degree to be innovative. A carpenter in Switzerland gets no less money than a man with an academic education. Further, every profession has its own union.” He also added that the private sector is responsible for the vocational education curriculum and not the government, because they know better what students should know in order to respond to market demand. “One of the biggest challenges in Georgia is teachers and lack of infrastructure. 90 percent of people in agriculture are self-employed as there is no labor market,” he lamented.
Ambassador of Switzerland to Georgia, H.E. Lukas Beglinger, agreed. “Training is essential- as much for students as for companies active here in Georgia. Businesses need well-trained and well-skilled people and need to contribute from their side to the training. This is actually the part of the Swiss system – this very close partnership between government and the private sector, which is essential if the system is to succeed”.
“In Switzerland, practical education is highly developed,” said Mikheil Mikeladze, co-organizer of the conference and President of the Georgian-Swiss Business Association, which implements quality that corresponds to Swiss standards. “Even as pupils, Swiss children learn from practical activities set up by various organizations, the specifics of the working process of companies. Once they graduate, they are already ready to start an independent working life. There are a lot of organizations in Switzerland that support this trend and send their employees to trainings, enriching their practical knowledge and those capacities and skills that are necessary for everyday work.”
Agriculture plays an important role in the socio-economic development of Georgia as it is a major source of income for the rural population. A better system of vocational training and extension services is believed to be important for increasing productivity, creating jobs, and enhancing revenues. Tea Gulua, Expert of SDC/UNDP project ‘Modernization of Vocational Education and Training & Extension Systems related to Agriculture in Georgia’ which started in 2013, says there are a lot of initiatives in the sector. “One of them is a dual approach of the Swiss pattern, which implies that a student should get training ‘in the field’”.
The conference focused in particular on the role of the private sector, with Swiss companies presenting their best practices and the Swiss Cooperation sharing its VET-related activities and expertise, in particular in the agricultural sector. A panel discussion headed by Eric Livny, Director of the International School of Economics Tbilisi (ISET), allowed the participants and the audience to address key questions such as the cooperation between professional colleges and companies as well as appropriate ways to motivate young people to start an apprenticeship rather than aiming prioritizing academic degrees. The panel saw the participation of Olivier Bürki, Regional Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office (SCO) for the South Caucasus; Shombi Sharp, Deputy Head of UNDP in Georgia; Tamar Samkharadze, Deputy Head of Vocational Education Development Department, Ministry of Education and Science ; and Revaz Asatiani, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Georgia.
Shombi Sharp, who represents the UNDP, grew up in the US in an agricultural state in which vocational education came at a cultural level even in grade school. “We had various clubs going for the kids- ‘Future Farmers,’ for example,” he said. “Kids already gain exposure to husbandry from an early age. The Ministry of Culture [of Georgia] could look into such social/cultural clubs,” he suggested.
Together the SCO, the UNDP is working to improve capabilities and bring the standards in public colleges to international levels. “Clearly, vocational training as a system here in Georgia is extremely important but it is new and making this transition to address skills gaps, labor market challenges and modernizing the economy takes time,” Sharp said. “The dual approach we’re working on is precisely geared towards enhancing the role and effectiveness of public colleges, bringing in the private sector from the very beginning of the process- companies looking at designing the curriculum and selecting students, and which are vetted themselves for suitability. Such partners train students for 50 percent of their study time, the remainder of which students spend in public colleges”.
Pilot programs have just concluded in Akhalsikhe, Samegrelo, Mtskheta and Kakheti which saw 40 students graduating having gained experience on 11 partner farms of various size and export potential.
“The government is creating a space that encourages private sector involvement,” Sharp says, like Ambassador Beglinger emphasizing that neither party can make the necessary system changes without cooperation from the other. “Potential participants need to be shown the benefits. The incentives should be shown for private sector companies and students. In Soviet times, vocational education was a punishment. We aim to show how, as it is elsewhere in the world, vocational education can be integrated into the general education curriculum,” Sharp said.
Maka Lomadze