Georgia Needs to Improve its Vocational Education, Warns 2nd Education Policy Forum

“Vocational Education Training (VET) is important not only for the State, but for you, experts, private sector, students, for all of us,” said Irina Tserodze, Head of the VET Department of the Ministry of Education during the second Education Policy Forum organized on June 15 at the International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET) both by UNICEF Georgia and the World Bank.Indeed, all professionals who participated to the forum were aware of the fact that no industrial policy is possible without skilled workers that go with it. They also spotlight the fact that a lot of progress had been made since the start in 2013, but it appears Georgia still suffers from the Soviet Union heritage, not only in its industrial point of view, but also in its educational practices. To solve these problems, the forum aimed to start a national discussion involving the State, social partners, educational centers, and also the private sector on the goals and challenges raised by the necessary development of vocational education.

The discussion started with the observation that in Georgia, general education is favored by children and their families, something which has to be changed, professionals say. It must prepare young people much earlier for the necessities of entrepreneurship. The forum highlighted two points to focus efforts on. First are transferable skills, such as problem-solving, analytical capabilities or communication, which must be learned from high school. Young people can’t wait to finish general school anymore to be interested in these subjects, because these skills are essential in all kinds of structures and activities, especially in such a mobile and globalized economy. The second issue to emphasize is volunteering and internships in order to increase professional skills.

This overall preference for general education leads to a significant lack of technical professionals in Georgia compared to other European countries. Many studies prove that a national economy does better where there is a slight majority of technical degrees, which is the case in Germany where 48% of children choose the vocational path after high school as compared just 20% in Georgia.

Furthermore, the ratio between general graduation and vocational graduation is even more negative in Georgia, with 25% of young people choosing to go to university after high school against 16% in Germany. This situation is a result of the unique educational and industrial system of Germany, but also because in Germany technical degrees do not lack reputation at all. In fact, vocational paths are strongly integrated - something which should a deep source of inspiration for Georgia, emphasizing a link between general and vocational education.

The issue of the reputation of the vocational path is seen as the main problem for its further development in Georgia. Vocational education is still seen as something for children who can do "nothing else", meaning university. The stereotype that says you need to continue to university to get a proper job dies hard, even if studies tend to prove that students from VET find jobs more easily after graduating. It is important for organizations involved in these issues to change the mindsets by mediatizing the success stories of people coming from a vocational path. The solution to make it visible includes the increasing involvement of leading companies and the private sector.

Companies have a major role in the development of vocational education, the forum observes. It is the private sector that knows which skills must be improved for current productions and which ones must be developed for the future. Companies often complain that skills learned in VET don’t correspond to their recruiting expectations. The education sector needs private organizations to better understand these new challenges. It also has a major impact on vocational education in a practical sense; the huge changes that are being prepared nowadays need substantial donations or even private projects. Big companies having trouble enrolling skilled employees have started training by their own means. But “at this stage, companies are not ready, so we should wait and lead the process” said Tserodze, explaining the necessity to be proactive.

One solution would be the creation of a training center as “artificial companies”, specialized on one sector and where practical skills would be learned, as is done in other countries such as Germany and its construction sector. Progress is rapidly made, says the Ministry of Education, by the establishment of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), such as the one recently signed with British Petroleum. The company settled in Georgia in 1999 and started training their employees from the beginning. BP is soon to establish the 'Georgian Technical Training Center' in partnership with the State, resulting from five years of preparatory discussions. Other PPPs regarding vocational education are being prepared, the Ministry of Education claims, involving the railway, IT and the construction sector. “Projects have been started and they'll be up and running,” said Tserodze. However, one problem of these partnerships is that they tend to involve only large companies and thus only a few economic sectors.

Indeed, it wouldn’t make any economic sense for a small company to train its employees. Small companies’ sectors need a common structure to start involving in vocational education. This is where the State has a role to play, by coordinating energies. On this issue, the Georgian Furniture Cluster can be mentioned as an example to duplicate. This gathering of up to 100 companies employing 1200 people in an area of 3,5ha has started organizing training courses with 20 people having graduated so far, while the site is already able to enroll up to 200 skilled people. Such gathering of small enterprises enables training by sharing the costs as well as the benefits. Further, successes such as this cluster or PPPs should also benefit for the image of vocational education, on the condition that they are well publicized.

Yet, the key problem for the future, identified by both the participants and the officials, is equity. There are too many young people who are left outside in Georgia- one fifth not being enrolled in any education program and potentially unable to fulfill their potential. Likewise, one million Georgians are in a situation of very low productivity due to a lack of organized labor. It is not only a problem for these people’s future, but it is a loss for Georgia as well, being a small and low-populated country. The government’s priority seems to be the integration of these populations by prioritizing rural and mountainous areas to establish new training centers, cities being relatively well equipped and ready for the establishment of private training centers.

By David Mongazon