The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia Mikheil Chkhenkeli participated in a joint online conference of the Ministry and the World Economic Forum (WEF), where the importance of vocational education and international cooperation were discussed in depth.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli opened the conference, addressed the public and spoke about the challenges in Georgian vocational education and the results already achieved in this regard.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli: “It is a great honor for me to participate in the World Economic Forum Online. I would like to point out that the development of human capital and the economic growth of our country largely depends on quality vocational education. That is why the priority of our Ministry is to overcome the existing challenges in this field and to introduce new programs relevant to the labor market. Such an approach will create a competitive environment and significantly increase employment opportunities. To achieve this goal, we promote popularization and access to vocational education. It should also be noted that bringing the vocational education system in line with the requirements of the labor market remains a challenge and work in this direction actively continues."

Mikheil Chkhenkeli highlighted the significant achievements in the field of vocational education, which resulted in fruitful cooperation with Georgia’s international partners. Recent reforms have significantly increased the quality of vocational education. Adult training / retraining programs have been established and job-based learning has been strengthened.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli emphasized new law on vocational education, which eliminated a long-standing legislative deadlock and improved links between different levels of education. The new regulation allows for the introduction of dual professional programs within the framework of public-private partnerships (PPPs), which facilitates the training of qualified staff in accordance with the needs of the labor market. In addition, mechanisms for recognizing non-formal education have been established.

The Minister emphasized that only the joint efforts of the government and business will ensure the establishment of quality vocational education. According to Mikheil Chkhenkeli, taking into account international best practices, the Ministry creates new opportunities for the development of vocational education by sharing responsibilities for better partnerships with the private and public sectors. This approach will take the Georgian economy to a qualitatively new stage of development.

The Minister also spoke about the importance of cooperation with the World Economic Forum (WEF), which effectively began in July 2020 with the signing of the relevant document, that will lay a solid foundation for further development of the public-private partnership initiative within the "Closing the Skills Gap Accelerator in Georgia".

Deputy Minister Tamar Kitiashvili also participated in the joint online conference. She introduced the participants to the concept of a new vocational skills agency - "The Skills Agency of Georgia", which was developed with the involvement of the Chamber of Commerce and the private sector. The purpose of the Agency is to develop vocational education in cooperation with the private sector, to introduce new programs and innovative training according to the demand of the labor market, to develop providers, to create inclusive and accessible vocational education throughout Georgia and to popularize and internationalize vocational education. The establishment of the Agency will contribute to the development and strengthening of work-based learning in Georgia. Representatives of the World Economic Forum expressed their readiness to support the Agency as a skills accelerator structure.