Target area:	Linking Higher Education & Society
Sub-target area:	Practice-oriented Education
Target countries:	Armenia
Duration:	15/10/2012 - 14/04/2016
Partners:	Armenian State University of Economics Universität Koblenz-Landau Universitet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej European Centre of Studies and Initiatives Information Systems Management Institute World University Service – Austrian Committee University of Alicante Armenian State Pedagogical University named after Kh. Abovyan Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University State Engineering University of Armenia (Polytechnic) Vanadzor Branch of State Engineering University of Armenia Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute named after M. Nalbandyan Gavar State University Goris State University National Center For Professional Education Quality Assurance Union of Banks of Armenia Synopsys Armenia CJSC Armenian National Students’ Association Republican Union of Employers of Armenia Republic of Armenia Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia
Budget line:	Tempus IV

Project description

The wider objective of the project is to ameliorate the relevance of higher education to ever-changing labor market needs through establishment and operationalization of universities-employers cooperation nexus in Armenia.
One of the issues still impeding the development of the RA higher education is the blurred links between the labour market and professional education. In particular, achievement of the national goals on the RA Government agenda is still impeded by the lack of necessary data to support decision-making on institutional planning and national employment policy. This brings about insufficient involvement of social partners in education issues, inefficient investment in human resources (graduates), lack of information on the professional evolution at different moments in time after graduation correlated with a series of social-biographic and educational descriptors (necessary feedback for HE system improvement). Having failed to put forth the requisite competencies, the local market manifests its lack of capacity to act as an active stakeholder of the education process.

Yet another challenge is raising awareness among the students about potential career paths and skills necessary for employment. Coupled with the latter, both economic and societal fragmentation make the orientation of the higher education towards the market quite complicated and create extra obstacles for workforce mobility.