Wednesday, 21 October 2009
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited the Teenagers’ Professional Orientation Center, an advisory body in the system of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which was established in October, 2007.
After going round the premises and talking to the teachers and those in attendance of courses, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan called a consultative meeting involving representatives from both the public and private sectors. The head of government asked about the status of specified programs and evoked the peculiarities inherent in the professional education and orientation systems of other countries.
Speaking about the possibility of meeting the home labor market demand, Tigran Sargsyan said in particular: “You must scrutinize the market in order to identify the gaps and orientate pupils towards such specialties as may come to prevail on the labor market during the next 5 years. Unfortunately, it should be noted that we have a good deal of trained specialists who do not often meet the needed quality standards.” The Prime Minister referred to the possible launch of a new NPP and a nuclear medicine center on the basis of the Yerevan Physics Institute which might call for a large amount of corresponding specialists.
Tigran Sargsyan made a point of ensuring closer feedback between all stakeholders: “It seems to be obvious that the ministry of labor and social affairs should cooperate very closely with the ministry of education and science, with the latter having to engage in contractual relationship with your Center. School directors should be among your permanent customers,” said the Prime Minister.
Concerning unemployment, Tigran Sargsyan noted: “That we have unemployed persons on the one hand, and lots of jobs available on the other is just pointing to the fact that the labor market faces serious organizational bottlenecks. For instance, construction seems to suffer a serious shortage of skilled workers, while surveys indicate that wages are sufficiently high in this sector. Therefore, we should start from the very school, if we are to overcome the structural discrepancies available in the labor market.”
The head of the executive recommended drafting a memorandum to streamline relations between the ministry of education and science and the ministry of labor and social affairs in this area. Tigran Sargsyan promised to be back in a year in order to assess progress.
The private sector representatives raised the issue of adopting a concept note on voluntary work. Answering the questions of journalists, the head of government evoked educational reform by stressing that public orders should be formulated for those specialties required by the State.
