The Government of the Republic of Armenia

As Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan declared at the “Social activities in the context of the ongoing social reform: reality and perspectives” conference which kicked off in Yerevan, an integrated social service institute will be introduced in Armenia.

“Staff in welfare services must be able to identify problems and propose solutions acceptable to eligible households. This qualitative amendment needs careful consideration and in this respect, international know-how is of practical importance to us,” the Prime Minister stated.

According to the head of government, international experience shows that State-administered services are more efficient in this area as each one of our 120 thousand vulnerable families has its own peculiarities.

“Those pilot projects implemented in the regions demonstrate that the services provided by competent staff are far more efficacious and targeted. Despite the fact that the global financial crisis was above all a serious blow to the socially vulnerable layers, the government’s targeted welfare policy implemented over the past couple of years made it possible to reduce poverty in our country, while the overall index of poverty failed to improve during those years,” the Prime Minister noted.

From this perspective, stressing the need for introducing the institute of social worker in Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan said that the training of social service staff will remain high on the agenda for the coming years.

As the head of government noticed, there are hosts of reasons behind social inequality, but primarily it is due to the lack of jobs and affordable high-quality education.

“The State’s primary task is to provide vulnerable families with high-quality education and job-sensitive training programs,” the Prime Minister said.

Noting that the YSU and the State Pedagogical University are providing training courses for social services, Tigran Sargsyan said there is a need to modernize the teaching programs based on international experience.