Wednesday, 11 September 2019
Tigran Avinyan Attends Launch of Education-to-Work Program
On September 11, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan participated in the presentation of the Education-to-Work program, initiated by Armenia’s National Center for Sustainable Development Goals and the Public Policy Institute.
Congratulating on the launch of the program, Tigran Avinyan expressed hope that the Program might help defy a number of challenges in the labor market. The Deputy Prime Minister said that the quasi-totality of nations are facing unemployment all over the world and it proves increasingly difficult to manage traditional approaches, which are largely driven by the rapidly changing global setback. The tasks set before a teacher, public servant, and engineer today are significantly different from those of ten years ago.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has given birth to new specialties, while the old ones are doomed to disappear. Therefore, changes in the field of employment make us look for new and creative solutions.
The Education-to-Work program has embraced this very approach and is fully consistent with the Armenian government’s Work Armenia program, which focuses on the development of evidence-based policies for the labor market. As regards the Education-to-Work program, the Deputy Premier emphasized the need to study the demand for labor market trends and future specialties through artificial intelligence, which could serve as a basis in developing a new education policy. Tigran Avinyan next pointed to the fact that a key component in the Education-to-Work program is the promotion of soft skills among job-seekers.
He emphasized that soft skills can play an important role in the modern labor market, but they are not fully developed in the formal education process. However, it is extremely important to teach the job marketer the skills of criticism, creativity, teamwork and other soft skills. The issue is high on the government’s agenda, and therefore is incorporated in the Work Armenia program.
