Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation Blendi Gonxhja hosted representatives of the Regional Challenges Fund and KfW, in follow-up to the Regional Conference organized in Tirana entitled “Realizing Opportunities: Building Human Capital in the Western Balkans 6 for Integration into the EU Single Market.”

He announced that the meeting revolved around the challenges facing the countries of the region such as the shortage of labor force and the need to upskill human capital.

“The Regional Challenges Fund has played an important role in this regard, financing capacity building of public and private providers of Albanian vocational education. This program is a financing instrument designed to increase employability, with a focus on young people, as well as to strengthen the competitiveness of enterprises in the countries of the Western Balkans,” he said.

With the initiative of the General Directorate of Employment, Training and Social Security Policies (MEKI – Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation) and in cooperation with the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in our country, as well as with representatives of KfW and Swiss Cooperation for Development, Gonxhja informed that a “Unique Window” has been designed only for Albania, with a value of 10 million euros.
According to him, in the third call, 10 Albanian consortia were selected, of which 7 public institutions of vocational education and training, which benefit the fund of almost 5.4 million euros.
Through these projects and funding, vocational schools and public vocational training centers meet part of their needs that are related to infrastructure, equipment/laboratories or training of management and teaching staff, paving the way for the development of education and cooperation with the sector private and increasing employment opportunities according to higher qualification standards.
/sm/