A country-wide training campaign for 350 VET faculty aimed at introduction of modular based teaching in vocational education and training sector came to its successful completion. Participants of the training received a thorough understanding and competency about modular based teaching. The subsequent stage for the participants of these training sessions will be sharing the acquired experience about the modular teaching with their colleagues at the work places. The experience per se marks a transition from older system of teaching to another which is compatible with the state qualification standards of education. The added value of the trainings consists of the fact that the participants of the trainings gained an insight into main strategic directions of output oriented vocational education. The trainings are formed in a way to provide with a platform for developing competency based skills and knowledge. They exposed the participants to new standards of preparing the cadres of specialists who are to be directly linked with the requirements of the labor market.

The participants of trainings thus learnt a number of key topics related to vocational education and training such as:

• Understanding the structure and essence of the modular based teaching;

• Objectives and criteria that enable the modular teaching to be market oriented;

• Current and future challenges and issues of the modular teaching system;

• Opportunities for introducing new ways of life-long vocational trainings throughout modern electronic means. It should be noted that the completion of the training sessions was also marked by graduation ceremonies and award of certificates.

The large-scale vocational re-trainings with further job placement for the registered unemployed are now implemented in full. The UNDP “Vocational Education and Training (VET)” Project together with the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs made one more step in alleviating the social insecurity of the vulnerable layers of the society. The activities arranged within the framework of the trainings that enabled the formerly unemployed to acquire new competencies and skills came to closure.

The end of the training programs had two notable features, i.e. elated spirits over the receipt of certificates on professional achievement and over the wide-road of opportunities the newly acquired skills were to give to the participants. Most of the participants of the trainings for the unemployed have now a valid opportunity to move away from their statuses of the unemployed to now employed. During the monitoring activities run by the UNDP VET Project, the majority of the heads of the companies responsible for trainings expressed their intention to provide placement for the participants of the trainings.

Given the comments made by the supervising staff of the companies responsible for training activities, the ¾ of the formerly unemployed are expected to continue their activities as fully occupied workers. It is not surprising that the graduation ceremonies held at the end of the training programs passed in considerably convivial and uplifted atmosphere. A notable example of such a celebration event took place at the WKS Armenia Sewing Factory.

On June 17, 2010 Dafina Gercheva, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative (UN RC/UNDP RR) in Armenia, Anders B. Siegumfeldt, Head of Section, European Neighbourhood and Russia, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Per Kirkemann, Managing Director, Nordic Consulting Group A/S visited the newly refurbished Vanadzor State Technological College.

Within the framework of “Vocational Education and Training (VET) System” project, UNDP assists the establishment of modern professional educational laboratories at the premises of 12 multi-functional regional VET schools, and Vanadzor State Technological College is one of them. The partnership between the UNDP VET project and the College started in 2008 and since then the College was provided with state-of-art sewing laboratory equipment, and a modern sewing laboratory has been set at the premises of the College.

The establishment of the industrial workshop will enable VET students to acquire practical skills, which will make vocational education more attractive and output driven. At the same time, the College will have a unique opportunity to generate extra funds from the workshop’s operations, which can be used for further development of the College.