GRADUA: GRaduates Advancement and Development of University capacities in Albania

The Republic of Albania recognizes the central role of “education as a public good able to promote development” (Law no. 80/2015). The new 2015 law paved the way to an overhauling reform for improving standards in education, linking HE with the labour market.

Universities in Albania, with some exceptions, are at an initial stage of technological innovation and need modern ICT based structures and a trained staff. Also, no systematic information system on HE are available with phenomena of mismatch of skills in the youth labor market, as the current youth unemployment rate indicate.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• Adapt and transfer AlmaLaurea and EU best practices to Albanian stakeholders through setting up the IT based platform in the nine beneficiary universities, available also to students and firms.
• Increase capacities for education reform process (provide sustainable  online assessment tools for continuous collection of updated information and the release of the 1st graduate profile survey).
• Improve the quality of the education system in Albania according to international standards thanks to competence transfer from EU partners.
• Strengthen university/labour market connections (IT based platform  for demand/supply matching; assessment of skill needs by firms and best practices for internship promotion).
• Support "open" and sustainable market for high qualified human capital (online recruitment platform and tools for graduates and local firms).
• Make the initiative sustainable through system migration to the Albanian Ministry of Education and Sport.

The project, co-funded by the European Union, is part of the Key Action 2: Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education programme.