SHORT ANALYSIS OF TRAINING PROVISION IN ARMENIA National Observatory in Armenia ETF Working paper 2005 THE INVENTORY OF VET PROVIDERS IN ARMENIA I. Introduction It is known that vocational education implies the processes of training, re-training and re- qualification. In the Republic of Armenia these processes are fulfilled both in formal and in non- formal educational ways. It is performed by the state, private organizations and NGOs. Such variety of VET is performed in a legal form; however, in practice partially there is also non- legalized and shadow vocational training, which is performed by individual entrepreneurs. The objective of this study is to explore the VET providers in the Republic of Armenia. To do that in the initial stage one has to: 1. Discover the providers of vocational education (training), re-training and re- qualification; 2. Differentiate the VET providers: as by division of public sectors (state, private, public); 3. Differentiate the VET providers: as by types of education (formal and non-formal); 4. Differentiate the VET providers: as by level of education (preliminary professional (craftsmanship) and middle professional education); 5. Differentiate the VET providers: as by professional orientation; 6. Differentiate the VET providers: as by marzes. The inventory of VET providers and their differentiation as by the aforementioned will enable to get the preliminary picture of VET providers in Armenia and its analysis will enable to diagnose the existing problems of the system. II. The Material and Methodology of the Study According to the above-mentioned objectives of the study it is necessary to outline the discovery list of providers of vocational education, re-training and re-qualification in the Republic of Armenia. While developing the latter the differentiation of VET providers as by the above- mentioned parameters, have been taken into account i.e. the providers of vocational education/training, re-training and re-qualification have been identified: - which type of property belong to: state, private, NGO; - perform formal or informal education; - which level of vocational education is provided by: preliminary vocational (craftsmanship), middle vocational; - in which marz and town is located. 1 And finally, in case of possibility, in that list the target groups of population will be mentioned, for whom those courses are designated for (unemployed, refugees, disabled, freedom fighters, poor people, etc). Official and nonofficial sources were used in order to fulfill the discovery list of VET providers in the Republic of Armenia. To collect official information letters were forwarded to the ministries and agencies of RA Government. RA National Statistical Service and State Tax Service have officially refused the request reasoning that the given information is a state secret. Official information was received only from RA Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Trade and Economic Development. Nonofficial information was collected from the selective social polls. As a preliminary basis for the data collection the following served as basis of information: 1. “Spyur” information portal (2003); 2. SP INFO phone information portal (2002); 3. Web page of training and media center for NGOs of Armenian Congress of America in Armenia (2004); 4. Information guidebook of organizers of adults’ training (2003); 5. Own information of the authors of the study. The above-mentioned preliminary sources of information have contained various startup data. The information concerning the training, re-training and re-qualification has been in constraint and needed to be rectified. This issue especially was about the providers of informal education. The most complete information was about the providers of middle professional and preliminary professional (craftsmanship) education in the state institutions, where there was a clear identification about the types of professions taught in every institution. The data on enterprises (factories, construction companies, offices, agencies, etc.) contained only address and telephone or data about the major and secondary activities. The complete information was mentioned only in cases of individual organizations. The preliminary information on NGOs was mainly about their mission, projects and provided services. Thus, there emerged an issue of telephone social polls, which was carried out within the scope of study of the given sector. 2 The telephone survey in particular contained the following questions. Does the given institution, enterprise, organization provide courses of training, re-training and re-qualification? If it does, then for which groups of population: for example workers, office employees, unemployed, children, retired people, and other target groups. Who is in charge of carrying out those courses, where, what is their duration and orientation. The results of telephone survey come to prove that in the startup information sources the data have been not only limited and needed clarification and completion, but often contained unreliable, incorrect and incomplete information, which made the need of re-clarification necessary and appropriate. III. The Results of Survey and Analysis The analysis of the survey material has been conducted in accordance with the above-mentioned issues and their relevant methodology. 1.Identify the list of organizations providing vocational education, re-training and re- qualification in RA. The list includes 5 characteristics of the organizations: i. The name of the VET provider; ii. The legal-organizational form of the VET provider (state non-commercial organization /SNCO/, closed joint-stock company /CJSC/, limited liability company /LTD/, cooperative, entrepreneur, non-governmental organization /NGO/); iii. The location of the VET provider (settlement); iv. The address and telephone number of the VET provider; v. The training services provided by VET provider of the organizations providing with vocational education, re-training and re-qualification. 2. Differentiation of VET providers as by form of ownership (state, private, public (societal)). Table 1 contains the breakdown of VET providing organizations as by forms of ownership of the discovery list: Table 1. VET providers’ form of ownership Number % 1. State organization (SNCO, CJSC) 114 29.9 2. Private organization 80 20.9 3. Public 187 49.2 Total 381 100 3 According to the data identified in the Table 1 NGOs have the largest portion of all the organizations providing VET - approximately 50%. This comes to speak about NGOs playing increasingly big role in Armenia, will of the people to get together in an NGO and free expression of their capacities. According to the calculations the second place is with state organizations providing vocational education and training. They form 1/3 of all the organizations included in the discovery list. With its fundamental training character the state continues to play a prestigious and stable role in the domain of vocational education and training. According to the above-mentioned data the third place is with the private organizations. The compose 1/5 of organizations included in the discovery list. The relative scarcity of the latter is explained by the transition nature of the economy. The transitions from the planned economy to the free market relationships require not only capital investments, professional knowledge and skills in organizing and managing the education and training, but also capacity to take the risk. The vivid example for it is the breakdown of organizations providing vocational training, re- training and re-qualification as by legal-organizational form as quoted in Table 2. Table 2 VET providers’ organizational-legal form Number % 1. SNCO 111 29.1 2. CJSC 10 2.6 3. LTD 70 18.4 4. COOP 2 0.5 5. Individual entrepreneurs 1 0.3 6. NGO 187 49.1 Total 381 100 As one can see from the table the total number of cooperatives and entrepreneurs is tine – less than 1%. 3. Differentiation of the VET providers as by forms of training. The breakdown of organizations providing VET as by types of training is quoted in Table 3: Table 3 VET providers as by form of education Number % 1. Formal VET 142 37.3 2. Non formal VET 239 62.7 Total 381 100 4 According to the data quoted in table 3 the number of organizations providing informal education/training is prevailing. Mostly private organizations and NGOs provide informal vocational education or training. Formal education/training is carried out by state and private middle professional and preliminary professional (craftsmanship) educational institutions. 4. The differentiation of VET providers as by the levels of vocational education – middle vocational education, preliminary professional (craftsmanship) education. The breakdown of organizations providing VET as by levels of education is quoted in Table 4: Table 4. VET providers by the level of vocational State Private education Number % Number % 1. Middle vocational education 85 73.3 31 26.7 2. Preliminary vocational (craftsmanship) education 37 100 0 0 Total 122 79.7 31 20.3 According to the data quoted in table 4 no preliminary professional education (craftsmanship) is provided in private organizations. This is probable explained by the fact that the organization of vocational education of that level continues to be of low demand and as a business is not profitable. According to the discovery list of VET providers in the state organizations of providers of middle professional education more than 100 professions are taught. 11 of those state institutions also carry out preliminary professional (craftsmanship) education for 7 professions. 5. The differentiation of VET providers as by professions’ orientation. Table 5 shows the breakdown of VET providing organizations quoted in the discovery list as by professions’ orientation. The data are about the providers of informal education. Table 5. VET providers by orientation of the courses Number % 1. Accountancy 13 5.2 2. Languages 46 18.3 3. IT 68 27.1 4 Services 4 1.6 5 Small and Medium Entrepreneurship 29 11.6 6 Crafts 44 17.5 7 Others 47 18.7 Total 251 100 5 According to the data of table 5 the greatest share among the providers of informal education belongs to the providers of IT training.