On September 13th, the school “Rakip Kryeziu” in Fier was inaugurated, giving a fresh beginning of the school year for the 180 students currently registered. This is the highlight of the Programme ‘Vocational Education and Training through Innovation’ (AID 11000), funded by the Italian Government, and implemented by its counterpart the Albanian Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The day of the inauguration has brought together all the stakeholders actively involved in this endeavor: AICS representatives, the Emilia Romagna Region representatives, the Director of the School, the teachers as well as the students of the school.
The VET Program, with a total budget of 5.000.000 Euro, consists in the establishment of a multi-functional agricultural school of excellence at the existing “Rakip Kryeziu” school in Fier, which entailed infrastructure rehabilitations, the construction of new dormitories, laboratories and processing facilities. The institutional technical assistance component undertaken under the project PEMA, implemented by Regione Emilia Romagna with a total budget of 1.322.000€, created an operational channel to transfer knowledge and competences in the sectors of agro-food and agro-mechanic-oriented VET, based on the experience of Emilia-Romagna excellence Secondary Education Institutions. The general objective is to contribute to a more inclusive and effective labour market, by supporting active employment policies and skills development of the labour force.
The school has been completely renovated and currently hosts 180 students, also coming from different regions of Albania, given the agrarian hallmark of region of Fier as a stronghold of the agricultural formation and tradition of its territory. Given the intake of students coming from other cities, a residential facility has been built to host them. Parts of the renovation also include the barn and greenhouse to support the on-school training of livestock and agri-food production. This will eventually support the dairy and horticultural value chains, while contributing to the auto-financing mechanism of the school. The training and update of the competences of the teachers, through the support of Regione Emilia Romagna and the Agricultural University of Tirana, a relevant partner for the sustainability of the project, will allow students to practice the acquired soft skills in renovated infrastructures.
The roundtable following the inauguration created a space for discussion for all the stakeholders to ponder on the achievements of the project and celebrate the synergies and collaborations forged. Capitalization, soft skills, networking with Italian Secondary Education Institutions of excellence stand out as keywords, showcasing the value of the human capital of the project and how relationships have engendered mutual learning, capacity building and growth for all the stakeholders involved.
