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Career Guidance & Intermediation

CAREER GUIDANCE

Career Guidance in Albania faces several significant limitations. One of the main challenges is that Career Guidance is a relatively new service, and as such, it is not well understood or properly implemented by both users and providers. Secondly, knowledge, tools, and professionals in the field are limited.

To address these limitations, RisiAlbania has undertaken a comprehensive strategy in: (i) Building the institutional capacities of Career Guidance service providers. An innovation here has been offering career guidance as a community service for the first time in Albania, inspired by a Swiss model but adapted to the Albanian environment. (ii) Developing and improving the content and tools of Career Guidance. This includes developing content for the 100 most in-demand professions in the market, four standardized tests specifically for the Albanian context, and a resource website www.karriera.tirana.al, where young people can find all the information related to Career Guidance.

Developing human resources through continuous training with Albanian and foreign experts. Additionally, the project has supported the improvement of the dedicated master's program "Professional Orientation" at the University of Tirana, Faculty of Social Sciences, from which new qualified professionals in this field graduate.

Lastly, but not least, promotion is an important intervention, aiming to inform and raise awareness among young people and their parents about the importance of Career Guidance and where they can access it.

Results:

  • 29,742 people use new and improved Career Guidance services. 60% of these service beneficiaries are women, and 843 beneficiaries come from marginalized groups.
  • 83% of these users are satisfied with the services.
  • The first local career office was established in the Municipality of Tirana and has been functional since December 2020 with a sustainable career guidance structure. Three other municipalities in Elbasan, Lushnjë, and Berat are engaged in developing Career Guidance services based on the Tirana model.
  • 5 universities offer career services for their students and alumni.
  • 2 private providers have introduced specialized Career Guidance services for their clients.
     

INTERMEDIATION

Risi collaborates with the National Employment and Skills Agency (NAES) to improve the agency's cooperation with businesses through digital solutions, staff capacity building, and promotional campaigns to inform businesses about NAES's services. By offering customized solutions and creating monitoring mechanisms, NAES aims to better meet the specific needs of various industries for workforce and thus consolidate cooperation with employers to place unemployed job seekers, including many young people, into jobs.

As a result of the project's support, NAES now has agreements with the largest private mediation platform providers, which has made it possible to consolidate job offers into a single portal, www.puna.gov.al, and has enabled NAES to develop employment indices based on the information produced by this data consolidation.

Results:

  • 9,986 people have found new jobs through improved mediation services. 8,619 of them are aged 15-29.
  • 1,725 businesses have used improved job matching services.
  • 83% of businesses that have used new or improved services are more satisfied with the service compared to previous services.