Conference: Career Counseling in Albania: The Present and the Future
On December 5, 2024, the conference “Career Counseling in Albania: The Present and the Future” will take place in Tirana. This significant event will gather experts in the field, representatives from public and private institutions, and various stakeholders interested in the development of career guidance services in the country.
Career counseling plays a crucial role in making better education and employment choices. It also helps articulate the demand for learning more clearly, improves access to education, and enhances the alignment between job demand and supply.
The conference will feature speeches from Ms. Olta Manjani, Deputy Minister of Economy, Culture, and Innovation, and Mr. Philip Arnold, Deputy Ambassador of Switzerland to Albania.
International experiences will be shared by Ms. Jaana Kettunen, Deputy Director of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, highlighting the role of artificial intelligence and technological developments in this process.
The first panel will address the challenges and necessity of coordinating public career counseling providers to create an effective career system in Albania. It will focus on the first established career counseling offices in the country and existing structures.
The conference will conclude with a discussion on the role of the media in guiding young people’s careers, empowering them to make informed decisions about their professional choices.
Over the past 12 years, Helvetas in Albania has significantly improved career counseling services through the ‘RisiAlbania’ project. Risi is an innovative youth employment project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, and implemented by Helvetas and Partners Albania. The project has worked on developing the career counseling system and supporting key actors in providing this service as a public good by local authorities. It has also improved services for students in public universities, integrated career education into the pre-university system, and enhanced the master’s program in professional orientation at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tirana.