Blended Learning in cooking trainings, despite being a new concept, is already applied in Albania, through www.aga.edu.al platform Now, anyone in Albania or abroad can be professionally trained as a chef from the cities/countries where they live by registering at the platform. Restaurants/hotels operating in the HORECA industry and wishing to increase the capacity of their staff, for a higher quality and security of service they offer as food operators, can contact Albanian Gastronomy Academy – AGA which now offers the opportunity to develop the capacities of your staff without having need to leave job positions. How did this journey start, how is the activity organized and who…

12 municipalities and central government institutions discussed promoting rural development through advocacy. “Promoting rural development through advocacy” was the topic of the workshop organized by the Albanian School of Public Administration with the support of RisiAlbania, a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). This workshop was held with representatives from the municipalities of Skrapar, Prrenjas, Pogradec, Librazhd, Delvinë, Vlora, Përmet, Dibër, Kukës, Mirditë, Roskovec and Tepelena, as well as the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Agency for Support of Local Self-Government. Th workshop equipped participants with basic tools for economic policy analysis in rural areas. The…

Career guidance contributes to better choices in terms of youth employment with the role of universities being an essential one. Already 10 new career counselors have joined the range of professionals in this field in Albania. Thanks to a two-week training focusing on career counseling service at university level, lecturers and staff of partner universities deepened their theoretical and practical knowledge of career guidance. The training was finalized with the certification of these 10 counselors during a long-wished for face-to-face event. With the honorable participation of the Rectors, Deputy Rectors, Deans and other important actors in this field, we were happy to provide a common space for dialogue…

Following the steps of Visit Gjirokastra, a group of tourism actors from Saranda region organized the first meeting to further collaborate and join forces in a partnership for sustainable tourism destination management. 18 representatives from businesses operating in the area of Saranda, Ksamil, Konispol, Finiq and Delvina and 4 representatives from Municipalities of Saranda, Finiq and Delvina participated in the meeting. RisiAlbania supported ëith expertise and facilitating the linkages betëeen the group and Swiss and National tourism experts. The meeting concluded with participants agreeing to create and join forces into a voluntary Forum, as a first step to continue ëith the expansion and the registration of the partnership…

While most projects that use the Market Systems Development approach work in rural areas, RisiAlbania brings experience using the approach in urban settings. Andi Stefanllari, Senior Intervention Manager at RisiAlbania, contributed to sharing Helvetas Albania’s experience at the Market Systems Symposium 2021. The main theme of the session was Urban Non-Agricultural Market Systems, and Andi shared key lessons from RisiAlbania’s work in the ICT sector. Here are some of his takeaways from this symposium: “Our session discussed how urban and rural development are interrelated. The urban and non- urban contexts have distinct market systems and therefore, different capacities to promote inclusive economic growth. While urban development is taken…

During 24-28 May 2021 RisiAlbania has organized the thematic week, dedicated to the ICT and BPO sector. The third thematic week in RisiAlbania, dedicated to youth employment in the field of ICT and BPO contains a series of activities and publications. Throughout this week, RisiAlbania has shared through pages on LinkedIN and Facebook interactive information on our lessons and achievements of our partners during this time, regarding the development of the private sector in Albania. Each of the days is dedicated to a certain theme focusing on the main pillars of the work of partners and RisiAlbania during these years. The employment of young people in the ICT…

RisiAlbania in collaboration with the Secretariat of Albania Investment Council hosted a virtual roundtable to explore and discuss with the private sector, the arising challenges and opportunities of doing business in a new digital era (post-Covid-19)—characterized by rapid technological change. At the opening session, the Secretariat of Albania Investment Council presented the findings of a study conducted in March 2021 on the acceleration of the digital agenda in Albania. In this study, Albanian companies seem to consider as main obstacles to the development of innovative products/services: high innovation cost, lack of funding, and lack of professionals. Although, the majority of the companies (67%) confirmed a high interest from…