Are you ready to expand your knowledge and boost your chances for career advancement?  For the first time in the Albania Unipro Balkan Academy, an online platform, is offering online courses in Albanian language. 10 new first courses are available online since the beginning of March 2019 and a considerable number of new professional courses are in process and  will be online soon.

“The platform itself has 250 online courses offered in Italian, German and English languages and with the support of RisiAlbania, we are evaluating which courses are relevant and needed in the Albanian market, which will soon be available also in Albanian” – said Ylli Sula, administrator of Unipro Balkan Academy, part of Çelesi shpk group.

The interest for online courses from the Albanian young people is quite impressive , but there is great interest also from youth living in remote areas and from professionals who are working and need flexible hours to work and study. The first courses available in the platform are related to soft skills, social media for business, search engine optimization, visual content, data visualization, social media analysis, web copywriter, and others based on market demand.

The platform is useful for individuals and companies which would like to train and certify their staff. It is also an excellent opportunity for local experts who would like to design their own courses and use the platform for sharing them.

“Through UNIPRO BALKAN ACADEMY we complete the missing part of our services offered from job announcement at Çelesi newspaper to Profesionisti Recruitment Agency which is the biggest source for qualified candidates for mid-level professions required by the labour market, as well as the e-learning platform for those professionals who want to grow and  further develop their skills and knowledge” – concludes Mr. Sula.

Read full interview below:

What does the platform provide?

To start with, we are developing trainings for a series of professions or professional and technical skills in certain fields, which are selected by individuals or companies for their employees. The advantage of the cooperation between the Italian company and Çelësi is that these certificates are recognized in Italy, as well. A value added for the platform is the provision of a course that requires licensing, and a course for joint ownership administrators. This is not simply a course, but rather a certification recognized by the relevant Ministry.

We will take our next step upon clarifying regulated professions, by considering the issue of loans and whether they will be provided to the private sector, as well.

The introduction of UNIPRO BALKAN ACADEMY helped us piece together a three-dimensional work among vacancy announcements on Çelësi newspaper – for 21 years now – the work of “Profesionisti” Recruitment Agency, and courses for professionals that increase their capacities and are ready to be employed.

What is the contribution of Risi Albania to your entrepreneurship?

We have a long-term cooperation relationship with Risi Albania, which makes it an integral part of our success in this journey. In this specific project, Risi Albania’s aid is two-faceted: Firstly, it provides expertise with regard to training of the staff that will be working on making this product as professionally manageable as possible. Secondly, it will conduct an in-depth market research to view market priority needs for professional courses. The platform provides over 250 courses in Italian and it is expected to run more in German and English as well. Such research will help us in providing the market with courses in Albanian according to its demands.

Why is it so important to invest in soft skills, as you are doing through the courses provided on the platform? 

At Çelësi we have an extensive experience in such initiatives, where we have also undertaken risks. However, personally I strongly believe that one cannot develop and launch business initiatives solely following a materialistic approach, i.e. being only success- or profit-oriented, as at the end of the day if one does not work on other cultural, moral or professional aspects, they boomerang on them and affect the materialistic approach. If one works in an area of business with high profit rates – for example, the construction sector – but has no qualified workers at any level, it will be impossible to have long-term success due to lack of business sustainability.

Do you think that technological development will hinder this industry? 

This applies to some jobs, especially to the ones that need highly specialized technology; however, for the time being our market is not affected because the necessary investments for this industry (roboting) are very high and under testing process. It will happen but it will take time and people will continue looking for jobs and professional development and the business will continue looking for qualified workers.

What is so special about your platform?

The platform comprises all functionalities of an e-learning platform with videos, audios, subtitles, scripts, graphics, a series of materials, as well as monitoring, mid-term tests and a final test. It has been tested in Italy, where it has been operating for several years and still delivers professional standards. This is the first platform for online professional training, where in the end the individual is equipped with a certificate. It provides one with great practicality because many people work and this is the ideal solution. Participation in a traditional class puts limits on one. You take the course individually and at any time. Since they are online, the costs of these courses are much lower than courses attended in classes.

The platform provides two interesting elements. Firstly, the platform is programmed in such way that a corporation or business can train its staff, business can buy courses and have its own account in the platform, where it can manage their access by monitoring the whole process, on how it is attended and developed by the employees.

Secondly, the platform provides opportunities for local professionals to develop their course. The course under a person’s property is integrated on the platform.

Which market do you aim for?

It has not been called UNIPRO BALKAN ACADEMY for no reason, because in the agreement with the Italian company we gained exclusiveness in the Balkans and at the moment we aim at the Albanian-speaking market, since we are investing in courses with Albanian subtitles.

Do you have demands for the courses?

We still have not organized a marketing campaign, which will start soon, but we are happy because a few days after launching the online platform we received the first sign ups. This is also a good start.

I wish you great success!