RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vahram Dumanyan received today the Delegation headed by the Resident Representative of the Armenia Office of the UN Development Program Natia Natsvlishvili

ESCS Deputy Ministers Arthur Martirosyan and Zhanna Andreasyan participated in the meeting.

Congratulating Natia Natsvlishvili on the appointment, the Minister highlighted the importance of raising cooperation between the two structures to a qualitatively new level. Vahram Dumanyan expressed hope that this joint activity will be long-standing, since it is based on successful experience, and tangible results will be recorded.

In turn, Natia Natsvlishvili underlined the effective cooperation that has been established between Armenia and the UN Development Program Armenia office in recent years. She noted that the strengthening of human capital is the basis of any development, and cooperation with Armenia around the Sustainable Development Goals. She underlined the importance of reforms in the field of VET within the framework of this cooperation, which is also aimed at the development of human capital.

ESCS Deputy Minister Arthur Martirosyan presented the main programs that are being implemented with the UNDP Armenia office. He stressed the "Future Skills and Jobs for Armenia’s Rural Youth" project implemented with the financial support of the Russian Federation in Shirak, Lori, Tavush, and Gegharkunik regions, as well as programs implemented jointly with the UNDP National Innovation Center of the SDG. In this context, the Deputy Minister was pleased to note that the Edu2Work platform will include automatic labor market analysis in the VET sector starting from 2022. Arthur Martirosyan also underlined the importance of the programs "Strengthening Stability and Resilience of the Bordering Communities of Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik and Syunik Regions" implemented with the support of UNDP, as well as programs to promote the implementation of measures to improve the energy efficiency of reconstructed/renovated public buildings proposed by UNDP.

ESCS Deputy Minister Zhanna Andreasyan, in turn, thanked the UNDP Armenia Office for the assistance provided in the conditions of Covid-19, in terms of both distance learning capacity development and technical assistance. The Deputy Minister emphasized the support of the UNDP for the capacity building of VET institutions, emphasizing that the development of agricultural education is one of the priorities of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

At the meeting, the parties also touched upon the issues of strengthening the education-labor market ties, assessing the current and projected needs of the labor market, the importance of the labor market needs in defining the university places by reimbursing tuition fees, revising the list of specialties in the VET field and their targeted distribution by regions. Issues related to possible cooperation in the direction of restoring the infrastructures of schools and kindergartens were also discussed.