Vocational education in Albania: key findings and challenges

Jona Bezati
Professional education in Albania is experiencing a deep and radical change. The current government announced the vocational education as the key of the reform the education system in Albania is currently undergoing. According to the government announced the vocational education “Albania 2020”, which shall cover a share of at least 30% of the high school students and will be developed according to the German “dual system” example. A psychological barrier remains an important factor hindering the development of VET educational system in Albania. This mentality is still prevailing and the number of the teens who chose a vocational education is much lower than the number of the ones who try to gain entry in one of the public universities around the country, despite proven more employment prospective. Yet, if they don’t achieve to enter a state University, most of the students still chose to pursue higher studies in the private universities, which often operates in a dubious background.