Skopje, 31 January 2023 (MIA) – The Ministry of Education and Science will focus on promoting and improving the quality of secondary vocational education by expanding on the concept of learning through work in companies, which will be backed by the Swiss government.

Minister of Education and Science Jeton Shaqiri and Swiss Ambassador Véronique Hulmann signed on Tuesday a memorandum to continue successful cooperation, which stipulates the implementation of a concrete plan with more joint activities by 2026.

After the signing event, Shaqiri said the memorandum will continue the campaign entitled “Study Smart, Work Professionally”, which will be implemented in North Macedonia for the fourth year in a row, expanding and promoting dual education as a concept based on learning through work in companies, contributing to increased youth employability and shortening the time needed to transition from education to work.

They said that 61 schools have accepted the concept of dual education in 3 years, whereas only 8 schools accepted it in the first yar.

“A total of 98 students attended dual education in the study year 2020-2021, and in 2022-2023 we have 3,228 students. The Ministry has also provided added stimulation to increase interest in this type of education by introducing 1,500 scholarships of Mden 3,300 per month for every student that enrolls in a dual class. The number of companies that accepted to be part of youth education, seeing potential for a quality workforce, has jumped from 16 to 450 companies,” Shaqiri said.

Swiss Ambassador Véronique Hulmann is “pleased to help when the Government of North Macedonia’s intentions are clear – to create quality staff that the economy is lacking”, as well as its efforts to develop and integrate the national educational system in the European educational space.

“Our cooperation started in 2018, and since then there have been significant results for the youth and the private sector in the Republic of North Macedonia. Switzerland will allocate an additional CHF 5.9 million as part of this cooperation memorandum, increasing Switzerland’s support for the reforms of the system for developing expert skills in the country to CHF 12 million,” Hulmann said.

She added that the exchange of knowledge, experience and practices directly supports the dual vocational and educational system by connecting the private sector to the education, enabling it to access a qualified workforce and contribute to decent employment options for young people in the country. dk/nn/