STATE AUDIT OFFICE OF GEORGIA

EDUCATION 30 December, 2013
Vocational Education System in Georgia
Period: 2012, 2011, 2010

The recent reforms have triggered significant changes in Vocational Education field. Over the last decade new educational institutions have been constructed, National Qualification Framework and Quality Assurance legal mechanisms have been developed, Informational Centres have been opened in three largest cities of Georgia, financing scheme has changed etc. Vocational Education system was anticipated to transform essentially, which should have had positive effect on decreasing unemployment and economic growth of the country. State Audit Office of Georgia has studied reforms implemented in Vocational Education field to assess how efficient and effective the system had been over the last years and issued corresponding recommendations. Audited period is from 2010 to first half of 2013.

Audit Motivation

Over the last 5 years more than 60 million GEL has been spent for improvement and development of Vocational Education system. Expenditures include constructing new buildings as well as rehabilitation of existing ones. The number of vocational entrants was high as well (approximately 20,000 students were enrolled in VET institutions in 2011-2012), which confirms the interest of the society in Vocational Education. However, the reforms have not managed to eliminate the shortcomings of the system – There is still a shortage of qualified personnel in a number of fields on labour market, whereas there is an excess of supply in other fields. According to existing data, only 23% of Vocational graduates has managed to find a job relevant to their professions.

Aim of Audit

The aim of the audit was to study the activities carried out in the field of Vocational Education, which addressed developing Vocational skills and training professional personnel, able to meet growing and ever-changing labour market needs.

To achieve the above-mentioned, SAO has studied the following main issues: a) Relevance of the priorities defined by the Ministry of Education and Science to the labour market needs; b) Management of education process; and c) Financing scheme of VET system.

The Audit has been carried out in accordance with ISSAI standards, and in partnership with Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) and GiZ.

 Significant Findings

The Audit has revealed that despite the positive changes that were implemented, the Ministry of Education and Science cannot ensure matching the priority Vocational programs to the labour market needs.

The reporting system that exists in Georgia is, to some extent, in line with the Copenhagen Process and other international best practices, but it also has some shortcomings: External assessment methodology and indicators are not developed, stakeholders‘ involvement in the process of assessment is not ensured and other additional supervising mechanisms are not implemented.

The Vocational standards existing in Georgia differ from the ones operating in European countries, for the reason that they are excessively wide-ranging and do not contain specific information. Moreover, credit system is not standardized and unified, which hinders flexibility of educational process and training equally qualified personnel.

Professional development of teachers is conducted in unsystematic manner, due to being focused on developing general, not specific skills. Access to the information and involvement of private sector is not ensured.

The existing financing scheme is not rational – funds are not allocated optimally. Due to the fixed value of voucher, Vocational institutions were not provided with resources that would meet their actual requirements. Shortcomings of the voucher system have led to inefficient spending of significant sums (approximately 2 million GEL). Infrastructural development of Vocational institutions is handled unsystematically – some of the VET colleges have never been rehabilitated, which results in uneven possibilities for the institutions to develop.