Research, 2021
Country Assessment Research: VET Education and Development in Albania
An overview of the situational, legal and institutional framework of vocational education and training for Roma in Albania.
Key findings
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44.6%
of registered Roma girls aged 10 to 16 drop out of school, and 30% of boys.
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55%
of Roma children aged 6 to 9 did not attend compulsory education, by the 2011 census.
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70%
of young Roma in the focus group did not know what vocational education and training is.
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7,000 ALL
clothing quota, with free textbooks and a scholarship, for every Roma pupil in vocational education.
Abstract
Developed for the WinForVET project, funded by the Austrian Development Agency, the assessment maps how Albania’s vocational education and training system reaches, and fails to reach, Roma learners. It combines official data, the legal and policy framework and a focus group with young Roma, and closes with recommendations for schools, institutions and the Roma Education Fund.
Method
Desk review of the legal, policy and institutional framework and of official statistics, with a focus group of nine young Roma women and men aged 15 to 25.
Why Roma pupils leave school
Children do not enrol, or drop out, because of family migration, housing and infrastructure, parents’ unemployment and living conditions, low family education and poor access to health care, language difficulties and social exclusion, and a lack of support from parents. Measures to bring them into school only work if they deal with that whole picture.
What the policy already offers
Since 2014, every Roma pupil enrolled in vocational education is entitled to a scholarship, free textbooks and a clothing quota of 7,000 lek at the start of the school year. The National Action Plan for Roma Integration 2016–2020 covered civil registration, education, employment, health, housing and social protection. Many of its measures remained unfulfilled.
What young Roma said
Most young people in the focus group knew vocational schools existed, but not how they work or what they teach. Most preferred general secondary school, which they see as more respected and as the route to university. Only 30% saw vocational education as a preparation for a specific job.
Recommendations
- Vocational schools should work more with parents and explain what vocational training offers their children.
- Inform Roma pupils and parents about vocational courses: where the centres are, what documents are needed and the benefits of enrolling.
- Report Roma learners in vocational education and in vocational training as two separate indicators in the 2021–2025 national action plan, instead of one combined figure.
- Create a dedicated programme for 14 to 17 year olds who cannot read and write, or who finished only compulsory school, with literacy courses and soft skills so they can enter the vocational system.