Newsletter 11th edition - October 2016 - Risi Albania

Newsletter 11th edition - October 2016

Working together with partners from the private, public and the civil society sectors in promoting job creation and effective job intermediation, RisiAlbania intends to make the labour market work for the young people in Albania Project duration: November 2013 – October 2017 Contact details: Rr. Ismail Qemali, P18, H.3, Apt. 15 Tirana, Albania Tel: +355 (0) 422 48 52 Email: [email protected] www.risialbania.al

The story of a young manager We bring in this issue the story of Denisa Mihallari, 24 years old, who had been constantly job-seeking for almost two years, trying to find suitable employment. One day in 2015, she spotted a poster of the Albanian Association of Marketing in cooperation with Fier’s local Labour Office an announcement for a 6-month training on marketing services for the agro sector, an opportunity made possible with the support of RisiAlbania project. “Being jobless then, I knew this training was something for me …” - says Denisa. She got registered as an unemployed job-seeker and participated in the training. During the second month of the training, the labour office in Fier found Denisa a job in a supermarket as a sales person, which she accepted while still attending the training. As she gained new skills, her employers quickly promoted her to manage the dairy section of the supermarket. The training of the Albanian Association of Marketing supported by RisiAlbania project on “Improving the quality and developing local capacities for marketing services in the Albanian agro sector” raised the capacities of 89 young men and women in Korçë, Skrapar and Fier. Only a couple of months after the training was completed, 26 trained young people like Denisa, were able to find employment.

Launch of Risi Turistike Award for Korça region On September 15, 2016 the Risi Turistike Award 2017 was launched by AIDA and Risi Albania. The Risi Turistike Award fosters the development on new touristic products, recognizes innovative tourism businesses ideas and supports them to become reality. This year the Risi Turistike Award focuses on the region of Korça, including Korça, Pogradec, Kolonja and Devoll. The awards available include one for best Innovative proposal and eight others in Competitiveness, Creative Economy, Start Up and Technological Innovation. The winners will be announced during a public event on December in Korça.

Upcoming events December 2016 – Award ceremony of Risi Turistike

Sofia, 5-6 October - Albanian public and private service providers of BPO sector attend a conference by European Outsourcing Association in Sophia

December 2016 – 3rd National Conference of Albanian Tourist Guides Association (NATGA)

October 2016, AITA facilitates two B2B events with IT companies in Ireland and in Sweden

Mid-November 2016 – Official launching ceremony of AGIS

October 2016, AITA facilitates training and certification on international IT standard of SCRUM October 2016 – kick-off event for Avasant to develop BPO value proposition and investment promotion plan for Albania

Increase access of Albania`s BPO sector to foreign markets Risi finalized an agreement with the international experts of Avasant LLC specialized in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT Outsourcing in order to deliver capacity building to local support organizations in BPO investment promotion, to attract foreign investors in Albania and to promote access of Albanian companies to foreign markets. In addition Risi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Albanian Investment Development Agency and the Albanian Outsourcing Assocation (AOA) to ensure that potential foreign investors benefit from support the local support they need. AOA assisted new call centers that were set up by Albanian and Italian investors, offering counselling services regarding the regulatory framework, links to find the adequate physical infrastructure, local networking and market information. As a result, five new call centers were set up in Tirana employing 530 employees (59 % women).

Better management of Labour Offices Risi has supported the National Employment Service (NES) to develop the Manual of Functional and Structural Organization of the Local and Regional Employment Offices and to improve Job Matching processes through the employment Information System of Labour Offices (LO). The Manual is applicable for all Local and Regional Employment Offices and is considered as the most important tool for the effective management of the LO. It will greatly support the implementation of the new service delivery model, the biggest recent reform at LO level. Prior to the implementation of the Manual in all LOs, Risi has supported NES to train all the LO employees on the new structural and functional organization. The survey that RisiAlbania undertook in March-June 2016 to the impact of its media work intervention has revealed Inspiring and influencing the young job seekers of Albania explore impressive achievements and results. Besides high audience and viewership levels of well over 110’000 people, the survey showed that 71% of the audience – that’s over 78’000 people!- believe that the programs have changed their perception about jobs and careers and almost one in three or over 35’000 people, stated that this had resulted in them changing their employment seeking behavior. What is more, through the identified cases, the project has uncovered 108 new jobs created while many more are unlikely unaccounted for. . Supported by:

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