Newsletter - Risi Albania

Newsletter

4rth edition, January 2015 RisiAlbania is a youth employment project that focuses on achieving systemic changes in the Albanian labour market in order to improve access to employment and income opportunities for young women and men. Project duration: November 2013 – October 2017

RisiAlbania wants to make the labour market work for young women and men in Albania, by promoting job creation and effective job intermediation. In order to achieve our goal, RisiAlbania works with a wide range of partners from the private and public sector as well as civil society.

Our address & contact details: Rr. Ismail Qemali, P18, H.3, Apt. 15 Tirana, Albania Tel: +355 (0) 422 48 52 Email: [email protected]

Visit our website: www.risialbania.al

RISI on Labour Market Information, Services and Policies 4 National Media are broadcasting programs on career and job orientation for young people In the context of stimulating national media to disseminate Labour Market Information (LMI) in an attractive and commercial way to young people and their parents, RISI’s cooperation with four national media has resulted in the creation of attractive programs on career and job orientation. RISI is supporting the partnering Medias to market these programs, as well as with products development and trainings for journalists on how to tap into LMI sources and effectively deliver the information to the target audience. The three media programs “Ora e Punës” (Working Hour) - radio-televised at Club FM and Club TV, “Ti Mundesh” (You can do it) - broadcasted at Top Channel, “Drejt Punës” (Towards Employment) - broadcasted at A1 Report TV and the supplement “Drejt Punës” distributed as part of Shqiptarja.com newspaper, have started since the beginning of November 2014 to deliver information on the Albanian labour market. While “Ora e Punës” is mainly focused on delivering this information through interviews with people in managing positions in companies in Albania to discover their hiring strategies and other employment-related issues, “Ti Mundesh” and “Drejt Punës”, through attractive reportages, are bringing to the public successful stories of young people working in some of the “forgotten” or innovative professions in Albania.

Çelësi Shpk establishes “Profesionisti”, a new recruitment agency RISI worked closely with “‘Çelësi” group to support them start up “Profesionisti” (www.profesionisti.al) for the purpose of providing qualitative job matching services for low and middle skilled young people. “Profesionisti” has a dynamic and energetic team of four committed young women. They are well trained on leadership, managerial and technical skills, required for the successful operation of “Profesionisti”. With the initiation of work on November 1, 2014, the team has developed an action plan to achieve the ambitious targets, and a marketing strategy in order to reach SMEs and job seekers. As the first recruitments are finalized, RISI is monitoring closely to keep track of the results with regards to sustainability of the initiative and effectiveness of the services provided to businesses and job seekers.

Albanian Employment Promotion Programmes (EPP) review and recommendations In the period September - December 2014, RisiAlbania in collaboration with ILO- EU IPA 2010 Project on Human Resources Development in Albania conducted “EPPs in Albania: an assessment of quality in the formation and implementation processes (2008-2014)”. The purpose of this assessment was to analyze and measure the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the design and implementation of these EPPs, as well as their impact in terms of employment and income creation in 2012-2013. The review was concluded with recommendations for improvements in the design, operational aspect, implementation and promotion of the existing programs, and design of the new ones. The findings and recommendations were presented to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth (MoSWY). These recommendations will be used by the ministry as an important input for the necessary amendments to the "Employment Promotion Law”.

Upcoming events January-February 2015

February 2015

February-March 2015

Workshop on information FIs need to develop tailored products for APs Through RISI support, Financial Institutions (FIs), INSTAT, Ministry of Agriculture and CBS will discuss on generating and preparing the information needed.

ICT Research Findings dissemination RISI will disseminate ICT research findings to representatives from private & public sector to help them create a vision for developing the IT Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors in Albania.

Regional Competition for new Tourism products will be launched Different players in the market will be able to join the competition for designing tourism packages and itineraries in unexplored seasons, and areas.

Supporting Food Processing, Tourism and ICT sectors 180 Agro-processing companies got informed about national & international support schemes From September until December 2014, through the Albanian Food Industry (AFI), 180 Agro-processing companies were informed about the national and international support schemes that are available in the country. The information was disseminated through face to face meetings, e-mails, presentations, interviews in radio & TV, and round tables. On November 27, 2014, through the support of RisiAlbania, AFI, in collaboration with Creative Business Solutions (CBS) organized the first seminar to inform agro-processing businesses in the city of Fier about the national and international support schemes available and how the businesses can become eligible to apply. In the coming months, AFI will focus its activities in two areas i) advocating for an increase in the financial support for businesses that want to increase their investments and ii) continuing dissemination of information on supporting schemes.

New Tourism Products Development During 2014, RISI has offered its support for the partnership between Rafting Federation and Berat municipality in setting up an ecological sportive and touristic centre - the Albanian Adventure Resort. The centre will be located close to Osumi Canyons and will offer sports activities to foreign and local tourists in the natural beauties and touristic destinations of the area of Berat, Skrapar, Permet and Gjirokastra districts. It will be the first centre of this kind in Albania offering a new tourism product, which will help extend tourism seasonality and increase employment and incomes in the rural economy. RISI will support with a strategic planning for the centre, and throughout the implementation with assist with capacity building. RISI is also starting an intervention in new tourism products development through the creation and successful marketing of new itineraries including unexplored seasons, areas, and activities. This will be achieved through the establishment of an annual competition which will help promote the most attractive new itineraries, and through the support of these itineraries during the implementation phase by collaborating with tourism businesses, tour guides, service providers, and local and central decision-making institutions. RISI plans to start with the regions of Shkodra and Berat.

RISI in ICT sector In December 2014, RISI completed an in-depth and participatory research on the constraints and opportunities in the ICT sector in Albania in the context of global markets and trends. The main constraints identified are: limited skills development, lack of a sector strategy for ICT development, inadequate policy environment and IT infrastructure, limited domestic market demand, and lack of promotion of the sector in domestic and foreign markets. Following the analysis, RISI is developing interventions in the areas of IT industrial skills development and promotion of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) subsector to address these constraints. The implementation will start within the first quarter of 2015.