CHF 8.3 mln. for professional education in agriculture in Armenia

On September 27, 2022, the Swiss Cooperation Office in Armenia organized the launch event of the long-term development project “Modernizing Vocational Education and Training in Agriculture in Armenia 2022-2025 – MAVETA”.

The event was attended by Armenian Government officials, including the Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan, representatives of co-funding and implementing partners, as well as interested international and local organizations and individuals.

Switzerland, together with Austria and Germany, launched the main phase of the MAVETA project to assist the Government of Armenia to reform the vocational education system in Armenia in agriculture. The intervention aims to improve the knowledge and skills of professionals and graduates in agriculture and related fields. Thus, the project will contribute to sustainable, climate friendly, inclusive growth, increased incomes and enhanced (self)-employment in rural Armenia.

In practice, the Project seeks to train young people so that their knowledge is directly useful for their future professional career, as hired professionals or self-employed. Practical learning in companies and farms shall be combined with modern cutting-edge knowledge learned in colleges. The selected professions include Veterinary Specialist, Milk and Dairy Technologist, Farmer, Agricultural Machinery, Milk Farm Manager, Orchard Workers / Nut and Fruit Farmers.

Moreover, the Project will work to anchor this dual education approach at the political and institutional level: policies shall become more coherent, educational institutions more effective, and a cooperation between the public and the private sector shall be well established. On the ground, the project will work with Goris State Agricultural College, Sisian College of ANAU (Syunik), Stepanavan State Agricultural College (Lori), Berd State Multifunctional College (Tavush), Echmiadzin Craftsman State School (Armavir) and Yerevan College of ANAU.

The Project started on December 3, 2021, with a preparatory phase that has been successfully summarized in August 2022. The 1^st main phase of implementation started afterwards, which will last until August 2025 with total budget of 8,3 mln. CHF. With regard to the collaboration with Austria, some remaining technical issues need to be solved. The 2^nd main phase has already been approved in principle for the years 2026-2030 as well.

The MAVETA project is funded by a broad coalition of international and local organizations led by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), including the Austrian Development Agency, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Government of Armenia, the Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) NGO, Izmirlian Foundation, the Strategic Development Agency (SDA) NGO and Vanand Agro CJSC.

The project’s implementing partners are the GIZ and HEKS/EPER with the involvement of SDA and the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (HAFL).