In the race towards a greener future, the Western Balkans, including Albania, is benefiting from the transformative power of investments in renewable energy, not only as a challenge, but also as an opportunity to create new jobs. This initiative calls for a revolutionary change in education programs and vocational training, highlighting the urgent need for a skilled workforce in the emerging green sector.
Author: Ola Miter
The green transition and investments in renewable energy are not only challenges, but also opportunities that must be taken advantage of by the countries of the Western Balkans, including Albania. This is in the direction of opening jobs and in this context it is necessary to increase professional skills. During the conference with the theme "Edu-Energy: Building bridges for learning about sustainable energy", Albanian experts from the region and beyond emphasized the need to promote new skills that respond to the labor market.
"The green transition and renewable energy sources are something that requires strategic decisions of different actors at the highest level and having said that, the education system must adapt to the national and regional circumstances in order to fulfill the demand in the market of work. This should include all policy makers, companies, the business sector. We must bear in mind that green transformation also means social transformation", said Tina Saric, director of the South-East European Education Reform Initiative, ERI SEE.
"More than 40 million jobs have been created in the field of renewable energy and we think that in the future we will have even more new jobs in this sector. Therefore, the labor market must respond to the increase in needs. This also requires programs for the development of skills", said Ergi Bregasi from GIZ Albania.
Experts: There is a need for education and professional qualification programs
During the conference, it was emphasized that after 2022 in the countries of the Western Balkans, a growing trend of renewable energy projects, which are considered magnets to attract foreign investments, has been noticed, but according to experts, these initiatives may fail due to the lack of of qualified professionals.
"The most important thing is education. When trying to determine why some initiatives failed, why they didn't have a good impact, it was all about capacity. Capacity is a big problem in the Western Balkans and when I say capacity I am talking here about three elements: Education, so we don't have enough education to implement decarbonization, we don't have skills and we don't have procedures", said Vedad Suljic from the Center for Economics , Technology and Environmental Development – CETEOR.
According to the director of the National Agency for Education, Vocational Training and Qualifications, Ejvis Gishti, our country is making efforts to adapt professional courses to the labor market, in the framework of policies for the diversification of energy production sources.
"We have started defining new qualifications on which we strongly agree. These qualifications relate to the senior technician for renewable energy sources. We will also focus on solar energy and wind energy", said Ejvis Gishti, director of the National Agency for Education, Vocational Training and Qualifications in Albania.
The international conference was organized by the Southeast European Education Reform Initiative, in cooperation with GIZ. It was attended by stakeholders from the education and energy sectors, including policy makers, relevant ministries and agencies, experts in the implementation of the green agenda, education development and social sustainability, entrepreneurs, private sector upskilling professionals, companies, etc.
