Azerbaijan

Azerbaijanis have increasingly recognized the importance of promoting entrepreneurship skills among youth and providing them with the necessary conditions to be more entrepreneurial in their careers and in their lives. The government, and various education institutions recognizing this trend, have therefore recently made entrepreneurship education one of their priorities, and KAB one of their strategies.

In 2005 the Azerbaijani government, an employer’s organization, and the ILO joined hands to prepare a KAB pilot project in selected vocational training schools and prepare a KAB package adapted to the national context in Azerbaijani. In February of that same year, the first group of 15 Facilitators, Trainers and Promoters was trained, followed in 2006 by another Azerbaijani, member of the National Confederation of Employers Organizations, who was trained at the ILO International Training Centre in Italy (ITC – ILO). In November 2007 a third workshop was organised in the Ismaili region where an additional 21 Facilitators and Promoters, including a representative of the Ministry of Education, were trained, and finally, in 2008, a previously trained Facilitator and a director from a school participating in the pilot project, were trained as Key Facilitators in a workshop held in Kyrgyzytan.

Parallel to the capacity building process, the Ministry of Education approved the implementation of entrepreneurship education classes based on KAB in selected vocational training schools for a pilot project. This required an update of the Azerbaijani KAB with new content (module 9: how to develop a business-plan), and a complete revsion to ensure its suitable use in classrooms.The pilot test in schools is expected to begin during the 2009 - 2010 academic year, and the Ministry of Education has already expressed interest in delivering entrepreneurship education based on the KAB package in all vocational schools. To support this process, a researcher from the Azerbaijan Republic Institute of Education Problems has been trained at the 2009 ITC - ILO annual workshop for KAB Facilitators, Trainers and Promoters and another training workshop is planned for mid-2009, to enhance the delivery capacity of schools.

Education & Training Institutions: More than 2 vocational training institutions

Facilitators, Trainers and Promoters Trained: Over 37

Contact:

Ms. Marina Khartchenko	khartchenko@ilo.org
Mr. Yashar Hamzayev	hamzayev@ilo.org

 

* Note: all data above refers to the information available as of April, 2009. The figures can actually be slightly larger than presented.