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ADDRESSING THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS AND ACADEMIA:
Tourism and Pharmaceutical Summer Schools Start at AUA

The vast majority of employers in Armenia complain about the discrepancy between graduates’ knowledge and the skills required by businesses. Part of the reason is that in the fast-paced world educational curricula are not updated as periodically as business requirements do. To bridge this gap in tourism and pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, the USAID Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Project, in collaboration with the American University of Armenia Extension Program, initiated two respective summer schools.

The pharmaceutical Summer School is being organized for the first time drawing on the successful experience of organizing tourism schools since 2008.

Over 40 second, third, and fourth-year students attend the Tourism Summer School. They represent the European Regional Academy, Yerevan State College of Humanities, Yerevan State Armenian-Greek College of Tourism, Service and Food Industry, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Yerevan State University (YSU), State Linguistic University after V. Brusov, and the Armenian Tourism Institute.

Likewise, 30 students from Yerevan State Medical University after M.Heratsi, YSU Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Mehrabyan Medical Institute take part at the Pharmaceutical Summer school.

The participants are acquiring knowledge in their disciplines, discussing the needs of relevant specialties, learning best practices of setting up businesses in their fields, developing a strategic plan and learning to collaborate with foreign partners. “This is an ideal opportunity for me not only to gain knowledge but also get acquainted with international best practice and what I need to get a job after the University”, said one of the tourism students to the organizers.

The classes are conducted by CAPS specialists and managers of leading organizations in the fields, and will be over on July 30. Upon completion the graduates will receive certificates of participation.

“This initiative aims to develop students’ knowledge, contribute to heightened awareness of practical issues of concerned fields of study, as well as promote greater cooperation and understanding between academia and the private sector. Additionally, this is an excellent networking opportunity for students of different educational institutions majoring in the same discipline,” Anush Shahverdyan, CAPS Workforce Development Specialist says.  

Tackling tourism issues in a tourism atmosphere

Tourism industry demonstrated a significant success during the last ten years ensuring 20% annual average increase as well as 3-4% increase during the financial crisis thus overcoming the risk of decline. Nevertheless, there are still numerous constraints and obstacles, which may be removed only with the help of public-private partnership to ensure further development of the industry. This was the main objective of the first Meeting without Ties forum organized for tourism industry by the Ministry of Economy and the Board of Tourism Associations with support from USAID Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Program.

The leaders and professionals of the tourism sector (representing 40 tourism companies, 5 business unions, including Armenian Hotel Association, Union of Incoming Tour Operators, Armenian Guides Guild, Armenian Association of Travel Agents and ASTA) had an opportunity to discuss the current industry agenda with the Government officials in an unofficial atmosphere. The Government was represented by the Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan and Deputy Ministers of Economy, Transport and Communication, Finance, Territorial Administration.  The forum agenda included items related to current legislative drawbacks, possible application of international experience as well as peculiarities of Armenian business thinking and business management.

One of the important outcomes of the event was the agreement with the Ministry of Economy to prepare an action plan aiming at business reforms and improving the environment. As a first step the private sector will officially submit a well justified analysis and  recommendations on guides licensing, tax legislation improvement, development of special bus stations for tourist buses in Yerevan, and installation of toilets in tourist sites.  “The Meetings Without Ties forums have proved their effectiveness with IT industry and we encourage you to continue and institutionalize them as well”, said Minister Yeritsyan.

Currently, experts of RA Ministry of Economy and CAPS Project are jointly developing a new draft Law on Tourism, which will include the recommendations of tourism companies in view of their direct interaction with tourists and experience in the practical application of the law.   

Promoting Wider Use of Information Technology Solutions in Businesses

10.06.2010. Participation in the DigiTec Business Forum, organized by the Union of Information Technology Enterprises of Armenia, has proved to be the most efficient way for senior management of various industries to identify IT solutions for their businesses.  According to initial estimations by UITE, 50% of the 1,500 visitors to the Forum held on June 9-10 were business executives who specifically came to identify new technological solutions for their companies from almost 40 ICT companies exhibiting at the event.  This strong level of interest ensured sustainable growth of the event; now in its the 3rd year.

For the first time, the Forum was also attended by representatives of the regional ICT cluster.  Participants included chairmen of ICT associations, the Chairman of the European Software Institute and executives of private ICT enterprises from South East European countries (Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, and Moldova) who had a separate booth at the exhibition and also held presentations.  Their presentations on E-Solutions for Industrial Parks, Efficient Management of ICT Projects, and Association Development collected together the largest audience at the event.  Their attendance became possible thanks to the USAID RCI initiative that encourages development of a regional ICT cluster to make it more competitive in the global market. More...
   

About us

The CAPS project is a five year program of assistance funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CAPS is based on a cluster approach which focuses on improving the business environment and fostering cooperation among enterprises in a particular industry sector.

The cluster concept is fundamental. Most industries include various categories of stakeholders. These stakeholders typically include: government as a regulator of commercial practices; educational institutions to prepare members of the workforce; business development services to offer consulting and other management services, and the core industry itself delivering products or services to customers… The cluster process, then, is mainly engaged in coordinating all such stakeholders in pursuit of mutually supportive objectives, most commonly in marketing and image building, improving industry-wide quality, training the workforce, and/or enacting more favorable legislation. more

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