American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo held a roundtable on the topic “Building synergies between academic institutions and the private sector”. In this panel participated the Minister of Education, Arsim Bajrami, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, Rector of AAB College, Lulzim Tafa, president of the American University in Kosovo, Sharon Hart, as well as other representatives from the business community in Kosovo.
Minister of Education, Arsim Bajrami said that linkages between academic institutions, and the private sector is very necessary to have economic development in the country.
“The national strategy of economic development places education first, since we know that without a quality education, there can be no economic development. We think that the key to economic development is the reorganization of the education system, “said Minister Bajrami.
He said that, despite receiving the best practices of European models, Kosovo needs an education model that best fits the requirements for employment in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, said that what should be taken into account is career guidance in sector employment, adding that in this area it has been improving recently.
Meanwhile, the Rector of AAB College, Lulzim Tafa said that the quality of higher education can not be treated completely separately from pre-university education.
He said that AAB has installed more practical issues of student work in various institutions and companies, but to send students to practice abroad, need to have visa liberazation said the Rector Tafa.
“Noliberalization of visa is a very big obstacle, because we have installed the case of practice, in which students get the practice to various institutions and companies. If there would befree movement of citizens, in this case the students, would have the opportunity to do cooperative agreements with various companies in the world, where the students would be able to perform the practice in those organizations or industries, whether the food industry, whether the grain industry or other industries, “said Rector Tafa.
He said that in Kosovo,unfortunately there is no stanging economy where the institution he leads will be able to make an agreement to prepare the staff for a company, according to Rector Tafa, this it has a very large cost.
Rector Tafa said that AAB has born precisely as a result of labor market needs.
In this debate there were many representatives of businesses, which in the end presented their demands and had questions for the panelists on the different concering issues.
