Discussion of the draft law on professional education

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The representatives of the member companies of the business association "Georgian Employers' Association" together with the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Ketevan Natriashvili, discussed the amendments to the Georgian Law "On Professional Education". The meeting was held in the conference hall of the Association of Georgian Employers. The new law, which was drafted in 2014, aims to: • improve the quality of the professional education system; • establish flexible links between general, professional and higher education; • establish a credit accumulation and transfer system; • create training-retraining systems; • companies and colleges to create legal bases for the implementation of joint programs and others. And the purpose of the meeting, which was organized by the Association of Georgian Employers, was to share the comments and opinions of the business sector with the representatives of the Ministry in order to reflect the demands and needs of the private sector in relation to vocational education as much as possible. Consideration of the draft law on vocational education in this form is unprecedented and is an object of high interest from both the business sector and public structures and schools, since the demand for students with vocational education qualifications has increased sharply. All stakeholders agree that a result-oriented approach to vocational education cannot be established without close communication and deliberation. The preparation of the said bill has a long history. In order to create solid legal foundations for the implementation of the vocational education reform strategy, a working group was formed in 2014 in the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, which was tasked with the preparation of a draft amendment to the Georgian Law on Vocational Education. �