Supporting the effective implementation of the reform defined under GoG strategy for Development of Education System 2017-2022 served as a main motivation for EPPM to renew its management, membership and expert’s pool. Watch-dogging the reform and making valuable recommendations requires increasing the capacity of the organization and engaging high and motivated professionals in the process. Georgia’s Association to Europe and the responsibilities taken under the association agreement puts the challenging tasks in front of the government. At the same time implementation of these responsibilities will create the real opportunity for moving to the next stage which is the path to EU membership.

We believe that participation of different stakeholders and society in general in monitoring and evaluation of the process of implementation of these intervention will make the process valuable and help GoG to produce desired results.

With these in mind EPPM reconsidered its scope of activities and refreshed its management structure, membership and bank of experts. With increased capacity   EPPM plans to undertake research and analytical works to assist implementers of reform in making relevant decisions. Developing the platform and facilitating the participation of different stakeholders in the watch-dogging process will produce the valuable results for the implementers that can be effectively utilized during policy decision making process.

“Business Leaders’ Federation, Women for Tomorrow –“Strengthening the role of women in the process of economic development”

International Institute of Education Policy Planning and Management (EPPM) – “sustainable development of educational reform that would be consistent with the principles of an open society and positive changes in the Georgian education system, and to support stakeholders participating in the education system”

With these strategic goals in mind, on November 21, 2018 two partners agreed to cooperate in the field of education. On behalf of the organizations, Nina Kobakhidze, Chair of Governing Board of Federation, and Tamar Sanikidze, the President of EPPM signed the partnership agreement on supporting sustainable collaboration of business and education.

Collaboration of business and education representatives and providing independent expertise in watch-dogging the implementation of the reform on education defined under the strategy approved by the government of Georgia in 2017 is the main area of collaboration. Education reform interventions that are closely tied to fulfillment of the responsibilities taken under Association Agreement will be the main target for monitoring and evaluation. Partners agree to take efforts and implement awareness raising activities about education component of Association Agreement that would help interested parties and different stakeholders to engage in monitoring the process of responsibility fulfillment.

Business leaders’ federation, that unites more than 40 large business companies, is actively working on developing its human capital to meet the needs of the modern business world. In this perspective it welcomes the partnership with EPPM that would enable the federation to participate in processes related to development of education and training system.

EPPM is the organization established in 2002 for education reform support purpose and has a huge experience and good history to cope with current challenges in education. EPPM is interested in supporting the effective implementation of the reform of education that is oriented on developing competitive human capital. This in turn requires close cooperation with business and employers in all main decision making process.

The current partnership agreement will serve as an instrument for creating the platform for collaboration with the business and employers.

International Institute for Education Policy, Planning and Management as a member of coalition Education for All- Georgia, participated in the organization of annual teacher’s National Prize competition. Teacher’s National Prize co-founders are: Education for All- Georgia and National Centre for Teachers Professional Development. Project is supported by the Ministry of Education of Georgia. Project is funded by the private fund. (for more information visit www.tprize.ge)

News text available in Georgian.

The Institute completed research on Higher Education Quality for Working Students at State Institutions. The project was financed by East-West Management Institute.  Research report attached

The Institute conducted analyses on teacher policies in Georgia. The research report was prepared as part of the wider project of the Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC) envisaging development of the  comparative study on teacher policies in its member countries: the new Member States of the EU, Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership countries and Central Asia and Mongolia.

Research report attached

Within the framework of the project “Strategic Development of High Education and Research in Georgia- Reform Supporting Platform Creation” EPPM in cooperation with partner organizations conducted the policy analyses on the state of Higher Education and research in the country according to five strategic directions.

Research report

• HE and Employment -Tamar Bregvadze
• Integration of Teaching and Research – Lali Bakradze
• University Authonomy and Academic Freedom – Tamar Zaalishvili
• Funding Research and HE Financial Governance – Lela Chakhaia
• HE Quality Assurance -Irine Darchia

From June 2013 the International Institute for Education Policy, Planning and Management started the implementation of the project “Strategic Development of High Education and Research in Georgia- Reform Supporting Platform Creation” that aims at creating the evidence based comprehensive strategy for development of higher education and research in Georgia through participation and consensus of all stakeholders and target groups interested in Georgian higher education.

The following organizations are involved in the implementation of the project:

• Center for Social Sciences (CSS);
• Tempus National Office
• Center for International Education (CIE)
• Academic Fellowship Program, OSF

These organizations constitute Project Coordination Board.

Project financed by the Open Society – Georgia Foundation (OSGF)

On 27th of October, 2012, in Khashuri the final conference of the project “Introducing the Model of Community Mobilization around Environmental Issues in Georgia” was organized. The representatives from the Institute, schools, local authorities and project partner organizations participated in the event. During the conference project results have been summarized and the mechanisms for sustainability discussed This project is financially supported by the Matra Programme of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Starting from October 2012 the International Institute for Education Policy, Planning and Management is implementing new project and will try to identify the impact of high education on work force formation and development in the country.

The overall purpose and specific objectives

The overall purpose of the project is to broaden existed knowledge on impact of higher education on employment trends in Georgia  in the context of recent reform of HE sector and to formulate policy options for improving the linkage between HE and employment market.

Specific objectives of the project are to:

1. a)            Examine the strength of relationship between HE and employment and assess current policy on integration of  the graduates  of the reformed system of HE on job market;

The particular tasks in the frames of the first specific objective is to:

• Describe current employment trends among the cohort of population that went through HE system in Georgia since 2004 (employed in  the field of specialization, employed in fields, not employed);
• Study employment opportunities in the mentioned cohort by gender, social and economic status;
• Calculate overall return to education by different fields of specialization (measure relationship  between the investment to HE  and income);
• Measure impact of education (compared to other factors) on employment;
• Study perceptions of society on overall quality of HE and its influence on employment opportunities.

1. b) Elaborate policy options and recommendations based on research results to improve job force creation and utilization in Georgia;
2. c) Mobilize support for elaborated policy options through awareness-rising and advocacy campaigns.

The rational

Lack of employment or income-earning opportunities is consistently highlighted as the number one concern in Georgia, as repeatedly demonstrated by independently run public opinion polls over the past years. In the latest poll of June 2012 conducted by the National Democracy Institute, 60% of respondents indicated employment as the most important issue in Georgia and 70% of them stated that they are unemployed.  Results coincide with findings of the public opinion poll conducted by G-PAC in Georgia in 2011, where 70% of respondents consider jobs as the most important policy issue and more than 60% of interviewed citizens think that NGOs should work more intensively on the issue.

Unemployment is currently in the core of policy operational agenda and political discourse. The issue is covered by pre-election programs of all main political parties and is reflected as a main theme in the action plan of the government of Georgia.  New ministry was established in the country a month ago to work exclusively on the problem.

Despite high priority attached to the issue, Georgia has not yet elaborated a detailed strategy to address the problem. Therefore the demand for accurate and reliable empirical data on current patterns of employment as well as on different factors influencing these patterns is very high at the moment.

Education in general and higher education in particular is considered as very important factor in shaping human capital.  Numerous studies are therefore devoted worldwide to calculate a return to education in different contexts. In other words, scientists and policy makers around the world are interested to understand how public and private investment in higher education contributes to the process of creation of qualified workforce and overall welfare of society?  The issue is not at all investigated in Georgia.

On the background of recent reforms in the higher education sector (initiated in 2004 in Georgia) the issue gains even greater importance as one of the main goals of HE reform is to align outputs of tertiary education to requirements of a job market.