BALFIN Group participated in the awarding ceremony of the certificates “Service Competence” in the framework of the e-VIVA project, developed by the European University of Tirana. This project, funded by the European Union, is now at the start of its third year of development.
It is worth mentioning that it is one of the highest funded projects ever won by Albanian universities and its focus is to identify the basic competencies related to the service sector.
In the ceremony held at the premises of UET with the presence of professors, students participating in projects, the Director of Human Resources of the Group, Elvin Nosi was also invited. He was more closely acquainted with the project and the effort to bring to the labour market capacities who know and recognize their competencies.
Nosi described this project as a good opportunity for the labour market and for the Group he belongs to because according to him, the lack of this competence has long been felt among young people. He further added that such projects are key to school-business-state cooperation.
“A very good news for the labour market, for the businesses and BALFIN Group, because we have long felt the lack of this kind of competence among young people, or job seekers in general. It is one of the key competencies, given our Group’s presence in the services and hospitality industry. The competence that this project assumes is the most important, basic, that businesses are currently trying to develop with their internal resources, through the training they conduct. We understand that this is not enough to have a labour force in the market, which will provide successful recruitments and successful employees at all times. Such programs are key to the business-school-state trinomial, which should work in a coordinated manner to enable the services sector, in general, and that of tourism and hospitality, which are seen as the main drivers of economic growth in the coming years. This certification course that you are doing, is very necessary for the labour market, so I take this opportunity to invite students to have a look at our websites to see the opportunities that are offered”, said Nosi.
Deputy Rector for Institutional Development and Students at UET, Prof. Dr. Ermira Qosja, described e-VIVA as one of the projects which is closer to the labour market.
“The project has chosen to focus on one competence, that is shown as one of the most important competencies from all European and world statistics, but also a study conducted in 2020 with the students of the master programme, revealed that students entering the labour market were required to have a customer service competence. E-Viva is more than an approach to change universities, it is an approach to change the mentality regarding the teaching and learning process.
Beyond the fact that for years the EC has been orienting education towards competencies, this project focuses on the student, who becomes an interactor and evaluator of the way he develops his competence. To clarify the concept, competence is a sum of three components: access, knowledge and attitude. E-Viva develops the whole methodology through several teaching and learning methods by making the student involved and able to evaluate how he will develop this competence within a module or subject.
For this project to come to life in the labour market, which requires this competence so much, it needs a stronger connection of the university with the government and businesses. A diploma is necessary to enter the labour market but it is not enough. “If the certificates we distribute today would gain authorship, would be required in the labour market, universities would be able to offer such certificates together with the diploma, I believe they would be very good passports in the labour market”, he declared Qosja.
