PM says professional education budget quadrupled, $74.77mln spent in 10 years

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday highlighted the Government's efforts in supporting the professional education at a presentation of a new vision for the sector, citing the “tripled” budget for the field and $74.77mln spent on it over the past 10 years.

This year, we had a record budget of ₾95 million ($35.52mln) for professional education. In total, in the last 10 years, we have spent ₾200 million ($74.77mln) in the development of professional colleges”, Garibashvili said, adding 30 public vocational state colleges and 45 private schools had been launched across the country.

The PM also said the “main challenge” in the labour market was a “lack of skilled labour force”. 

We have strong economic growth, but there is no supply of skilled labour force, which is a serious problem [...] Last year, the Ministry of Economy conducted an interesting study and revealed that during the last one year, 32 percent of enterprises had vacancies, which in total amounted to almost 140,000 vacancies. This is certainly alarming”, Garibashvili said.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister highlighted poverty and unemployment rates had been “significantly reduced” to “historic lows” in the country. 

More than half a million people have overcome poverty in Georgia in the last 10 years”, he said.

Garibashvili noted the poverty rate had stood at about 30 percent back in 2012, with unemployment at over 27 percent, contrasting the numbers to the current figures of 15 and 17 percent respectively.