Because of the low status of VET in Armenian government policy, the prevailing culture of reform is donor-led: a policy is endorsed if the necessary financial resources are available. However, the drive for reforms, and the awareness that urgent changes are called for is well embedded at every decision-making level.

The ETF has been highly involved in this process and has contributed to the design of the different budget support programmes through the identification of needs and priorities and with the implementation of complementary actions aimed at:
•    improving social partner participation in the process through tailor made actions promoting the institutional capacity of the National VET Council;
•    Improving social dialogue at school management levels through the organisation of training for the newly established school management boards;
•    raising awareness about national competitiveness and the role played by human resources development;
•    collecting and disseminating information on the employment situation through the preparation of a Black Sea Labour market review.

Following up on the experience mentioned above, the ETF is going on in providing support to the reform of VET and employment policies through further activities, namely
(i)    the Torino process aimed at collecting and disseminating information related to progress of VET
(ii)    the business education survey aimed at collecting information on relationships between the world of work and the world of education
(iii)    social partnership with further investment on the training of school management boards in particular at regional level
(iv)    further research at regional level on the perception of national competitiveness. The ETF aims to intensify cooperation with a focus on assisting the European Commission in working together with the Armenian authorities and experts to ensure progress in ongoing VET reform through the effective implementation of the Sector Policy Support Programmes and by providing learning opportunities (especially at the policy and system levels) to national stakeholders during the process of reform.

In particular, the ETF aims to add value by concentrating activities between 2010 and 2013 on the following main pillars:
a)    Continuing to provide support to the EC services in strengthening the institutional capacities of the Armenian authorities in implementing and monitoring the progress of VET reform through EU budget support 2006 and 2007;
b)    Supporting structured and institutionalised social dialogue at national and local level within a policy learning perspective based on EU examples of good practice and experience;
c)    Reviewing labour market and employment patterns in the Black Sea region to promote institutional policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in particular of active employment measures;
d)    Raising awareness on the importance of human resources for national economic competitiveness.