Skip to main content
ETF logo
ETF
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Youtube
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram

Main navigation

Menu
  • What we do
    • Activities
      • Assuring quality in vocational training
      • Career guidance
      • Continuing training
      • Creating new learning
      • DARYA – Dialogue and action for resourceful youth in Central Asia
      • Digital skills and learning
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Financing vocational training
      • Governing vocational training
      • Innovative educators
      • International dimension of centres of vocational excellence
      • Qualifications
      • Skills and migration
      • Skills demand analysis
      • Skills for enterprise development
      • Skills for the future
      • Skills intelligence
      • Support to EU external assistance
      • Sustainability and social inclusion
      • Torino Process – Policy analysis and progress monitoring
      • Transition to work
      • Vocational excellence
      • Work-based learning
  • Where we work
    • Regions
      • Central Asia
      • Eastern Partnership
      • Southern and Eastern Mediterranean
      • Sub-Saharan Africa
      • Western Balkans and Türkiye
    • Countries
      • Albania
      • Algeria
      • Armenia
      • Azerbaijan
      • Belarus
      • Bosnia and Herzegovina
      • Egypt
      • Georgia
      • Israel
      • Jordan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Kosovo*
      • Kyrgyzstan
      • Lebanon
      • Libya
      • Moldova
      • Montenegro
      • Morocco
      • North Macedonia
      • Palestine*
      • Serbia
      • Syria
      • Tajikistan
      • Tunisia
      • Turkmenistan
      • Türkiye
      • Ukraine
      • Uzbekistan
  • Publications & resources
    • Publications
      • Corporate publications
      • Reports
      • Torino Process assessment reports
      • Guides & Toolkits
      • Periodicals
      • Policy briefings
      • Summary notes
      • Planning & reporting
    • Multimedia
      • Photo galleries
      • Video
      • Podcasts
    • Resources
      • Working papers
  • Newsroom & events
    • News
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • ETF Open Space
    • Press
  • About Us
    • Mission
      • Support to EU external assistance
      • Evaluation
      • Planning & reporting
      • Partners & stakeholders
    • Organisation
      • Governing Board
      • Director
      • Managers
      • Address
      • Contact us
    • Compliance & transparency
      • Data protection
      • Fraud prevention
      • Good administrative behaviour
      • Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
      • Public access to documents
    • Recruitment
    • Procurement
      • Expertise provision

You are here

  • Home
  • Publications & resources
  • Publications
  • TRP assessment reports
  • POLICIES FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH MACEDONIA

POLICIES FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH MACEDONIA

An ETF Torino Process assessment

North Macedonia
Type
TRP assessment report
Authors
Mihaylo Milovanovitch, ETF expert
Year
2019
Full report

pdfen

Executive summary

pdfen

PREAMBLE

The European Training Foundation (ETF) assessment provides an external, forward-looking analysis of the country's human capital development issues and VET policy responses in a lifelong learning perspective. It identifies challenges related to education and training policy and practice that hinder the development and use of human capital. It takes stock of these challenges and puts forward recommendations on possible solutions to address them.

These assessments are a key deliverable of the Torino Process, an initiative launched by the ETF in 2010 aimed at providing a periodic review of vocational education and training (VET) systems in the wider context of human capital development and inclusive economic growth. In providing a high-quality assessment of VET policy from a lifelong learning perspective, the process builds on four key principles: ownership, participation, holistic and evidence-based analysis.

Human capital, in this context, is understood as knowledge, skills, talents and abilities that further people's economic, social and personal development.

The purpose of the assessments is to provide a reliable source of information for planning and monitoring national education and training policies for human capital development, as well as for programming and policy dialogue in support of these policies by the European Union and other donors.

The ETF assessments rely on evidence from the countries collected through a standardised reporting template (national reporting framework – NRF) through a participatory process involving a wide variety of actors with a high degree of ownership by the country. The findings and recommendations of the ETF assessment have been shared and discussed with national authorities and beneficiaries. However, the ETF takes full responsibility for the assessment and for any errors and omissions in it.

The assessment report starts with a brief description of North Macedonia's strategic plans and national policy priorities (Chapter 1). It then presents an overview of issues related to the development and use of human capital in the country (Chapter 2), before moving on to an in-depth discussion of problems in this area, which in the view of the ETF require immediate attention (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 provides the overall conclusions of the analysis.

The annexes provide additional information: a summary of the recommendations in the report (Annex 1), an overview of the education and training system of North Macedonia (Annex 2), and a list of follow-up actions agreed upon by national stakeholders during the dissemination event (Annex 3). The National Torino Process Report compiled by the country itself can be found here: https://europa.eu/!qb77hT.

Next Chapter

Table of Contents

  • PREAMBLE
  • EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
    • Context
    • Summary of findings on human capital
      • Low quality education holds back human capital development
      • The relevance of education and training is affected by volatile demand for human capital
      • Disparities in demand for human capital reinforce inequality
      • Low educational attainment of the working age population
      • Education and training as a factor contributing to youth unemployment
    • Recommendations for action
      • Addressing low educational attainment
        • Improve the reliability and accuracy of classroom assessment
        • Ensure that adult education supports the strategic priorities of the country
        • Reinforce the quality and transparency of private provision of adult education
        • Capitalise on the existing knowledge and skills of the population by stepping up work on the recognition of informal and non-formal learning
      • Addressing persistently high youth unemployment
        • Prioritise pre-emptive action to combat youth unemployment
        • Improve career guidance where it is underdeveloped
        • Improve the responsiveness of VET by improving quality and involving stakeholders
  • 1. INTRODUCTION
    • 1.1 About this assessment
    • 1.2 Country overview
    • 1.3 Strategic context
  • 2. HUMAN CAPITAL: DEVELOPMENT AND CHALLENGES
    • 2.1 Overview and key data
    • 2.2 Low quality of education holds back the development of human capital
    • 2.3 Demand for human capital is volatile
    • 2.4 Disparities in demand for human capital reinforce inequality
    • 2.5 Capacity limitations related to evidence lead to inefficient use of human capital
  • 3. ASSESSMENT OF KEY ISSUES AND POLICY RESPONSES
    • 3.1 Low educational attainment of the working age population
      • 3.1.1 The problem
      • 3.1.2 Policy responses
        • Actions in formal schooling and compulsory VET
          • Priorities and effectiveness
          • Shortcomings and policy gaps
        • Actions beyond initial VET: adult education and lifelong learning
          • Priorities and effectiveness
          • Shortcomings and policy gaps
      • 3.1.3 Recommendations
        • Recommendations for action in initial VET
          • R.1 Improve the reliability and accuracy of classroom assessment in VET
        • Recommendations for action beyond secondary education and initial VET
          • R.2 Ensure that adult education supports the strategic priorities of the country
          • R.3 Reinforce the quality and transparency of private provision of adult education
          • R.4 Capitalise on the existing knowledge and skills of the population by reinforcing the work on recognition of informal and non-formal learning
    • 3.2 Persistent youth unemployment
      • 3.2.1 The problem
        • Description
      • 3.2.2. Policy responses
        • Priorities and effectiveness
        • Shortcomings and policy gaps
        • Low quality and limited responsiveness and exposure of initial VET to the world of work
        • Weak management of human resources in education and VET
        • Limited career guidance for students
        • Biased classroom assessment
      • 3.2.3 Recommendations
        • R.5 Prioritise pre-emptive action against youth unemployment
        • R.6 Improve career guidance where it is underdeveloped
          • R.6.1 Ensure better use of evidence and expand access to career guidance
          • R.6.2. Modernise the focus of career guidance in VET
        • R.7 Improve the responsiveness of VET through better quality and stakeholder involvement
          • R.7.1 Open flexible pathways into teaching in VET
          • R.7.2 Reassess and improve capacity and conditions for employers' involvement in VET
          • R.7.3 Prioritise work on the national qualification framework as a measure for raising the quality and relevance of VET provision
  • 4. CONCLUSIONS
  • FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS: SUMMARY OF STAKEHOLDER DISCUSSIONS
    • Participants
    • Consultation format
    • Consultation outcomes
      • Groups 1 and 5: Improve reliability of accuracy of quality assurance (assessment) in VET
      • Group 2: Align adult education with the strategic priorities of the country by strengthening public education sector involvement
      • Group 3: Open up VET to the world of work and remove barriers to external involvement
      • Group 4: Strengthen career guidance in schools through evidence and better access
  • ACRONYMS
  • REFERENCES
  • Summary of recommendations
  • The education and training system of North Macedonia
ETF EU logo
The European Training Foundation is a European Union agency that helps transition and developing countries harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems, and in the context of the EU's external relations policy. Based in Turin, Italy, the ETF has been operational since 1994.
© 2023 ETF All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • SITEMAP
  • CONTACT US
  • LEGAL NOTICE
  • COOKIES
  • STAFF LOGIN
  • SUBSCRIBE