Armenia's skills reform at a turning point: How institutions are catching up with ambition

Armenia is in the process of reshaping the institutions that govern education and work. After years of building policy frameworks, the country is now undertaking structural changes that could bring greater coherence to a system long fragmented across ministries, agencies, and training providers. 

During a recent mission to Yerevan, the European Training Foundation (ETF) held discussions with national stakeholders, from ministries to research institutions and development partners, that pointed to progress, but also to persistent gaps in implementation. Across conversations it was implicit that the agenda is strong, but delivery capacity must now catch up with ambition. 

Arayik Navoyan, director of the Armenian Centre for Education and Management and one of the most closely involved national experts in the Torino Process, sees this transition in both its promise and its complexity. 

“The current stage of skills reform in Armenia can be defined as a shift from policy design and legislative adoption towards implementation” 

A new governance architecture for VET 

One of the most significant developments is the planned establishment of a new foundation under the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, which will consolidate functions currently dispersed between the National Centre for VET Development and the National Training Fund. 

The new body will be responsible for work-based learning, recognition of prior learning, and the validation of non-formal and informal learning, bringing together key elements of adult upskilling and reskilling that have so far operated across separate structures. 

This responds to a long-standing structural issue: fragmentation. Education, labour, and implementation actors have often worked in parallel rather than as part of a coordinated system. The new structure introduces a governance model that brings together ministries, employers, and social partners, with the aim of aligning decision-making with both policy priorities and labour market needs. 

As Navoyan notes, “the country lacks a holistic approach to skills development… reform agendas in the education and labour sectors are not sufficiently coordinated.” 

Capacity constraints and limited accountability mechanisms remain central concerns, particularly as new structures take on broader responsibilities. The Ministry of Labour is simultaneously reviewing its internal organisation, including plans to separate policy and operational functions, with closer integration of delivery actors such as the Unified Social Service (USS). 

The EU budget support: A new register for cooperation 

A further change in the cooperation landscape is the recent signature of a multi-sector EU budget support programme with Armenia. The agreement, signed during the EU Commissioner’s visit to Yerevan, includes components related to both employment and vocational education and training, with a particular focus on work-based learning. 

The ETF supported the EU Delegation in defining the indicators and targets used to measure progress and is expected to contribute to monitoring implementation as technical assistance becomes operational. 

For the Ministry of Labour, this represents a shift in cooperation with European partners. Rather than stand-alone advisory missions, the budget support introduces a more structured accountability framework, with defined milestones linking active labour market policies to concrete, time-bound results. 

Linking reform to labour market reality 

Efforts to strengthen the link between education and employment are gaining pace, particularly through work-based learning and dual VET. These approaches are expanding gradually, with more institutions and professions involved each year. 

At the same time, questions remain about how effectively the system captures outcomes. As Navoyan points out, “there is no… independent tracer study system to measure the effectiveness of skills provision.” 

Without systematic tracking of graduates, it remains difficult to assess whether reforms are delivering results. While employer engagement is increasing, particularly in programme design, sustaining that involvement will require clearer incentives and more stable cooperation frameworks. 

The Torino Process and its contribution 

The Torino Process, the ETF's participatory methodology for assessing and strengthening vocational education and training systems, has structured much of Armenia's engagement with the Foundation over the years.  Its role has been less about prescribing solutions and more about creating a shared basis for dialogue and evidence-based decision-making.  

As Navoyan observes, it has offered “a comprehensive and specialised platform… serving as a solid basis for designing and implementing targeted actions.” 

The current cycle places particular emphasis on lifelong learning, a theme that resonates across virtually every conversation about skills reform in the country. 

However, the debate about lifelong learning has its own challenges. Officials and researchers across ministries are wrestling with a practical problem: formal education systems operate on timelines measured in years, while the skills that employers need are shifting in months.  

The National Institute of Labour and Social Research (NILSR), currently being transformed into a new welfare and employment research foundation provisionally known as WISE, is developing labour market forecasting methodologies to provide a stronger empirical basis for education and skills policy. 

The institute is piloting sector-based approaches in cooperation with the American University of Armenia, with the aim of feeding results into education planning processes. 

At the same time, ESCO, the European classification of occupations and skills , has been formally adopted in Armenia and is now being operationalised through government decree. 

Regional programmes and on-the-ground work 

Beyond the bilateral policy dialogue, the ETF's engagement with Armenia takes several concrete forms. The regional programme supporting education reforms and skills in the Eastern Partnership (SEV), formally launched in 2024 with a budget of €2.5 million over three years, places Armenia alongside Moldova and Georgia in a structured, cross-country reform effort focused on governance, financing, and equity in education.  

A Rapid Education Needs Diagnosis (REND) covering the full cycle from pre-school to higher education has already been completed for Armenia, and a functional analysis of education governance is being finalised. 

Armenia's VET colleges are also active participants in the ETF's European Network for Vocational Excellence (ENE), which brings together institutions from across partner countries for peer exchange, shared standards, and international visibility. The French-Armenian VET college and several regional state colleges are among those engaged. An Erasmus+ project, ImproVet, complements this network work with on-site capacity development. 

Peer learning activities on active labour market policies are another regular feature of the cooperation. Two representatives from Armenia — one from the Ministry of Labour and one from the USS — have been nominated to attend an upcoming event in Bari, where they will compare approaches with counterparts from other countries.  

The UNDP, a longstanding partner on active employment programmes in Armenia, similarly sees value in exposure to models from smaller, reform-oriented countries. 

 "For Armenia, something like Estonia would be a good comparison," noted Karine Simonyan of UNDP. "Countries that have shared some background but have moved further — there you can find something to build on." 

Next steps towards moving from reform to delivery 

The outcome of the recent elections is expected to sustain Armenia’s current trajectory of engagement with European partners, including in the field of skills and employment reform. 

What emerges is a system in transition. Progress is visible in legislation, institutional restructuring, and pilot programmes, but it does not yet translate evenly into practice. Coordination across institutions, capacity constraints, and financing gaps continue to shape implementation. 

Navoyan’s conclusion points to the central priority ahead: “The most critical priority… is to strengthen capacities across the VET system, while developing a clear and comprehensive accountability framework.” 

Having determined what needs to be reformed, the question for Armenia now is whether institutions can deliver on what has already been set in motion, and how quickly those reforms can translate into tangible outcomes. 

For the ETF, the work continues on multiple fronts simultaneously: monitoring, advising, connecting, and documenting. What the current round of institutional visits suggests is that Armenia is in the middle of a genuine transition, one where the distance between intention and action is slowly, if not always evenly, narrowing. 

The ETF supports Armenia as part of its Eastern Partnership engagement. Further information on ETF's work in Armenia is available at etf.europa.eu. This article was originally drafted on 19/06/2026 and updated on 04/08/2026.