VET Institutions Capacity Development Program / Creative Session for College Representatives

To support the institutional development of vocational educational institutions and to assist them in implementing new authorization standards, the UNDP allocated small grants for VET institutions and other short-term training providers (e.g. NGOs). Grants were allocated as part of the Modernization of Vocational Education and Training (VET) system related to agriculture in Georgia VET Phase 2. Parallel to this initiative, as part of the capacity-building support, the UNDP commissioned creative sessions for the representatives of vocational education and training/retraining institutions.

ACT’s role was to organize and facilitate creative sessions with the ultimate goal to enhance the capacity of VET institutions in developing grant proposals. More specifically, the project aimed to support VET institutions to evaluate their technical and human capabilities as well as to better understand the existing market demands. At the same time, sessions intended to support VET representatives generate creative ideas for grant proposal submission and to develop competitive offers.

Pursuant to the above-stated objectives, ACT applied different tools and techniques in the course of the sessions. In particular, sessions covered the following:

• Mission statement analysis;
• Identification of opportunities/strengths in each region;
• Identification of market demand;
• Assessment of the capacity and resources of each VET institution;
• Generation of new ideas for grant proposals; and
• Training in the development of competitive grant proposals.

The creative sessions supported VET institutions to identify opportunities in their respective regions and to better understand market demand in relation to the grant project requirements, keeping in mind their capacity, resources and sustainability. In addition, training improved the proposal-writing skills of VET representatives and enhanced their competencies in designing a project’s scope, budget and timeline.

On the other hand, the creative sessions also identified gaps that VET institutions faced in terms of personnel qualifications, market analysis, and promotion of VET programs. The project outcomes have enabled donors to plan future capacity-building activities and to address existing shortcomings of VET institutions.