On April 12, ANQA held another meeting with VET institutions’ quality assurance managers. The meeting aimed to bring together education institutions that have already been accredited and those in the accreditation process, contributing to the exchange of their practice and the identification of the best practices. At the suggestion of the quality assurance managers, the main challenges and opportunities for the implementation of research and internationalization processes in VET institutions were under discussion.
Carrying out research is important for students from the perspective of discovering new things, implementing changes and forming the capacity to tackle professional problems. All students should develop research skills, which implies that academic programmes must contain assignments fostering the development of these skills.
ANQA’s main observations also included the idea that VET institutions today have the opportunity to provide "internationalization at home", which attaches importance to proficiency in a foreign language and the curiosity to discover new things. In these contexts, VET institutions shared their good practices and results.
R. Topchyan, ANQA’s director concluded the meeting with an emphasis that the goal of the accreditation process is not merely to obtain the accredited status, but to evolve into a more thoughtful and analytical institution.
By 2025 all VET institutions in the RA are required to go through the accreditation process. This year, 15 VET institutions are planned to undergo institutional accreditation with state funding.