INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL ACTORS ROLE IN SKILLS DEVELOPMENT POLICY TRANSFER OR POLICY LEARNING - THE CASE OF ALBANIA

Skills Development (SD) has attracted the attention of many researchers and practitioners, driven by recent trends such as downsizing in organizations, enterprise information technology platforms, outsourcing and off-shoring initiatives, transformations from departmental structures to process-based structures, among others. Increased global competition incites countries to develop a skilled workforce as a competitive advantage, resulting in many national and international policies that invest in workforce training and development. This is quite a challenge especially for developing countries simultaneously facing the consequences of transition and aspiring to create an attractive human capital. Typical for these countries is the strong influence of international actors (foreign governments, international NGO, implementing agencies etc.) not only in financing the implementation, but also in orienting the development policies (not always toward national needs). SD policy in Albania is an output of national and international actors’ policies interactions for the past twenty years. As a relatively small country in transition and aspiring to be part of the European Union, Albania struggles to identify and reach the objectives of human development. This article aims to analyze the actors involved in SD policies in Albania (with a concentration on TVET), focusing on the impact that each actor has generally in the system and specifically in regards to these policies. It also aims to analyze whether international cooperation in SD is adding value to the system or overlapping with national priorities and disorienting local initiatives, and how SD policies contribute to and influence various other sector objectives