Baku, 23 October 2023 – The European Union, UNDP and the State Agency on Vocational Education (SAVE) announce a competition to support the innovative initiatives of vocational education (VET) institutions in Azerbaijan. 

The competition is held within the framework of the "VET for the Future" project and aims to help the VET centres to test the competitive financing mechanisms.

To participate in the competition, vocational education institutions are expected to submit project proposals in the following priority areas: 1) alternative energy, efficient use of energy resources and increasing the energy use effectiveness; 2) creation of innovative solutions for environmental protection and tackling ecological challenges; 3) involvement of women and girls, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups to vocational education; 4) projects supporting the development of agriculture.

The “VET for the Future” project will support 10 (ten) winning projects with the materials and equipment required for the implementation of these ideas, and the maximum budget amount of each project proposal is 15,000 (fifteen thousand) manats. Only the vocational educational institutions under the SAVE can participate in this competition as the project involved all these VET institutions under the SAVE to the training series on promoting entrepreneurship and supporting the creation of additional income sources.

Requirements for project proposals:

1. The project proposal must contain the following documents:

• Project proposal form;

• Project budget;

2. Curriculum vitae (CV) of the person who will lead the project, also the employees and the people who will be involved in the implementation of the project.

3. The implementation period of the project proposal should not be less than 6 months and not more than 9 months.

4. Each VET institution can submit only one project proposal to the competition.

5. Submitted projects should either encourage cooperation with the private sector or support a self-financing mechanism.

Criteria for evaluating project proposals:

1. Innovative approach (5 points).

2. Relevance and potential impact (5 points).

3. Implementation potential/ feasibility (profile of employees to be involved and budget) (5 points).

The support will be provided to the projects which are proposed within the competition budget limit and have scored the highest points as a result of the evaluation according to the mentioned criteria. The preference will be given to projects aimed at promoting cooperation with the private sector.

To participate in this competition, it is required to send the documents to layihe.muraciet@vet.edu.az by 18:00 on 20 November, 2023.

To answer questions regarding the submission of project proposal, a meeting will be held on 27 October. The applicants wishing to participate at the meeting can register by emailing to layihe.muraciet@vet.edu.az until 25 October. The selected winning projects will be notified within the next 30 days after the end of the competition.

Media contact:

For media inquiries, please contact Leyla Gurbanova, Project’s Communications and Visibility Specialist at  leyla.gurbanova@undp.org. 

Gulnara Bayramova, Press and Information Officer at the Delegation of the European Union to Azerbaijan at gulnara.bayramova@eeas.europa.eu.

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