The Machine Learning based platform will aid in making evidence-based decisions and discovering opportunities for quality workforce

Yerevan, March 26, 2021 – Today Edu2work, the labor market navigation tool, was publicly presented during its official launch event.

Edu2work platform was created in response to rapidly changing workplace and continuous mismatch between the labor market demand and supply in Armenia. The platform is coupling innovative technologies such as scraping thousands of online job postings from a wide variety of commercial websites and analyzing it through machine learning technology to provide the best labor market data available.

Edu2work platform was developed within the framework of Edu2work project and is aiding the initiative of the Deputy Prime Minister’s office “Work Armenia” to bridge the gap between educational institutions and labor market by using evidence-based and human-centered methodologies.

“Our labor market is transforming rapidly: the genome of jobs and skills required by the employers is changing,” mentioned Mesrop Arakelyan, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia. “It is paramount to have a tool like Edu2work in these challenging times to get a real-time overview of the labor market trends and make evidence-based decisions in regards the workforce re-skilling opportunities and economy recovery and development,” he added.

The far-reaching goal of the Edu2work project is to help reduce the youth unemployment by helping them be more prepared to enter the job market.

The UK Chargé d’Affaires ai Victor Clark mentioned. “Today the whole world is experiencing the post-pandemic recovery challenges — unemployment, emerging skill gaps and lack of information about the available opportunities. I give high importance to the guiding role that the Edu2work platform has by helping people find their place in the marketplace and make more informed career choices.

Within the framework of Edu2work project, new partnerships were established at the international level with teams that are moving the frontiers in their industries, including the Behavioral Insights Team, the first in-Government unit to use behavioral insights for policy-making, and Burning Glass Technologies, a world leader in labor market analysis through big data. Highlighting this in her speech, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. Mihaela Stojkoska mentioned: “I would like to thank UK aid from British people for investing in public policy innovation. The experience and knowledge gained through the collaborations with various UK experts and organizations will rest within the Government to further mainstream innovation in the public sector. I would also like to thank our Government partners for being open to using such innovations within the Government.”

The welcome remarks were followed by the demonstration of the platform by the SDG Innovation Lab Lead Tigran Tshorokhyan. The platform is created with three main user groups in mind: policymakers and research centers, students and career navigators, and universities and other educational institutions. The platform offers solutions tailored to each of the above-mentioned groups.

Edu2Work project is implemented by the Institute of Public Policy in partnership with the Armenia National SDG Innovation Lab․ This project is funded with UK aid from the British people.

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Armenia National SDG Innovation Lab is the joint initiative of the Government of Armenia and the UN. The SDG Innovation Lab is mainstreaming the culture of innovation and experimentation in public policymaking for sustainable development. At the heart of the Lab lie its innovation methods gleaned from a range of fields, including data science and behavioral insights.

The mission of the Institute of Public Policy (IPP) is to promote and enhance transparent and accountable public policy through conducting discussions on urgent topics and issues, presenting research findings and reports, providing consultancy to CSOs in their monitoring and advocacy initiatives, conducting assessments of policy tendencies and presenting its analysis and suggestions through policy briefs. Initially being established as an independent think tank conducting researches and advocacy in the field of education to initiate policy changes and reforms, IPP has recently expanded the scope of its operation by engaging in the fields of direct democracy, labour and social rights, health, anti-discrimination, etc.