Online Education Platforms Including TVET Programmes & Continued Education
Online Education Platforms Including TVET Programmes & Continued Education
Business Model Description
Provide high-quality, accessible, and flexible educational content to learners in TVET programs and continued education, aiming to leverage the growing demand for online learning and the need for upskilling and reskilling in a rapidly changing job market while catering to learners' diverse needs, enhancing their employability and professional growth. Revenue streams can be generated through either B2C models (course fees & subscriptions) or B2B via developing customized learning solutions for corporate clients.
Expected Impact
Democratize access to quality education, upskill the workforce, and foster digital literacy, thereby driving human capital development, economic growth, and technological advancement.
How is this information gathered?
Investment opportunities with potential to contribute to sustainable development are based on country-level SDG Investor Maps.
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Country & Regions
- Albania: Countrywide
- Albania: Tirana
- Albania: Vlorë
- Albania: Durrës
- Albania: Gjirokaster
Sector Classification
Education
Development need
Severe skills mismatches in the labor market are worsened by significant emigration driven by poverty, job scarcity, and subpar education. This is compounded by a high neither employed nor engaged in education or training (NEET) rate among the young population (ages 5-24), standing at 25.2% in 2022, in stark contrast to the EU's 11.2% in 2023. The sector also grapples with inadequate infrastructure, outdated curricula, and a shortage of qualified teachers (1, 2, 52, 53).
Policy priority
The National Education Strategy for 2021-2026 aims to integrate the pre-university education strategy and the university education strategy, with a focus on inclusivity, equality, teacher competence, lifelong learning, digitalization, and quality assurance. This aligns with the 2021-26 National Child Rights Agenda, which promotes children's access to quality education and digital skills (3, 7).
Gender inequalities and marginalization issues
Social and educational inclusion in Albania is a systemic concern, with a need to prioritize enrolment rates for national minorities and children with disabilities. Despite previous efforts to integrate children with disabilities and special needs into mainstream education in Albania, the development of inclusive education is still only partially realized (4).
Investment opportunities introduction
Albania has made significant strides in enhancing education quality and relevance, rapidly improving learning outcomes, and achieving parity with the average in Western Balkans economies. The business climate is further strengthened by investments in reforming the educational system and high literacy rates (97.6%) and language skills (3, 8).
Key bottlenecks introduction
Limited education funding, with Albania consistently ranking among the region's lowest investors, negatively impacts educational outcomes as the budget relative to GDP falls short of targets. Inadequate infrastructure, complex regulations, and difficulties in finding qualified staff further burden the sector (5).
Formal Education
Development need
Existing economic and employment structures, coupled with low demand for available positions, lead to a skills mismatch among graduates, causing high unemployment, particularly among women. This is worsened by the low enrolment rates at vocational education and training (VET) institutions, which stood at approximately 17% for upper-secondary education in 2017, significantly lower than the EU average of 48% (2, 3).
Policy priority
The Employment and Skills Strategy 2014-2022, keeping alignment with the relevant EU strategies, envisions to foster decent job opportunities through effective labor market policies, offering quality VET to youth and adults, promoting social inclusion and territorial cohesion and strengthening the governance of the labor market and qualification system (6).
Gender inequalities and marginalization issues
While there have been strides in women's employment rates, increasing from 61.4 % in 2021 to 66.7% in 2022, gender inequality persists, with men having an employment rate approximately 13% higher, which can be tied to cultural norms around family roles and limited childcare and elderly care options (2, 9).
Investment opportunities introduction
Albania's new VET law emphasizes work-based learning, allocating 30-35% for practical training in real work environments, with 50% in the third year and 20% in the final year. Regulations for companies hosting students are under development. The U.S. Department of Commerce recognizes education as a prime prospect industry due to the substantial youthful population and the increasing number of students studying abroad (3, 10).
Key bottlenecks introduction
Perception of vocational training, as it may be less attractive to students compared to traditional academic paths, leading to enrolment difficulties and potential workforce skill mismatches can limit investor interest, further burdened by current status of teacher's quality and experience with competency based curricula (3).
Pipeline Opportunity
Online Education Platforms Including TVET Programmes & Continued Education
Provide high-quality, accessible, and flexible educational content to learners in TVET programs and continued education, aiming to leverage the growing demand for online learning and the need for upskilling and reskilling in a rapidly changing job market while catering to learners' diverse needs, enhancing their employability and professional growth. Revenue streams can be generated through either B2C models (course fees & subscriptions) or B2B via developing customized learning solutions for corporate clients.
Business Case
Market Size and Environment
USD 100 million - USD 1 billion
554,222 students enrolled in formal education in 2022-2023, 76.3% of which were in tertiary schools.
In the academic year 2022-2023, 554,222 pupils and students were enrolled in formal education, with a decrease of 2.0% compared to the academic year 2021-22. 71,248 female students were enrolled in all tertiary programs, constituting 58.7% of the total number of tertiary students (16).
Students enrolled in tertiary public education account for 76.3 % of the total number of students (16).
Public expenditure for education was 3.6% of GDP in 2020 (USD 15.13 billion), faring low compared to the average of 4.6% of EU-27 (17).
There are 454 private upper secondary schools, and 41 private upper secondary vocational schools active in the Albanian market (51).
Indicative Return
10% - 15%
According to an online education platform provider focusing on IT skills & coding and key development partner providing project financing, online education investments can produce returns between 10-15% measured in ROI (17, 18).
Investment Timeframe
Short Term (0–5 years)
According to an online education platform provider and key development partner providing project financing, online education investments can produce positive cash-flow in less than 5 years as online products can be scaled-up quickly and require low investment capital (17, 18).
In case of franchising, an international online education platform has calculated the payback period for franchising investments as less than 12 months (19).
Ticket Size
< USD 500,000
Market Risks & Scale Obstacles
Business - Supply Chain Constraints
Market - Highly Regulated
Market - High Level of Competition
Impact Case
Sustainable Development Need
Insufficiencies in the current skills base and skills systems appear as key constraints in capitalizing the economic potential of Albania. Government funding for education fares at 4% of GDP, lower than the EU average, and most expenditure is allocated to primary education (56.8%) causing secondary and pre-primary education to trail behind (3).
Educational outcomes are further burdened by falling enrolment rates in primary education due to demographic trends and migration rates, coupled with low attainment levels, 14.3% for higher education, compared to 35.7% for the EU27 average (4).
Low enrolment rates at Vocational Education Training (VET) institutions, recorded as 17% for upper-secondary level in 2017 (below the 48% EU average), and participation in adult learning was limited to 10% in 2016 (43.7% for EU), negatively impacting long-term employment and skills mismatches with labor market needs, already exacerbated by strong emigration (1).
Gender & Marginalisation
Lack of adequate physical infrastructure prevents equal participation and engagement of students from diverse backgrounds including children and adolescents with disabilities (23).
Participation in education based on gender reveals variations across different educational stages, highlighting gender disparities. A higher proportion of boys attend pre-university education, whereas girls make up 58.7% of students in tertiary education (9).
Urban Albanian youth spend, on average, two extra years in school compared to their rural counterparts. As 40% of Albanians live in rural and mountainous areas, this subpar education quality affects many demonstrated by long distances between schools and homes, insufficient teacher motivation to work in rural regions, children contributing to family income, and early marriages, especially in ethnic communities like Roma and Egyptians (4).
Expected Development Outcome
Decentralized education technology enables students to continue education despite closures of schools, and access to resources being unavailable within the formal education system, such as coding skills (24).
Online learning can be accessed by students of all ages to promote life-long learning, and upskilling and reskilling of the labor force. This can help reduce unemployment (25).
Flexibility offered by online learning courses will facilitate job transition and continued learning, addressing the issue of skills-mismatch in the labor market (25).
Gender & Marginalisation
Online vocational education programmes will increase the enrolment rates of girls in secondary education, which currently fares lower than boys (93% compared to 95%) (26).
Rural population's enrolment in education institutions can improve through online education, particularly benefiting girls who often find themselves constrained by household chores and childcare responsibilities (27).
Enhance labor force inclusion for individuals with disabilities by providing tailored training initiatives and leveraging educational technologies.
Primary SDGs addressed
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age), by sex
4.5.1 Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated
4.4.1 Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill
Early school leavers as percentage of the population of age 18–24 years recorded at 15.6% in 2020. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) baseline score in 2019 was 405 for reading, 437 for math and 417 for science (28, 30).
Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) 86.3% in total, 88.6% for boys and 84% for girls in 2020 (28).
Upper secondary adjusted gender parity Index measured at 1.1 in 2020. Gender gap in upper secondary completion rate measured as 4.6 in 2020 (31).
Percentage of population with ICT skills: Transferring files between computers or other devices 39.8%, Installing software or applications (apps) 33.7%, Changing the settings of any software, including operating system or security programs 9.2%, Writing code in a programming language 7.1% in 2021. Total percentage for youth and adults with at least one skill 41% in 2019 (28, 30).
The long-term objective for this indicator is a value of 100, reaching universal enrolment and reducing early school leavers. The PISA score target for 2022 was 410 for reading, 437 for math and 422 for Science (28, 29, 30).
The long-term objective for this indicator is a value of 100, reaching universal enrolment. For gross early childhood education enrolment the target is to increase by 5 percentage points in the 2022-2026 timeframe (29, 30).
To be consistent with the target the indicator should be 1 by 2030 (28).
The target for proportion of youth and adults with at least one ICT skill was 45% in 2022 (30).
8.3.1 Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex
8.5.2 Unemployment rate, by sex, age and persons with disabilities
8.6.1 Proportion of youth (aged 15–24 years) not in education, employment or training
Informal employment in non-agriculture sector measured as 34.1% in 2020 for men, 21.9% for women, and 29.1% in total (28).
Unemployed people as percentage of the labor force measured at 11.7% in total in 2020, 11.5% for men and 11.9% for women (28).
Percentage of youths not in education, employment or training measured at 26.6% in 2020, recorded as to 27.1% for males, and 26.2% for females (28).
Target of reducing informal employment in non-agriculture sectors to 27%, in the timeframe of 2022-26 (30).
Target for labor force participation; 69.7% in total, 77.7% for men and 61.6% for women in the timeframe 2022-26 (30).
Target for labor force participation; 69.7% in total, 77.7% for men and 61.6% for women in the timeframe 2022-26 (30).
10.2.1 Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities
Percentage of population with less than 60% of per capita consumption measured as 14.4% in 2020. Palma ratio (The share of all income received by the 10% people with highest disposable income divided by the share of all income received by the 40% people with the lowest disposable income) measured as 1.13 in 2019 (28, 29).
The global objective measuring Palma ratios is 0.9 in the long-term (29).
Secondary SDGs addressed
Directly impacted stakeholders
People
Gender inequality and/or marginalization
Planet
Corporates
Public sector
Indirectly impacted stakeholders
Gender inequality and/or marginalization
Corporates
Outcome Risks
Online education platforms rely heavily on use of devices such as smartphones and tablets, which can produce negative externalities including excessive screen time and exposure to social media and other digital platforms, associated with increased anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances (54, 55).
Online learning can limit opportunities for in-person interaction and social development, limiting effectiveness of the programme and cognitive development of students (56).
Impact Risks
Limited internet connectivity and access to necessary devices in some regions of Albania can restrict the reach and effectiveness of online education platforms, affecting enrolment and reach of impact (25).
Unless support programmes and certification schemes are established to enhance ICT skills of teachers and online trainers, impact may be limited (25).
If students lack basic digital skills, low-skilled learners may be excluded from online learning opportunities, requiring the establishment of an inclusive curriculum and quality assurance mechanisms to ensure effective learning (25).
Gender inequality and/or marginalization risk: If women and rural populations aren't intentionally targeted, learners who have limited digital skills, access to necessary equipment and infrastructure may be excluded from online learning platforms and skills building opportunities
Impact Classification
What
Online education investments expand access to TVET programs, enabling a broader section of the population, including those in remote areas, enhancing the skill set of the workforce, aligning it with industry needs and boosting employability and prod
Risk
Regulatory changes in the education sector, risks related to technology infrastructure and access, and quality and alignment of curricula can limit impact.
Contribution
In addition to ongoing efforts to revise the national education curriculum, online education investments directly lead to increased enrolment and skill development, while a skilled workforce indirectly benefits employers, industries, and the economy.
Impact Thesis
Democratize access to quality education, upskill the workforce, and foster digital literacy, thereby driving human capital development, economic growth, and technological advancement.
Enabling Environment
Policy Environment
Government Programme 2021-2025: commits to providing better education opportunities for the youth in priority areas such as natural sciences, information technology and engineering to prepare them to the competition in global markets (34).
Economic Reform Programme 2023-2025: underlines the direction of education policies and emphasis on inclusion referring to participation in early childhood and pre-university levels for students with disabilities while highlighting the need to digitalize vocational education providers to meet needs of the labor market (35).
National Strategy for Development and European Integration 2022–2030: the main areas of the strategy includes digitalization, which covers education, for sustainable economic and social development of the country while the National Plan for European Integrations 2022-2024 acknowledges the digitalization of educational services and the rapid adaptation of distance education (37, 38).
The National Education Strategy for 2021-2026: sets strategic direction of the sector towards inclusiveness and equality in education, strengthening the competencies of teachers, mastery of lifelong learning competencies, digitalization of education, and quality management and assurance (36).
National Agenda for the Rights of the Child 2021-2026: sets four strategic goals: (i) good governance to respect, protect, and fulfil children's rights; (ii) the elimination of all forms of violence and child protection; (iii) child and adolescent-friendly systems and services; and (iv) the promotion of children's rights in the digital world (7).
The Employment and Skills Strategy 2014-2022: aims to have a competing economy and an inclusive society that relies on higher skills and better jobs for all women and men with four principle of (i) fostering decent job opportunities , (ii) offering quality vocational education and training, (iii) promoting social inclusion and territorial cohesion, (iv) strengthening the governance of the labor market and qualification system (2).
Financial Environment
Financial incentives: Under the Sector Reform Contract for Employment and Skills, more than EUR 50 million were allocated between 2007 and 2020 in budget support and technical assistance of the first two tranches of the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA I and II) to support the Albanian government in the reform of the education, training and employment promotion systems (42).
Other incentives: Risi Albania, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC), and ProSeed 2.0 by German Development Agency (GIZ), contribute to VET planning, design and delivery including elements of digital and sustainability (43, 44).
Regulatory Environment
Law No.10247, Albanian Qualifications Framework (AQF), March 2010: determines 8 levels similar to the European standards, starting from the compulsory nine year primary school to doctoral degree (39).
Law 15/2017 on Vocational Education and Training, 2017: adopted by repeal of the Law of 2002 and all its subsequent amendment, aims to complete the legal framework and create a system responsive to the labor market needs setting out the governance framework and an providing increased autonomy of VET providers (39).
Law on Craftsmanship, June 2016: provides for the establishment of both a National Chamber of Handicrafts and apprenticeship schemes in the field of handicrafts, introducing a dual VET system (40).
The VET Amendment Law, 2011: endorses the right of public VET providers that offer and carry out profitable market activities in fields that are related to the implementation of teaching programs and practices (39).
Draft law On Cyber Security, 2023: aims to define the necessary legal framework for cyber security, determine the rights and obligations of public and private entities, which administer information infrastructures, communication networks and their systems, and define the Authority responsible for Cyber Security in the Republic of Albania (41).
Marketplace Participants
Private Sector
Meso Falas, ICTSLab, Kesson Group Albania, Akademi.al, betaPlan, Studit, Albanian Business Partner.
Government
Ministry of Economy, Culture, and Innovation, Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, National Agency for Employment and Skills (former NES), National Agency for VET and Qualifications.
Multilaterals
German Development Agency (GIZ), Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC), Austrian Development Agency, European Commission, European Training Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Non-Profit
European Association of Hotel and Tourism, Albanian Food Industry Association, Albanian Association of ICT Businesses, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, German Industry and Trade Association Albania.
Public-Private Partnership
Akademi.al, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, launched its platform online for free during COVID, and was named the official online learning platform recognized by the ministry, serving over 500,000 users and being used in over 1,300 public schools (45).
Target Locations
Albania: Countrywide
Albania: Tirana
Albania: Vlorë
Albania: Durrës
Albania: Gjirokaster
References
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