Sustainable Development: Educational Initiatives for Well-Being (Vocational Education in Georgia)

Abstract

Resolution 70/1, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, implies the ability of forthcoming generations to meet their needs for the future of mankind, needs that are being significantly challenged in these modern times. Resolution 70/1 has outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and one of them is high-quality education, seen as essential for gaining progress in the other 16 goals. Keeping in mind those challenges, we think issues on education are important and relevant at both the international and local levels. In the given research, we discuss aspects of professional education and teaching techniques in Georgia. This case study is based on the desk research of official documents and an analysis of secondary data. The main goals of the research are to explore the challenges and difficulties in the Georgian reality and to define the system’s compatibility with the Western educational space with a view to integration, and what support may be needed in this regard. It is worth mentioning that the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the world new educational realities by having students switch to online study or hybrid models of learning and seeing Georgia’s traditional teaching process go
online, was a wide-scale experiment Georgia was simply not ready for. The given issue also has a social character. The existing realities in the professional educational field have been under the watchful eye of various spheres of expertise. Since 2005, reforms have been implemented in the professional educational system, most of which concentrated on the preparation of highly competent personnel. It must be mentioned that Georgia’s European partners in particular bring a meaningful contribution, especially in the process of experience-sharing. Still, considering the progress of Georgian professional educational development, it is a fact
that the country needs to do more to keep up with modern tendencies.