In October and November,2018, Marieta Tchagharyan, Head of YSUIB Professional Education Quality Assurance Department and Coordinator of the work with graduates and external stakeholders, Erine Gharayan, had a meeting with graduate students.

Each higher education institution has a  mission to train, educate and build a modern and creative person who can enter the labor market and resist its current challenges. To achieve this goal, a student-universty, student-employer  effective cooperation is of paramount importance.

Meetings organized by the Branch Department of Education Quality Assurance, were aimed at assisting students of  full-time and part-time learning  in finding a job and in their  career.

During the meetings, M. Chagharyan and E.Gharayan presented to the students the purpose of the meeting,  pointed out the proposals made by the Branch within the framework of cooperation, the students’ achievements and the expectations of the Department.

Particularly, it was mentioned that the Branch actively cooperates with the employer organizations of the region and during the meetings with them an agreement was reached on informing the Branch about vacancies.

It will enable to find revelent graduates according to employer requirements, to train and involve them in the process, as well as involve graduate students in the process.

The organizers of the meeting presented their plans for the future career development of graduates. They noted that, with the involvement of employers in the Branch, there would be periodically organized  specialized seminars,trainings, internships, cognitive and practical exercises, implemented by external stakeholders. Such processes will promote the motivation of students towards professional career, will ensure their active participation in planning and implementation of future professional orientation; students will become aware of the needs of the labor market and  employers; they will have platform for free expression and solving their problems.

The students got acquainted with employers’ suggestions, employers put an emphasis on interviews and competitions and the ability of students to accurately introduce themselves and good communication skills. It was noted that relevant seminars would be organized. During the meetings, the students actively participated in discussions, asked them questions and assured them that they would cooperate with the department to plan their future.

 In September-November,2018, YSUIB coordinator of the work with graduates and external stakeholders, Erine Gharayan had meetings with external stakeholders. The purpose of the meetings was to support Branch graduates in finding a job  and career development.

Nowadays, the issue of employment of young people has become a national and state problem. To ensure a new and effective connection with the employer’s world, can be said, is a prerequisite for the survival and development of the university. And the directorate of YSUIB gives priority to cooperation with external stakeholders.

In this context, the coordinator of the work with graduates and external stakeholders, Erine Gharayan had a meeting with administrative, executive, economic, banking and credit, public, charitable, tourism organizations and educational institutions of Tavush region, during joint activities and internships, they have been dealing with students and graduates of the University.

Erine Gharayan presented to the external stakeholders  the purpose of the meetings, pointing out the proposals made by the Branch within the framework of cooperation, the achievements of external stakeholders in that partnership and the expectations of the Branch. Particularly, it was mentioned that the expectations of the Branch were mainly aimed at improving the internship organisation, raising the motivation of students towards learning, building trust towards future career, raising students awareness on labor market demands, involving students in internships .There have been heated discussions over suggestions that Gharayan has presented to external stakeholders on behalf of the Branch. The Branch has suggested  jointly implement internship programs (training sessions, for professional orientation, cognitive and practical training,for acquisition of experience, targeted internships,according to stakeholders’ plan, to develop students skills and activities, first inform the branch about available vacancies, visit the Branch  frequently, discuss with the graduates about professional orientation and to imvolve them in experimental internship programs. Due to effective cooperation, the university will provide employers with intelligent, hard-working, with specific professional skills and capabilities, with accurate and fast-paced skills. The Branch expects voluntary involvement of students and graduates in concrete processes within the framework of cooperation.

During the joint discussions, stakeholders pointed to a number of drawbacks of our graduates that were mainly related to students inability to accurately  introduce themselves, shyness in communication, low level of knowledge of foreign languages, lack of creative thinking and initiative.

The employers believe it is necessary to have a memorandum of cooperation. They also made a number of suggestions worthy of note. In particular, high and secondary school directors have suggested to involve the 12^th graders in different trainings organized at the university. They offered graduates to register in Ijevan Territorial Employment Center to participate in the training. The director of  “Bridge of Hope” NGO noted that they could guide the student in multifunctional career development, to help the student to contribute to education, to help them to become a specialist in their preferred field, to form new methods and to work creatively. Directors of service sphere believe that students of “Service” specialization should have good communication skills, have information about the places of interests of Tavush region, and communicate in English as well. Various organizations have suggested to organize joint student forums, business meetings and workshops on their own business ideas. External stakeholders also noted that the region had a lack of media professionals and offered to open a department of journalism at the Branch.

During the meetings, the external stakeholders expressed readiness to cooperate closely with the Branch, to assist in the development of students’ practical skills and providing jobs.

 On November 29^th, 2018, second-year students of  “Tourism” and third-year students of “Service” of the Faculty of Economics headed by Pavel Asilbekyan, Assistant of Tourism Management and Culturology Department, and lecturer Sveta Safaryan, made a cognitive visit to “Best Western Paradise Plaza Hotel”, Tufenkian “Old Dilijan” hotel complex, Dilijan Training and Research Center of the Central Bank of Armenia.

The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with hotel services, customer service, strengthen the theoretical knowledge acquired at the university and apply them in practice.

The visit program included “Best Western Paradise Plaza Hotel” (introduction to the hotel, customer service order, price list for accommodation services, basic and additional services provided at the hotel), Tufenkian “Old Dilijan” hotel complex (introduction to customer order, price list for accommodation services, basic and additional services provided at the hotel), CB Dilijan Training and Research Center (introduction to the history of the bank, visit to museum where the guide introduced the history of RA national currency, coins).

During the visit, the students studied the above-mentioned hotel complex, received answers from the managers, and practically reinforced their theoretical knowledge.

The visit ended with a discussion, the students expressed their opinion, addressed their questions and made conclusions.

 On November 28^th, 2018, on the initiative of 2nd year student of YSUIB “Informatics and Applied Mathematics” specialty of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Araik Shahnazaryan and with the support of the university Student Scientific Society (SSS) held a chess branch championship.

18 students and lecturers from different faculties took part in chess championship.

The coach of the championship was Artak Yeganyan, Achajur branch coach of RA Chess Academy.

The Acting Director of YSU Ijevan branch Artak Tsutsulyan made an opening speech.

18 participants divided into pairs by computer program based on random selection, followed by the first round of the championship.

After 7 rounds, the 2nd year student of “Informatics and Applied Mathematics” specialty Araik Shahnazaryan (7 wins from 7 games) became the winner of the championship after the strong competition.

3 participants claimed the 2nd and 3rd places, so 3 more games were held.

Tigran Gasparyan, 2nd year student of “Cartography and Cadastre Business”, took the 2nd place.

Gerasim Alaverdyan, 3rd year student of “Informatics and Applied Mathematics” specialty took the 3^rd place.

The first, second, third place winners were awarded with certificates.

For the first time, the chess championship Cup was given to Araik Shahnazaryan.

Artak Yeganyan, the coach of championship, received an honorary diploma and a souvenir.

All photos of the championship are available in the gallery.

 On November 27^th, 2018, a group of YSUIB representatives, assistant to the director A. Yeganyan, M. Zakaryan, acting dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, A. Margaryan, acting dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts, and seven students, visited the Dilijan Central School and Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory, “intelligent” laboratory), equipped with innovative technologies that enables to create “almost everything” from “almost nothing”.

The university representatives walked around Dilijan central school classrooms, equipped with modern technology, got acquainted with the history, mission and problems of the school.

It was presented that in 2013, Ayb Educational Foundation, in partnership with the Central Bank of Armenia, opened Dilijan central school, which belongs to the Ayb School and the first school project implemented by Ayb external order and funding. It is a model of a city school, accessible not only to employees of the CBA, but also to other children from Dilijan. The central school is a primary school, with its elemental and secondary components. The school’s ideology, physical environment and educational content (namely, student curricula, including psychologist and logopedist curricula, teaching methodology, teacher and student admission policy, evaluation criteria, etc.) are designed according to Ayb standards.

It was emphasized that the mission of the school was to become an environment for a full and competitive education and upbringing by creating a generation that has strong spiritual values, virtue, high aesthetic taste and aspiration for a healthy lifestyle.

In its first year of activity, the Dilijan Central School had an impact on several related areas: educational, cultural, social, community-based. The school regularly organizes community-based initiatives and cooperation with other Dilijan schools.

The next stop of the Branch representatives was the Dilijan Fab Lab, where students got acquainted with the activities of the “smart” laboratory, witnessed the processes at that very moment, the 3D modeling, the woodworking device, and the modeling of unmanned aerial vehicles projected by children.

The university representatives also got acquainted with the activities of the Dilijan Fab Lab, presented its purpose, mission, trainings and so on.

In particular, it was presented that, in 2015, The Central Bank of Armenia established the first regional Fab Lab in Dilijan, a platform for technical prototyping for innovation and inventions and promotes local entrepreneurship. It is also an innovative and educational environment for creating, learning, and teaching.

The Dilijan Fab Lab aims at providing residents of Tavush with appropriate means and environment, which will enable the development of creative thinking, science and engineering.

Its mission is to:

• Form a creative community
• Promote interest towards design and projecting
• Encourage ideas, projects, knowledge, equipment and resource sharing within the community
• Provide an opportunity for new knowledge acquisition
• Encourage innovative entrepreneurship among young people of the region

In order to encourage interest in innovation, the following training courses are being held in Dilijan Fab Lab:

• Programming training course, during which students learn about microcontroller programming (age group 15 and more)
• Game making and robot collection, programming training course for children aged 8-13, during which they learn how to make games through Scratch. After the program training, they learn the robot collection and programming through the Vex constructor
• During the “Basics of Electronics” training course, students learn to design analogue, digital and combined systems, power electronics systems, power electronics basics, Altium PCB design (for age group 15 and more)
• The basics of telecommunications and mechanics (age group 15 and more)
• Design and modeling (Autocad, Solidworks, Fusion, Corel Draw)
• Design and preparation of unmanned aerial vehicles for teenagers
• The Basics of architecture (age group 15 and more)
• RF and synthesis for the most advanced students
• Project management, product development, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and other trainings.