Azerbaijan: EU supports vocational education in Arts and Crafts for youth with disabilities

On 20 May, the Inclusive Vocational Arts and Crafts Training Centre was successfully relocated to the Baku State Vocational Education Centre on Culture and Arts in Buzovna. The centre was established as part of an EU-funded project to promote inclusive education in Azerbaijan.

The main objective of the three-year project for the ‘Promotion of Inclusive Education through Traditional Arts’, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was to help increase access to inclusive vocational programmes tailored to the needs of children and youth with disabilities.

As a result of the project, 112 students with and without disabilities benefited from the inclusive educational programme, and 20 students with disabilities submitted their self-employment projects for in-kind grants. A total of 50 video lessons have been produced and shared on YouTube, and four curricula and 11 teaching modules in traditional arts were developed and successfully piloted. Also, a tailored capacity building programme has been organised for teachers, managers and other staff of vocational schools to ensure that they are better prepared to work with youth with disabilities.

The project also helped improve accessibility to the centre by constructing an outdoor elevator at the entrance of the building. New equipment, materials and supplies were purchased and two rooms were completely refurbished into vocational workshops.

The project also conducted a series of master classes on souvenir production, and piloted a new inclusive course on stained glass.

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