The Minister of Education, Sport and Youth, Mr. "Development of a National Graduate Tracking Mechanism and Design and Implementation of an Employers' Skills Survey", which is part of the Republic of Cyprus' proposal in the Recovery and Resilience Plan. This project aims for the first time to create a National Tracking Mechanism for Higher Education Graduates in Cyprus and at the same time to design and implement a National Employers' Skills Survey in relation to the labour market needs in terms of knowledge, skills and qualifications. At the same time, the participation of Cyprus in the European Graduate Follow-up Survey, Eurograduate, is funded in order to collect comparable data between European countries in relation to the professional and social path of Higher Education graduates.
The ultimate objective of the three surveys is to improve the link between the Education System and the labour market at national level. Specifically, based on the results of the above-mentioned surveys, the Directorates of Secondary General Education and Secondary Technical and Vocational Education and Training will proceed with the revision of the Comprehensive Curricula and the design and provision of training for teachers, based on the results of the three surveys. The revision of the Curricula and the corresponding training are also included in the Republic of Cyprus' proposal in the Recovery and Resilience Plan. In addition, Cyprus' higher education institutions will be able to design new Curricula, as well as more flexible forms of Education and Training Programmes such as micro-credentials. They will also be able to revise the content and implementation of existing Curricula so that graduates have the knowledge and skills required by the labour market. The Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, the State Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, the Human Resources Development Authority and other relevant bodies will have the necessary information at their disposal to proceed with the design and development of new lifelong learning programmes related to reskilling and upskilling. At the same time, the three surveys will have multiple benefits for society as a whole: employers will enjoy higher levels of productivity by having employees with the right skills, pupils and students will receive targeted counselling and career guidance based on scientific evidence, labour market needs will be better anticipated and there will be a more proactive approach by policy makers. The data collection concerns individuals who graduated in the academic year 2016/2017 or the academic year 2020/2021 and obtained a Certificate, Diploma, Degree or Master's degree from all Institutions of Higher Education in Cyprus. The Minister invited all graduates and alumni of these academic years to complete the online questionnaire (https:/www.cygradtracking.com/) using the personal link sent to them by email or sms from the Higher Education Institution from which they graduated. It is stressed that the alumni's contribution to the success of the survey is very important.
The first results from the National Alumni Tracking Survey will be available in September 2023 through the interactive Platform, which will be built specifically for the purposes of this project and also through the website of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth. The National Employer Survey is expected to be launched at a later stage in 2023.
More information about the project can be found on the website of the Higher Education Directorate (https:/www.highereducation.ac.cy/index.php/el/chorigies-draseis/symmetochi-evropaika-programmata).
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