TIRANA, June 20 – Young Albanians studying and having graduated abroad are one of the least willing emerging Europe nationals to return and work at home, a survey has shown.
A survey with students and graduates from leading Central Europe universities notes an increasing interest by Albanians to work abroad rather than seek employment at home.
“Young people in Albania would be happy to seek job opportunities abroad. This is understandable, as Albania is a relatively small country with limited centres of economic and industrial development. This means most people are based in Tirana,” says the survey conducted by Deloitte, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms.
“Albanian women are only slightly more skeptical than men about moving abroad (92.5 per cent said ‘definitely yes’, ‘yes’ or ‘rather yes’ compared to 95 per cent of males),” shows the survey.
The percentage of Albanian students hesitating to come back home and contribute to the country’s economy and development through know-how is considerably higher compared to Serbia and Kosovo, the only two Western Balkan countries covered in the report, and about 10 percentage points higher compared to the newest EU member Croatia, whose 81.5 per cent of respondents aged between 18 and 30 said they were happy to move abroad to further their professional career.
Youth unemployment in Albania has officially dropped to about 25 percent, down from 34 percent in 2014, but a new wave of migration and sectors such as the booming call centers where good command of foreign languages and negotiation skills are the key requirements are estimated to have significantly contributed to the decline.
Albanian universities have been producing too many lawyers and economists in the past decade at a time when what the local market needs is more vocational training education professionals.
A late 2017 Balkan Barometer survey published by the Regional Cooperation Council showed about 50 percent of Albanians, up 12 percent more compared to 2015, said they would consider leaving the country and work abroad.
Respondent jobless Albanians say lack of jobs and not knowing the right people are the main two obstacles preventing them from getting hired.
Albania already has one of the world’s highest per capita out-migration rates, and more than a third of the country’s citizens now live abroad permanently. Albania’s resident population was 2.8 million according to the 2011 census compared to about 4.3 million in the civil registry.
Economy experts say the drain in human resources has been dramatic, while demographers have warned Albania will turn into a country of old people and shrink to half its early 1990s 3.2 million population in the next 30 years.
At an average of 37 years old, Albania currently has Europe’s second youngest population, but massive migration, a sharp decline in marriages and birth rates have contributed to the median age increasing by 12 years since the early 1990s when the communist regime fell.
The need for a new approach
The Deloitte study shows that a great number of respondents feel that the labor market in Albania is very weak or moderately weak.
That requires a shift in the mindset of business leaders and the human resources professionals community to a new way of thinking and developing the market place, work environment and people professional development policies, to become competitive and adequate for this work force, says the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania.
“There should be a stronger alignment between the colleges and businesses as to prevent brain drain as well and engage the Millennials (the generation of people who became adults around the year 2000) to their best potential. Organizations like AmCham can play a role in bridging the current gap,” says Enida Bezhani, the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania.
Examining the first steps into the labour market in several central, eastern and northern European emerging economies, the Deloitte study found that Albanian students and graduates are investing more in volunteering and seasonal work experience in order to find a job that is aligned with their field of study.
A strong focus on investing in employees’ professional and personal development is seen as vital in a leader’s value. “This clearly suggests that Albanian companies should focus more on providing their young employees with professional training opportunities by also closing the gap of youngster preparation for the labour market,” showed the study, noting that about a third of youngsters said they were poorly prepared for their future professional duties.
Young people in Albania rated family, health, professional work, education and an honest life as their most important values. This set of features portrays Albanian youth as committed, family oriented and interested in their professional and personal development, says the study.
Being a strategic thinker with a democratic approach are the top values Albanian youngsters rate in attributes of a true leader.
Young Albanians tend to take a realistic approach to career plans from an early stage, with 54.8 per cent of females and 47.9 per cent of males considering becoming subject experts. Wage expectations at €437 a month are also the lowest among the 14 surveyed countries.
Most of Albania’s youngsters in the survey are identified as eager beavers, the “zealous employees,” who look at work as the key source of satisfaction and development of human potential.
