EU Funded Inclusive Vocational Arts and Crafts Training Centre successfully relocated to Baku’s State Vocational Education Centre

This Inclusive Centre has been established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Icherisheher Administration as part of a European Union co-funded project aiming to promote inclusive education in Azerbaijan.

The main objective of the three-year project titled ‘Promotion of Inclusive Education through Traditional Arts’ 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; 20 students with disabilities submitted their self-employment projects for in-kind grants; 50 video lessons have been produced and shared on YouTube and are available to all citizens, 4 curricula and 11 teaching modules in traditional arts were developed and successfully piloted.

Furthermore, a tailored capacity building programme on inclusive education has been organized for arts teachers, special services providers, special educators-interns, teachers and psychologists, managers and deputy-managers 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 souvenirs production. 

With this smooth transition, SAVE is committed to replicating inclusive education programmes and further promote the integration of inclusive education in vocational education settings. Additional capacity building programmes for specialists working in this area are foreseen in the near future to build on this project’s achievements and ensure sustainable support to students with disabilities.