First phase of Employment Shuttle program has started in Tetritskaro through the “Rural Development for Sustainable Growth of Tetritskaro Municipality” project, which is implemented by RDFG with the support of European Union. After the selection process, 20 job seekers from the local community has been selected. For 5 months, they will participate in different activities of the program and learn to guide their career and develop necessary skills to foster their employability.

On November 9, the Employment Shuttle participants hosted Nelly Revazishvili, Tetritskaro project manager. Mrs. Nelly informed them about the main goals and achievements of the project, spoke about LEADER approach, Tetritskaro Local Action Group and Tetritskaro Development Strategy. She answered the questions of the participants as well. Nino Tikurishvili, Tetritskaro LAG chairman also attended the session. Nino hopes that, as a result of the project initiatives, employment opportunities will increase in Tetritskaro soon.

„I’m very happy to see so many motivated people, who try to gain necessary skills for employment and actualize their knowledge. I hope, that soon there will be more job opportunities at local level. This ongoing project ensures small and medium scale business development, that will increase employment perspectives in Tetritskaro and hope to reduce migration in Tbilisi” – Said Nino Tikurishvili.

During the same session, Mariam Beruashvili, one of the participants of Employment Shuttle made a presentation about Finances and Banking and shared her experience to the participants. The idea of participants conducting sessions belongs to Lela Maisuradze, Employment Shuttle program advisor. Lela thinks, that in this case both sides are in benefit, participant-trainer learns presentation making and knowledge sharing and others receive new information.

“As one of the main characteristics of this program is an active involvement of the participants, it’s very important, that they can have a chance to present themselves. That’s why we established, the so called “participant hour”, when a participant can share his/her experience and knowledge to other team members”. – mentioned Lela Maisuradze.

RDFG implements “Rural Development for Sustainable Growth of Tetritskaro Municipality” in the framework of the second phase of European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development – ENPARD.

ENPARD II uses a LEADER approach to economic development. Fundamentally, it is the energy and resources of the local people that contribute to the rural development process by forming partnerships at a sub-regional level between the public, private and civil sectors. The LEADER approach is associated with local empowerment through local strategy development and resource allocation. The main tool for the application of the LEADER approach to area development and involving local representatives in decision-making is the Local Action Group (LAG).

The project partners are Agro-Technology Association (ATA), Lithuanian Local Action Groups Network and the Ministry of Agriculture of Lithuania.