On October 31, 2019, Raziya Isayeva, Director of Development, participated in the panel discussion of the Enhancing Graduate Employability Forum organized by the British Council Azerbaijan. She talked about how higher education institutions in Azerbaijan could produce graduates with relevant skills in her speech entitled Graduate Employability is it a ‘why’ of Higher Education. This conference was the beginning of the British Council’s Higher Education employability programme in Azerbaijan.

The conference started with the opening speech of the British Council’s Country Director Mr. Summer Xia. Then Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, member of the house of Lords, Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan gave a speech about relationships between the UK and Azerbaijan. The Minister of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Jeyhun Bayramov talked about the achievements of Azerbaijan Higher Education.

The conference continued throughout the day in the panel discussions with representatives of Azerbaijan HEIs. The UK partners shared their experiences on how the employability is embedded in their curriculum, and what are the internal and external services established in the UK to support the graduate employability enhancement.

Khazar University was also represented by Associate Professor Elza Semedova, the Dean of the School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Dr. Fakhranda Alimardanova, the Vice-Dean of School of Science and Engineering, and Mrs. Lyudmila Sotova, Head of Quality Assurance.