The aim of this working group is to enhance Central Asian countries’ capability and use of evidence for policy analysis and policy making in the fields of VET and HE, by addressing the following needs:

• Reinforcing monitoring functions in Central Asian countries through better knowledge and skills of participating actors in the initiative.
• Sharing experiences and lessons across countries and with the EU on the evidence based policy making approach and added value, including tools and methods of work and roles of actors.
• Creating a network in the region which will continue to exchange practices and evidence in the area of VET/Higher education and skills development.

The initiative is based on the policy learning methodology and is being developed and implemented by CAEP and the European Training Foundation (ETF), building on ETF’s experience with the Torino Process.

The first meeting, in Istanbul in February, covered ways to identify and frame policy issues to be explored with the use of evidence, considering also the role that different stakeholders play in this step. The second meeting, in Bishkek in April, explored monitoring approaches for education systems and tools that can be used to generate evidence and data.

The third meeting will be dedicated to policy analysis, evidence and data analysis and the communication of findings and recommendations. The specific objectives will be to:

• Introduce the fundamentals of evidence use and evidence communication
• Explore the possibilities for evidence visualisation
• Discuss the feasibility of different strategies for evidence use and communication within country context