The unprecedented project "Remote Internship in Parliament" has been launched by the Parliament of Georgia under the initiative of the Parliament Staff.

According to the Secretary General, Givi Mikanadze, the "Remote Internship in Parliament" is a project focused on specific people.

“Today marks the starting point for this project. The project itself is quite innovative and most importantly it focuses on specific people, our citizens because in recent years the Parliament has become more and more transparent and more open to the public. Parliament is not just an institution housed in one building. It should be as accessible as possible to any of our citizens. The knowledge, experience and the functions that the Parliament carries out and which has been accumulated for many years, should be made available to every interested person", - Givi Mikanadze remarked in his welcome speech.

According to him, as a result of the radical reform initiated 1.5 year before, Parliament introduced new training scheme, which contributes to the knowledge of young people and develops their career skills. However, the analysis revealed that the internship, which implies the physical presence in the Parliament for six months, was particularly interesting to the people living in Tbilisi and its surroundings.

“It made us think to take some steps and make the internship program available to people living in different cities and municipalities in Georgia. The innovative project, which was launched in the Training Center of parliament last year, served as the basis for the embodiment of this idea”, - G. Mikanadze stated.

In his welcome speech, the Secretary General noted of the active participation of business sector in the project implementation process.

Pursuant to him, the project, which started today, will last six months to be accomplished on August 10. The project is divided into three phases. The first phase includes introductory activities in the Parliament. The second stage stands for the distance training phase, during which young people will be able to study online for two weeks, after which they will also pass the tests online. After successful testing, the third phase begins - a twenty-week training period.

As Givi Mikanadze stated, the project is being piloted in two directions: human resources management and international relations.

The competition was open to any citizen of Georgia heading into their last semester of undergraduate studies. Consequently, 5 young people were selected as a result of the competition.
“There is one intern from Lagodekhi, one from Gori, and one from Kutaisi - who uses a wheelchair and has a strong interest towards the project. There is an intern from the Charles University of Prague who is originally from Kobuleti and the fifth representative is from Tbilisi, who is currently in Oslo and will be remotely involved in our presentation”, - Givi Mikanadze commented.

As the Secretary General noted, the results of the pilot project will be analyzed in depth, which will allow these directions to be multiplied by committees and fields, hence intensifying the introduction of remote internships in the Parliament of Georgia.

The Chair of the Legal Issues Committee, Anri Okhanashvili also addressed the participants - “The inclusion of regions in this project is of high importance. We need to give everyone the equal opportunity to get involved in this process. Parliament is one of the most important institutions in terms of openness. Parliament is open for our citizens, especially for the young people who are interested in this project”.

The participants of the event were also addressed by: Roland Kopaliani, Rector of Akaki Tsereteli State University and Giorgi Sosiashvili, Rector of Gori State Teaching University.

All five project participants were remotely involved in the presentation during the event. The interns harped on their own motivation to participate in the innovative project of Parliament.