Career
Kourosh Parand is also a Computer Science Professor at Shahid Beheshti University and with over 80 Inter-Services Intelligence journal articles and both an h-index of 17 and a i10-index of 30, he has also been recognized as "National Researcher of the Year" on many occasions. In 2011, Parand was appointed as President of the National Technical Vocational Training Organization Iran TVTO and since then has designed and overseen a comprehensive and multifaceted reform plan for the vocational education system of Iran, offering Hi-Technical and innovative training programs in order to fill the "practical skills gap" that exists for Iranians in order to seek employment. In early 2015, Parand created his "Vocational Skills Based Diplomacy" strategy called Technical and Vocational Training Organization (TVTO) which entailed working with international organizations and governments in order boost Iran"s presence and diplomatic efforts in target countries.
Iran TVTO has worked with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and United Nations Industrial Development Organization to offer training to Afghan and Iraqi refugees as well as agreements in place to offer vocational training to the Governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tanzania, Burundi, Lebanon, Tanzania, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.
As well as this, Iran TVTO secured the rights to offer collaborative training programs and international exams in Iran, further boosting job prospects of Iranians and raising the profile of TVET education in Iran. Recently a new initiative called "Training, Production, Marketing and Sales" was launched in Mid 2015 by Parand.
This private-public consortium approach provides the necessary skills to new entrepreneurs and offers them the required training, skills and potential to call upon experienced mentors throughout the launch of their new business in order to support their product life-cycle. In this model the state provides various training programs including soft skills, whilst the private sector provides experienced mentors and financial support, guaranteed by Iran TVTO. This new initiative has been recognized by many international agencies including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and United Nations Industrial Development Organization as fundamental in boosting entrepreneurship in Iran and curbing unemployment.
