Online conference “Youth and employment – obstacles and challenges”

Today, it was organized through the Zoom platform, an online conference “Youth and employment – obstacles and challenges”, within which support measures were presented, as well as a proposal for measures to create a more enabling ecosystem for youth employment, employability and entrepreneurship in Montenegro.
 
The conference was organized by CEPS and the Center for Youth Education, within the project “Youth Entrepreneurship Academy”, which is supported by the regional program Web4Yes.
 
Representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Education spoke about youth support programs and measures in Montenegro, while at the end of the conference were presented grant program of the Employment Bureau and credit lines of the Investment and Development Fund (Youth in Business, Start up, Women in Business start up and University Students).
 
 
The conference was opened by Anto Janković – President of CEPS, Jugoslav Radović – Executive Director of the Center for Youth Education and Mirela Kalamperović on behalf of ADP-Zid, who presented the regional program Web4Yes.
 
The organizers presented the Proposal of Measures for Creating a More Enabling Ecosystem for Youth Employment, Employability and Entrepreneurship in Montenegro and proposed more active participation and joint work of all key actors for the implementation of the following measures:
 
IMPROVING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND EASIER ACCESS TO THE LABOR MARKET:
– Promotion and development of non-formal education in order to improve knowledge and skills that will contribute to employability and mobility in the labor market;
– Improving entrepreneurial literacy through all levels of the education system
– Reform of the education system in accordance with the current needs of the labor market and global trends related to technological development;
– Development of career counseling programs;
– Development of programs and activities of lifelong education and learning.

SUPPORT TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT:
– Development of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills through formal and non-formal education programs and organizations / institutions to support entrepreneurship development;
– Development of counseling services for young people to start and run a business;
– Development of mentoring and advisory support programs for entrepreneurs at all stages of development;
– Improving information and promotion of all available programs to support the development of entrepreneurship among young people;
– Support for networking of young people and beginners in business in order to encourage innovation and conquer new markets;
– Improving access to finance for business start-ups in the form of grants, guarantee schemes and other favorable sources of funding
– Improving the institutional framework for the development of alternative sources of financing (crowdfunding, business angels, venture capital, recoverable grants, matching grants ()
– Support to the development of infrastructure for the development of entrepreneurship (incubators, accelerators, business associations, clusters, etc.)
– Promotion of examples of good practice and private-public partnerships that contribute to the development of entrepreneurship among young people.

The WeB4YES project (Western Balkans Civil Society Organization for Youth Employment Support) was supported under the European Commission’s Civil Society Facility and Media 2016-2017 program for the consolidation of regional thematic networks of civil society organizations. The WeB4YES project has been running for 36 months starting in January 2018.

This Project is a regional initiative designed to provide innovative cross-sectoral approaches and provide opportunities for young unemployed citizens in the Western Balkans to improve employability and employment. The project is designed to address the existing challenges of insufficient cooperation between civil society actors and public institutions in the Western Balkans in policy processes and decision-making towards the youth unemployment reform process. Learn more about the Web4Yes project at www.web4yes.eu/.