On November 10th, 2017, the Belgrade Open School (BOS) and the Serbia Youth Umbrella Organization, marked the first Intern's Day in Belgrade that joined cities like Quebec, Geneva, Madrid, Brussels, Paris, Ljubljana and Budapest.On this occasion, a street performance with the symbolic name of #NeBurekPraksa was held at Platou at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, where young activists distributed a burek to passengers, rising the attention for the need of the better internship experience of young people. The event was attended by tens of young people, pupils, students, representatives of youth organizations, career centres, high schools and faculties.
For young people in Serbia, internships are a good stepping stone in further career development, since they enable them to acquire experience, skills and expand their network of contacts. However, research has shown that 50% of young people had an internship without a mentor, 77% without a contract, and even 90% were not paid. The analysis conducted by the Belgrade Open School indicates that we do not have an adequate contractual form for regulating the relationship between those who are offering internship and interns, nor mechanisms for ensuring the quality of internship. BOS, as a quality internship, recognizes those in which there is a contract, a limited duration, a learning program, evaluation of success, a certificate, a mentoring and a fee for the intern.
As part of the marking of the Intern's Day in Serbia, an online social network campaign was launched with the aim of saying NO to #NeBurekPraksa", and NO to internships that do not meet quality standards, but through #MojaPraksa to praises all good examples. In the social network campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, a large number of young interns have come together to share their good or bad experiences. The campaign was supported by representatives of the business community.
The Interns' Day event in 2017 is partly supported by the "Europe for Citizens" program.
