What are key youth employability policy challenges in the Western Balkans today? Does cooperation between CSOs and public authorities exist? Is youth entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning developed enough?

Belgrade Open School (BOS) and National Youth Council of Serbia (NYCS) organized an online discussion with youth and awarded the most creative young people who participated in the competition regarding the Month of quality internships called “Don’t be a Ficus! Let’s talk about internships!”.

Faced with many challenges while entering the labour market, young people, to acquire necessary work skills, often turn to internships – short programs of acquiring work experience by learning and training.

A meeting with the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic with the representatives of youth CSOs, among which were representatives from BOS was held yesterday, 8th of October in the Palace „Serbia“. The subject of the meeting was the new government measure for youth employment „My first salary“.

Therefore, the SHARE Foundation, in cooperation with the Belgrade Open School, Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Partners Serbia), Citizen’s Association Atina, Association Da se zna and A11 - Initiative for Economic and Social Rights, has developed a concise and clear manual on data protection during a pandemic.

Young people from Western Balkans countries face numerous challenges in finding good career opportunities for their mobility. The WEB4YES Regional Initiative seeks to defy these statistics and help create better conditions for all young people by empowering civil society organizations to participate in decision-making processes and advocacy activities regarding youth employment policies.

Even though internships in Serbia are widely spread, our legal framework does not recognize a legal and contractual obligation between an intern and employer. Whereat elements of quality internships contain contractual relationship, mentorship, some kind of financial motivation, a good internship is, like a unicorn, impossible to find.

Last month, under the initiative of Belgrade Open School, individual consultative meetings were held with representatives of trade unions, Labour and Education ministries, American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia, Serbian Association of Employers, representatives of “Education to Employment” programme.

How can we help students to make career decisions based on authentic and relevant information? What competencies are necessary for career practitioners to successfully provide career guidance and counseling services? How we can prepare students for a job or internship interview? These are just some of the topics we addressed during the two-day training "One step further towards comprehensive and quality services of career guidance and counseling", held on September 19-20 in Belgrade.