As the number of new small and large companies grows in Serbia and the world, so does the number of competitors in the labor market who force employers to invest in the development of their company's human resources and encourage employees to think more and more about continuous career development. Given all the changes that modern times bring: demographic change, economic crisis, digitalization and individualization, global competition, and the lack of appropriate skills needed to cope with change, employers face the growing challenge of finding employees with the right competencies, who are dedicated to work and motivated. On the other hand, employees are becoming more flexible in the labor market, changing jobs more often, and they need support for adequate management of their own careers, taking into account all personal and social factors.
The team of the Belgrade open school held a two-day training "Career guidance and development of employees” for career practitioners and employees in human resources. Topics covered on the first day of the training were changes in the world of work, their influence on human resource development, learning in organizations in response to these changes, corporate social responsibility, networking and cooperation and the implementation of innovative career guidance and counseling tools for employees support.
The second day of the training presented examples of career support practices in companies, support for career development of different groups of employees, organizational development and change management and the way in which career guidance and counseling can lead to changes in organizations.
The training was attended by representatives of institutions that deal with issues of career guidance and counseling through various programs, representatives of secondary vocational schools, career development centers, as well as representatives of companies. The Technical school from Požega, Secondary vocational school from Kragujevac, Agricultural school from Belgrade, and Technical school from Vlasotince presented their experiences and examples of good practice. There were also representatives of the following companies Continental Automotive Serbia, Manpower Group, HTEC, OTP bank, Center for career development of University in Belgrade, Career development center of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, local group of association ESTIEM LG, as well as representatives of the Serbian Chamber of commerce, the Union of employers and the National employment service.
The participants in the training concluded that there is a potential space for cooperation between companies and state institutions, but also for networking schools with certain state institutions. This networking most often referred to the networking of the National Employment Service with the mentioned companies and schools, all with the aim of developing human resources and improving career guidance and counseling services.
The training was held as part of the project "CONNECT - Connecting Career Counselling and Human Resource Development in Enterprises for Higher Education and Training in Practice." The aim of the project is to connect career guidance and counseling on the one hand and the development of human resources in companies on the other hand through higher education and training in practice. What is expected as a result of work on this project is the improvement of the system of career guidance and counseling, coaching and training, as well as related forms of support to employers and their employees.
