Belgrade Open School has been actively working on harmonizing the secondary education system and the labour market for 15 years now, with the aim of increasing youth employability and facilitating their transition from the world of education into the world of work. We aim to provide expert support to highschools and to encourage a continuous and effective cooperation between partners and interested stakeholders in the field of education, economy and youth policy. We do this on three mutually dependent areas:

Improving secondary vocational schools' admission policies – we provide support for secondary vocational schools to strengthen their central role in the network of local stakeholders who affect the making of the enrollment plans. This way, schools became a key link of local economic development, and truly contribute to creating conditions necessary for education of competent and expert staff needed in their local community in the long term. So far, we have initiated and guided the consultative proceses in multiple local governments, we have made step-by-step instructions for creating admission plans, conducted research and advocating activities directed towards decision makers, and all with the goal of making the admission policy more flexible.

Promoting perspective secondary school educational profiles – we encourage planning and conducting promotional campaigns, by using new technologies, for educational profiles for which there is a real need on the labour market. By shaping messages adapted for elementary schools students in their final years and their parents, and by designing innovative promotion plans (on the internet and in local communities), we create a complete and adequate picture of what workplaces within certain occupations look like. This way, we help elliminate prejudices about (perspective) educational profiles which there is not a lot of interest among students. At the same time, this improves the secondary vocational school's image. We have also written a practical Manual for online promotion, which helps schools master the techniques and tools which enable them to send out messages via social networks and applications popular with the young people.

Connecting with companies – We initiate and mediate the dialogue between secondary vocational schools and companies by organizing consultative meetings, drafting plans and reccomendations for cooperation, and promoting good practice examples. By insisting on the applying of quality elements when realizing professional internships for students in a real working environment, we encourage an efficient cooperation between schools and employers in this field, and we further motivate students to think about their internships in the context of further career development.