Timok Youth Center – TOC organized a webinar on Wednesday, November 11, 2020, on the topic „Why are young people giving up job search and how to stir them to action?” related to SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth. Nemanja Glavinić from Junior Achievement Serbia and Nevena Nikolić from the organization Belgrade Center for Human Rights were the keynote speakers.

The aim of the webinar was to draw attention to the needs of the young people in NEET (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”) status, as a significant social category of young people in Serbia who need particular attention, as well as to discuss measures that can motivate the young to actively look for jobs. The panelists also discussed how to contribute to the social and work activation of young people in NEET status. A specific concept that was brought up during the webinar was a one-stop-shop concept as a possible response to growing youth unemployment and inactivity in the labor market.

The panelists also addressed the issue of cross-sectoral cooperation, as a way of supporting young people get out of NEET status as well as the specific position of the rural youth, who generally lack opportunities for non-formal education. One of the conclusions was the necessity for the formal system, ie. schools, to recognize the importance of involving young people in non-formal education and to help young people turn to organizations that can help them get out of NEET status. In this way, organizations would take on a role of a bridge between institutions and the youth.

A good practice examples of cooperation between institutions and organizations were provided by the very two organizations whose representatives spoke at the webinar. In the municipalities of Svrljig and Raska, Junior Achievement Serbia, approached the young people in NEET status, through the support of local youth clubs, and included them in the “job shadowing” program in the student companies. In this way, the young people acquired new entrepreneurial and other knowledge and skills to become more competitive in the labor market. On the other hand, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights has formed Community HUBs in 5 cities in Serbia, including Zajecar, within which representatives of youth organizations work together with the representatives of municipal administration, national employment services and social work centers. The idea is develop programs to support employability of the young people in NEET status and to offer various services to improve the youth employment including monitoring, mentoring and others.

The webinar was implemented within the “SDGs for All” Platform supported by the Governments of Switzerland and Germany and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The partners on the Platform are the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, the Center for Higher Economic Studies, the Belgrade Open School, the Center for Democracy Foundation, the Timok Youth Center and the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence.

You can watch this webinar at the following link