Belgrade, November 18 – The national conference for the promotion of youth employment “Dialogue for Youth” was organized on November 18, at the Zira Hotel in Belgrade. Purpose of this conference was to mark the completion of the first phase of the Swiss “Knowledge to Work” project, as well as to present the results achieved within the ”Youth Employment Promotion” program implemented by German Agency for International Cooperation GIZ.
During the conference, GIZ has promoted through a panel discussion and dissemination of the brochure results achieved within the “Capacity building support for social enterprises” program. This year long program implemented in partnership with Smart Kolektiv, provided capacity building support for 20 social enterprises and as a result created employment for 81 young people out of which 42 are from vulnerable groups such as young Roma, young people with disabilities, etc. The participants have increased both their knowledge and capacities for scaling their business and operations and 100% of enterprises would recommend the program to other social enterprises. Complete results of the program are presented in the promotional brochure which is available on this link.
Director of Smart Kolektiv Neven Marinović has participated at the conference together with representatives of social enterprises, youth organizations and local self-governments. He highlighted that this program was especially significant because it showed that there are people in Serbia who are developing successful businesses and at the same time helping young people, vulnerable groups and underdeveloped municipalities. He also mentioned that the holistic approach which combines strong and long term business development support together with purchase of equipment, promotion and networking, delivers really outstanding results.
