The RCF Successfully Held the Annual Regional Conference

The Regional Challenge Fund successfully organized the virtual Annual Regional Conference to promote its third call, share the experiences and lessons learned from its previous calls, and foster the exchange among stakeholders in vocational education and training from the region on May 30th, 2023, 10:00 – 14:00h CEST.

The conference virtually gathered RCF winners, vocational training providers, enterprises, chambers of commerce, employers’ unions, representatives of SMEs, donors, international and regional organizations, civil society organizations, teachers’ unions, and more with the mission to:

share valuable lessons and experiences
promote greening
promote digit(al)ization
regional cooperation in VET
as well as to explore attracting students to VET and career development support in WB6.

“We do believe that with the RCF project, we will be able to find an effective way to improve VET conditions and offer fair employment opportunities for young people from the region, especially young women, to take their future into their own hands.” – stated Heike Backofen-Warnecke, Head of Division, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, during the Annual Regional Conference.

Lulzim Rafuna, President of the CIF Managing Board, stated: “RCF is contributing by empowering training providers to increase the skills of workers according to the needs of the business in respective sectors, which is the greatest contribution we can make to the society with long-term benefits for all Western Balkan 6.”

Derek George, Deputy Head of Cooperation, Embassy of Switzerland, Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia, stated: “SDC promotes various cooperative training approaches throughout the Western Balkans, with one common trait: bringing the public and private stakeholders together in order to strengthen labor-market relevance and quality of imparted skills, to provide young people with the skills they need to enter the workforce. The collaboration between Germany and Switzerland, who co-founded the Donor Committee on dual VET, comes naturally, as we share the same objectives.”

To see the list of speakers see the agenda HERE.

Visit the Exhibit Hall of the Annual Regional Conference

The Regional Challenge Fund encourages you to register for the Annual Regional Conference HERE and visit our Exhibit Hall where you can get to know donors and key implementation partners until June 30^th.

Visit the booths of Western Balkan 6 Chamber Investment Forum, KfW Development Bank, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Chamber of Economy of Montenegro, Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Albania, Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Serbia, as well as the official booth of the Regional Challenge Fund and the 6 Western Balkan economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia).

The RCF Launched Its Third Call for Expression of Interest

The RCF used this opportunity to promote its Third Call for Expression of Interest which launched on May 22nd and invited applications from all Western Balkan 6 economies and all economic sectors, interested consortia of vocational training institutes and enterprises devoted to joint implementation of cooperative training programmes, to apply until July 7th, 2023, at 23:59. All about the launch of the Third Call read HERE.

Watch the Video of the Annual Regional Conference

The full video of the conference is available on the official Regional Challenge Fund YouTube channel and you may watch it below.

The Regional Challenge Fund (RCF) is a financing facility designed to increase youth employability and boost the competitiveness of enterprises in Western Balkan 6 by funding investments in selected cooperative training projects that are implemented through partnerships between vocational training institutes and the enterprises. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development commissioned 64.43 million EUR for the RCF, and the Swiss Government, represented by the SDC Swiss Development Cooperation, co-financed an additional 9.7 million CHF. The funds were commissioned to the KfW Development Bank and executed by the Western Balkans 6 Chamber Investment Forum (WB6-CIF), a joint initiative of chambers of commerce from the region.