Third National Grant Award Ceremony Successfully Held in Kosovo

April 24, 2024, Pristina

Five new skill-building projects from Kosovo received investment commitment letters in a ceremony hosted by the Regional Challenge Fund in Prishtina. The Germany- and Swiss-supported Fund recently announced the winning applications in the third round of its program which provides grants for vocational education and training (VET) courses designed jointly by the companies and VET providers from the Western Balkans region.

The five most successful projects from Kosovo are being proposed for finance in the Third Call of the Regional Challenge Fund (RCF), allocating approximately 2.2 million Euros for investments in equipment, infrastructure and training at the vocational training institutes implementing cooperative training.

A complete list of winners is available here.

RCF enhances the sustainable competitiveness of businesses in the Western Balkan 6 on the way to the EU single market by financing VET providers and addressing skill needs in cooperation with companies. The third round of applications organised last year attracted 155 expressions of interest from the region, 18 of which were from Kosovo.

Mr. Renato Vasili, Regional Coordinator in the Regional Challenge Fund, welcomed the participants to the closing ceremony of the RCF Third Call in Kosovo. He emphasized that with the announcement of the Third Call results, we are witnessing results that demonstrate the dedication and innovation present in the vocational education sector. He stated that after three calls, 16 winning projects in Kosovo, which include 16 vocational training institutes and 57 partnering enterprises, benefit from a significant investment in a total of about 8.12 million euros. “Your efforts and responsibility to do the best for the younger generations and their careers serve as our guiding principles in RCF and charge us with the responsibility to, together, redouble our efforts and accelerate the implementation process of these projects in 2024” he further added. Mr. Vasili concluded his words by expressing his gratitude on behalf of RCF, WB6 CIF, KfW and SDC to all the winning consortia who committed themselves with dedication and passion to prepare competitive and innovative cooperative training projects.

Member of the Chamber Investment Forum of the Western Balkans 6 is the Kosova Chamber of Commerce, one of the important partners to the project. Mr. Besim Mustafa, Director of the Department for International Cooperation, Kosova Chamber of Commerce stated that “RCF projects highlight a successful model of partnership between educational and training institutions and enterprises aiming to address the urgent skills needs of our economy. This investment goes beyond a simple financial input, it is an investment in our people and their potential to bring about transformative change and drive sustainable economic growth“.

Mr. Taultant Kelmendi, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation extended congratulations to the 5 winning consortia in the RCF Third Call for their achievements. “More than ever, we have the will and motivation to take concrete steps to connect education with the labour market to ensure a workforce ready for the challenges of the global market. This requires a joint commitment from all parties, including the government, educational institutions, the private sector, economic operators, and civil society organizations“ he further noted. He expressed her gratitude to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and KfW, for the continuous support offered in Kosovo.

H.E. Mr. Joern Rohde, Ambassador, Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, congratulated the winning consortia and stated that “it is becoming increasingly clear that a skilled workforce is the cornerstone of a thriving economy and of business competitiveness. For Kosovo, investing in vocational education and training is not just an option but a strategic imperative for sustainable growth and prosperity. With our tradition of dual vocational training in Germany, I am firmly convinced that lasting cooperation between companies and vocational training institutions is of utmost importance for labour markets and economies. We all share the same objective and recognize that cooperative education is a key to the speedy integration of young people into working life in Kosovo and a backbone for economic development” concluded the German Ambassador.

The Swiss Government showed interest in financing the RCF and thus contributed around 10 million EUR to fund cooperative training projects in the region. The contribution was made through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which increased the Fund’s volume to nearly 75 million EUR.

H.E. Mr. Jürg Sprecher, Ambassador, Embassy of Switzerland, emphasised that Switzerland’s commitment to vocational education and training in Kosovo spans two decades. VET consistently has always been at the core of our cooperation with the country. Our own extensive experience in VET has proven to be both successful and efficient. This wealth of knowledge and expertise serves as a valuable resource to guide our collaboration with Kosovo in addressing the challenges of skill mismatch. The Regional Challenge Fund initiated by Germany proved to be instrumental and very complementary to the Swiss cooperation activities, therefore in 2022, we decided to join hands with the German and Kosovo governments in this endeavour. 

The main implementation partner on the project is the Chamber Investment Forum of the Western Balkans 6, an association of chambers of commerce of the region. Ms. Tatiana Shterjova Dushkovska, Secretary General, Chamber Investment Forum WB6 stated that “it is a big achievement to be able to contribute to positive changes in the educational landscape in one of the economies of the Western Balkans region, but it is an admirable success to have those effects in all 6 Western Balkans economies at once, as has been the case with the Regional Challenge Fund. She added “That is why I am proud that today, during these Third call award ceremonies, we are rounding up a number of 99 supported projects, which receive 44 million euros in grants, changing the landscape of VET education throughout the region, but also spreading a very positive spillover effect across the region in the field of human capital development, and the transition of the Western Balkans towards green and digital economies. Human capital development has been one of the main development challenges for each of the economies in the Western Balkans, and still is today, but only with investments and improvement of the VET system we can all jointly contribute to our economies bridging the development gaps”.

The award ceremony gathered the officials from the WB6 CIF, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, German Embassy, Swiss Embassy, KfW, SDC, Regional Challenge Fund, Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, Donor’s Projects and the awarded consortia from Kosovo, to mark the success.

For any further inquiries, feel free to contact the RCF representatives, Renato Vasili at renato.vasili@rcf-wb6.org and Vesa Shehu Hoxha at vesa.shehu@rcf-wb6.org .