Third National Grant Award Ceremony Successfully Held in North Macedonia

April 25, 2024, Skopje

Two new skill-building projects from North Macedonia received investment commitment letters today in a ceremony hosted by the Regional Challenge Fund in Skopje. 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.

A complete list of winners is available here.

The Regional Challenge Fund (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.

“In three open calls so far, RCF has committed 7,13 million euros to support a total of 16 vocational education and training projects from North Macedonia, with 85 partnering enterprises. We remain dedicated to contributing to the country’s economic growth by upgrading the skills and knowledge of youth to produce a job-ready workforce that companies here need”, said Mr. Moritz Remé, Country Director of Kosovo and North Macedonia, KfW.

He mentioned some of the activities already implemented in the country, such as training for mentors for work-based learning coming from the partnering companies.

“Training was organized for the needs of four projects from Skopje, Tetovo, Vinica, and Bogdanci and their partnering enterprises. The training was held online and on-site in the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia, and resulted in forty-four employees from the partnering enterprises gaining valuable knowledge on mentoring and practising skills needed to provide proper guidance, advice, and feedback to the students in the work-based learning programmes,” Remé added.

The third round of applications organised last year attracted 155 expressions of interest from the region, 25 of which were from North Macedonia. The Selection Committee selected the two most successful projects to finance in the country with close to 952,000 euros. The funds will be used to improve the infrastructure of two educational institutions and deliver training to the participants in the cooperative education program.

The Regional Challenge Fund was created at the initiative of the German Development Bank, and the funds come from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with co-financing from the Government of Switzerland.

H.E. Petra Drexler, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in North Macedonia, spoke about the need to harmonize the educational system and the need for skilled work force in the private sector.

“This is where the Regional Challenges Fund comes in – working as a matchmaker between educational institutions and the needs of the private sector. That is why changes are needed in the educational system and the curricula that requires cooperation and partnership of all interested parties.”

On the occasion of the International Day of Girls in ICT, Ambassador Drexler emphasized that “we should not congratulate the girls, but all of us as social actors because we recognized that economic development is not possible without their expertise and their abilities.”

In 2022, 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.

„Switzerland is strongly committed to supporting the collaboration between the training institutions and the private sector, therefore, joined the KfW and the Regional Challenge Fund,” said Lucien Aegerter, Deputy Head of Mission, at the Embassy of Switzerland in Skopje. He added that one more important task is ahead.

„While celebrating the awarding of the two grants today, there is another next big step ahead of us, and that is jointly with the key stakeholders to find a solution to replicate the model of the Regional Challenge Fund nationwide, and across all levels of the educational system. Only in this manner, we can scale the limited number of success stories into sustainable changes on a system level throughout the country,“ Aegerter explained.

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, of which the Chamber of Commerce of North Macedonia is a member.

“The information and communication technology (ICT) industry is considered one of the fastest growing industries as well as the most prosperous profession today. The fact that an increasing number of people are deciding on qualifications, but also retraining in professions in this sphere, which is also present in our country to a significant extent, speaks for this. The statistical results of the research show that the representation of female students in IT studies in Macedonia is at a high level, compared to a larger number of EU countries, with over 50% of students studying natural sciences, mathematics and informatics, as well as engineering, production and construction are women,” said Mr. Antoni Peshev, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce of North Macedonia.

“Today is the International Day of Girls in ICT and I must mention that the Chamber of Commerce is working on a series of activities in that direction to break the stereotypes, to establish that there are no male and female professions, but everything depends on the interests and opportunities of the person,” he added.

Ms. Mihaela Stavrevska, a student at the Technical High School “Gjorgi Naumov” from Bitola, sent a short address in this regard.

“The future is in computers, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female, if you are intelligent enough you can succeed in any field. I am very grateful that such grants are awarded, because we, the students, have the greatest benefit from the new equipment in the schools.”

“One of the main added values that the Regional Challenge Fund brings to the Western Balkans region is its intraregional effect. This is a region of six economies, which all have different institutional settings when it comes to the VET system, dual or work-based learning cooperative training approaches in the VET systems are in different modes implemented in each of the economies, and at a very different level. However, the challenges of securing a qualified workforce which can respond to the needs of today’s economies are the same in all six economies,” assessed Ms. Tatjana Shterjova Dushkovska, Secretary General of the Chamber Investment Forum WB6. She has also expressed her satisfaction with the number of supported projects so far.

“At the moment, we are at 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”, Shterjova Dushkovska concluded.