Third National Grant Award Ceremony Successfully Held in Serbia

Eleven new skill-building projects from all over Serbia received award letters on April 9th in a ceremony hosted by the Regional Challenge Fund in Belgrade. 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 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, the RCF has committed 11,24 million euros to support a total of 27 vocational education and training projects from Serbia, with 137 partner enterprises. We remain dedicated to contributing to Serbian economic growth by upgrading the skills and knowledge of youth to produce a job-ready workforce that companies here need, ” said Mr. Frieder Woehrmann, Team Leader in the Fund Management Unit.

“We are pleased to see that the structure of participating companies from Serbia reflects the priority sectors of the Serbian economy, which are attractive for foreign and domestic investments and which employ a large number of people – such as manufacturing and metal processing, agriculture and food processing, IT, hospitality and similar. This proves that the funds are directed towards the relevant segments of the Serbian economy, encouraging further sustainable growth and nurturing the potential for inclusion in the regional and European market,” said Ms. Mirjana Kovačević, Director of the Business Academy and Head of Education, Dual Education and Education Policies Centre in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.

The third round of applications opened last year attracted 155 expressions of interest from the region, out of which 45 were from Serbia. The Selection Committee selected the eleven most successful projects to finance in Serbia with close to 4,7 million euros. The funds will be used to improve the infrastructure of educational institutions and provide training to the participants in the cooperative education program.

German Ambassador in Serbia, Ms. Anke Konrad, expressed satisfaction that Germany has the opportunity to support Serbia in investing in vocational education and training, together with partners from Switzerland.

“Our joint initiative, the Regional Challenge Fund, deals with the important link between schools and companies – matching the offer of vocational schools with the needs of companies. This is only possible if vocational education institutions and companies agree on the training content and only if the educational institutions have enough funds to transfer these new contents”, explained Ambassador Konrad.

Just last month a new piece of modern technology worth close to 200,000 euros purchased within the Regional Challenge Fund was officially handed over to the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad to train medicine and pharmacy students.

“Recently, I was able to witness the success of the Fund’s work. By purchasing important equipment for instrumental analysis at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, one hundred students will be able to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to work in pharmaceutical companies. This was only possible through cooperation with the private sector, specifically in this case with the companies Hemofarm, Carnomed, and Mihajlović Analytics. This is an important contribution to the supply chain of medicines in Serbia and to strengthening capacities in the field of research and innovation,” Konrad concluded.

“Through the support of equipping our Training Centers with modern equipment, which represents one of the key and strategic additions to education, both in dual and secondary vocational education, the Fund also supports the dual study model, so that the engineers who study on this equipment have adequate competencies on the labour market,” said Ms. Gabrijela Grujić, Director of the Office for Dual Education and the National Qualifications Framework. She added that the synergy of the efforts of this Office, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the RCF supported by the governments of Germany and Switzerland encourages not only the development of professional competencies but also soft skills so that young people respond to market needs and secure stable careers for themselves.

The Swiss Government joined the Fund in 2022, providing it with an additional 10 million euros, which made it possible to invest in additional projects, starting with the Third Call.

“We have joined Germany in supporting vocational training institutions that create training places together with companies across the Western Balkans,” said Switzerland’s ambassador to Serbia, Mr. Urs Schmid.

He explained that the inclusion of companies in cooperative or dual vocational education brings many advantages to young people.

“On the one hand, it ensures that young people are trained for occupations that are really in demand on the labour market, and on the other hand, that the skills they learn are truly relevant and based on the latest technologies and requirements of the real work environment. In Switzerland, 70% of our youth choose this educational path, which leads to advanced skills and degrees in hundreds of occupations. This is one of the keys to the competitiveness of our economy,” Ambassador Schmid concluded.

A new RCF call for grants is expected to open in the fall, inviting all vocational education and training institutions in Serbia to apply in partnership with companies. All information will be available on the RCF website and social media in due time.

The award ceremony gathered the officials from the Western Balkans 6 Chamber Investment Forum (WB6 CIF), Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Serbia, German Embassy, KfW Development Bank, Swiss Embassy, Swiss Development Cooperation, Office for Dual Education and National Qualification Framework, Ministry of Education and educational agencies, partnering organizations and institutions.