EU provides EUR 6.3 million through two project of support to employment in Serbia

The European Union has set aside EUR 6.3 million for two projects which aim to support the policy of employment in Serbia.

At the presentation of the projects at the National Assembly of Serbia, the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Sem Fabrizi, said that it was apparent that the Serbian economy was growing and that the unemployment was decreasing, as well as that there was room for such a trend to continue.

The project entails two components, Fabrizi said, specifying that the first one pertains to the construction of capacities of the Ministry of Labor and the National Employment Service in order to achieve a better employment policy.

The EU has set aside EUR 1.8 million for this purpose.

The second component, worth EUR 4.5 million, pertains to the implementation of active policies of employment in order to enable those with lower education, skills and qualifications to enter the labor market.

– We are oriented towards more long-term solutions which will help Serbia respond to the demands of the labor market in the long term – Fabrizi said.

The aim is to enable training courses and balance between the supply and the demand.

Serbian Minister of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Zoran Djordjevic said that the aim was for Serbia to reduce its unemployment rate and that it was at around 12% at the moment, with a perspective of dropping to a single-digit percentage in 2019.

– One of the government’s strategic goals is a stable, sustainable growth of employment. Our priority is to employ categories that are harder o employ – the minister said and pointed out that the country faced the problem of the lack of qualified workforce.

As he pointed out, it is necessary to acquire knowledge and skills through education and to harmonize the knowledge and the skills with the demands of the labor market.

Fabrizi said that the aim of the project was to also map the missing skills and that the National Employment Service would secure the necessary training courses once this is determined.

The director of the National Employment Service, Zoran Martinovic, said after the presentation of the projects that, thanks to the additional funds provided by the EU, more than 3,000 people would be included in the programs of self-employment, new jobs and training in 2019.

As he said, training courses will be organized in the fields traditionally lacking sufficient workforce, such as IT experts, but also workers in construction and hospitality. The labor market also needs more carpenters, locksmiths and welders.

Furthermore, the projects should contribute to the improvement of the measures of the employment of people with disabilities and the improvement of professional rehabilitation in companies.

Delegacija Evropske unije u Republici Srbiji Beograd

Nacionalna služba za zapošljavanje Kragujevac

Ministarstvo za rad, zapošljavanje, boračka i socijalna pitanja Republike Srbije

National Employment Sevice

employment policy in Serbia

active measures of employment in Serbia

Sem Fabrizi

Zoran Djordjevic

employment of people with disabilities

improvement of professional rehabilitation

retraining

Zoran Martinovic

self employment programs

training for professions with insufficient workforce

brain drain

lack of qualified workforce