About the project

Project title:
Dialogue on Employment Creation, Initiative and Dual Education (DECIDE)

Commissioned by:
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (BMZ)

Implemented by:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Partner:
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia (MoE)

Duration:
01/2020 – 12/2023

The DECIDE project has been implemented since January 2020 within the framework of German Development Cooperation in Serbia, as a continuation of the projects “Reform of Vocational Education and Training” and “Youth Employment Promotion“. The project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia with the involvement of other partners in the implementation.

The project improves the vocational education system to make Serbian economy stronger and more competitive and to close the gap between education and labour market needs. The objective is to make the offer of qualification and labour market measures in selected municipalities more oriented on needs of young people and on needs of companies for adequately trained workers. By supporting youth to acquire relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes and find quality jobs, the project contributes to increasement of the employability of both students in formal education system and young, unemployed adults.

Activities are focused on supporting 6 selected secondary vocational schools, future regional centres of competence, to build their capacities and

  • provide high-quality formal education, primarily dual
  • provide high-quality non-formal trainings
  • set up local dialogues on youth employment.

The experiences learnt are documented and will be integrated into the national education and youth employment policies.

Achieved results / Project indicators

1330

young people, 12,26% of which are female, benefit from the improved formal (dual) and non-formal training offer as well as of active labour market measures.

77%

of 714 surveyed beneficiaries, 23,53% of which are female, consider the supported skills and labour market measures to be helpful in improving their individual employment potential.

33

(91,7%) of the 36 surveyed training companies participating in the 6 dual education profiles “mostly” or “fully” agree that the acquired professional and personal skills of the students meet their requirements.

German-Serbian Initiative for Sustainable Growth and Employment

German-Serbian Initiative for Sustainable Growth and Employment is also part of the project. The Initiative has been established by the German Minister of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and two Serbian Ministers – Minister of Economy and Minister in charge of European Integration.

The German-Serbian Initiative not only connects all previous and new projects within German-Serbian development cooperation, but unifies and prepares future measures, by implementing targeted thematic studies, providing support to partners in Serbia regarding strategic steps and organizing events of different formats.