Open discussion on employment policies for young people

Prishtina, 7 June 2017 – Lëvizja FOL held today an open discussion on “Good Governance: Employment Policies for Young People”. Panelists in this discussion were representatives from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and representatives of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo.

Petrit Zogaj, executive director of FOL Movement said that the purpose of this discussion is to have a clear picture of employment policies, where we stand with the preparation of young people for the labor market, and it is a good policy to export human resources to the external market in the context of Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Gersi Gashi from FOL presented data on youth and youth employment, emphasizing that the factual situation of the large number of unemployed at young people, as well as the large number of young people who do not attend either training or education and are not at work.

Meanwhile Dëfrim Rifaj, director of the Department of Labor and Employment at the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, said that this ministry is reviewing the strategy for youth employment. “The good things that have been done in this direction should continue despite the change of ministers,” said Rifaj.

Meanwhile, Fatmir Haxholli, advisor to the outgoing Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, stressed that the number of unemployed among youth is high and unfortunately even though it was a coalition party’s priority, the budget for this ministry has not increased.

“Emphasis should be put on important things. The budget is not increased, it is known how much the funds went to the veteran, then the poor level of coordination with donors at the level of all institutions. The past strategy was never approved in the government, so we started refreshing and I wanted to send it for approval, but things have changed with the fall of the government, “said Haxholli, adding that the European Commission has also given a recommendation for increasing the number of employees in young people and women.

The representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ryva Prokorogja, said that MEST has the priority of hiring youth. “MEST has a strategic plan on this issue and donors have been forced to implement these policies. Vocational education has been a priority of both ministries MEST and MLSW and therefore some things have gone well in this regard, “Prokorogja said, adding that there is overload in Kosovo regarding the fields of economy, health and law while there are no laminate staff wood or metal processing.

According to her, the new curriculum is based on 7 competences, where it is given great importance to entrepreneurship skills. “We also need to become more aware of society, because very few consider the school of agriculture and all run after gymnasium, this should change because it needs to adapt to market demands,” she said.

Dafina Mehaj from BSPK said that unfortunately BSPK has no statistics how much is the number of unemployed amongst youth, but she asked to work more for those who are employed and especially in the private sector. “Many private sector workers are treated as modern slaves and the inspectorate has not taken any action in this regard,” Mehaj said.

Student questions were about employment after completing studies, lack of practice, recognition of internships, concrete criteria for public competitions.

EYE Project is a project of Swiss Cooperation Office and implemented by consortium of Helvetas Swiss Cooperation and MDA