The 27-months project “Developing cross-sectoral cooperation for youth employability in the Western Balkans” aims to develop sustainable capacities of local stakeholders to foster youth entrepreneurship and employability in the Western Balkans, specifically in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.The project pursues the following objectives:-To strengthen multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral cooperation among public authorities, CSOs and the private sector for youth employability and entrepreneurship education-To promote entrepreneurial take-up and entrepreneurship education among young peopleFour work packages are designed to reach the objectives, those are:- WP1 Project management, monitoring, evaluation and learning- WP2 Piloting a blended entrepreneurship education programme- WP3 Multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral cooperation for youth employability- WP 4 Awareness raising, project visibility and disseminationWith these activities the projects intent to achieve the following results.-Community of Practice on Youth Employability in the Western Balkans is formed by stakeholders from the private and public sector-Private and public stakeholders commit to and engage into local and international partnerships for youth employability-Private business and start-up ecosystem partners are actively supporting youth entrepreneurship education in partnership with civil society-Young people have developed their entrepreneurial competences and increased their employability-First Young Entrepreneurship Learner Award is awarded to young people-A wide range of young people has been informed about the educational potential of Youth Entrepreneurship EducationThe project was jointly developed by eight entities (youth) CSOs, a regional umbrella youth organisation, a public municipal body and an umbrella organisation of young entrepreneurs – from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Digitalisation in education is increasingly gaining ground across the global and within educational sectors. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend also in the VET sector. According to EfVET (2020, Recommendation paper following COVID-19) “digitalisation of work and teaching methods, and the use of online educational resources, guidelines and supporting tools has become critically important to learners and teachers” alikeIn a parallel trend over the past years, “VET institutions have realised that students and trainees need to learn soft skills before going to practice them in a job environment” (VET-GPS: Guiding Tools for Professional Skills - Quality framework for the cooperation in VET system, 2018). Soft skills are a game-changer for VET students seeking employment or striving for self-employment.Resulting from the research we identified three core problems that hamper the adequate soft skill development of VET students:-VET students lack soft skills for labour market integration because time for soft skill development is short in formal VET teaching-Potentials of digital and hybrid forms of education not utilised in the VET system-Lack of recognition and use of digital forms of teaching and learning inside formal VET educational frameworks and systemsIn order to tackle these core problems, the 24-months project “Digital quests for life skills” aims to contribute to the digitalisation of education in the VET sector through cross-sectoral cooperation for soft skill development of VET students.More specifically, the project pursues the following objectives:-To increase the integration of digital learning for soft skill development into VET education for business, computing and technical professions-To foster the recognition of digital and hybrid soft skill development programmes for VET studentsThe central activity of the project is to develop a unified hybrid learning programme on soft skill development of VET students. For the time being this programme is called DIGITALIS. It will be composed of two components:-VET Digital Learning Space for business, computing and technical professions-European VET Learner Award on soft skillsThe uniqueness of DIGITALIS is its gamified educational approach, the integration of practices and approach of the educational and the business sector, and the cross-sectoral cooperation that feeds into its development.While the VET Digital Learning Space is fully online and accessible from anywhere in the world, the European VET Learner Award combines distant learning components with a residential training phase and a public award ceremony.DIGITALIS is innovative because:-none of the few existing digital Learning Platforms in the VET sector uses a truly gamified approach to make learning a fun, challenging and rewarding process for VET students. Thus, the gamified approach of DIGITALIS is unprecedented.-the hybrid learning programme combining a VET Digital Learning Space and a European VET Learner Award is unique in Europe. No other programme like that exists.The development of DIGITALIS is side-lined by the realisation of two training activities and 9 multiplier events support project outreach, visibility and dissemination of its results.The project targets two distinct groups of participants as its primary target groups:-key VET stakeholders (e.g. VET teachers, HR personnel and WBL instructors, VET mobility coordinators and educational advisors working within CSOs)-VET students of business, computing and technical professions from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and SloveniaAt least 360 VET education stakeholders and 1600 VET students are expected to use the VET Digital Learning Space during the projects pilot phase.While the VET stakeholders are expected to increase their competence to integrate and use digital and hybrid learning programmes in their daily education work, the VET students’ soft skill development is expected to increase their employability and self-employability.The project also expects to impact the VET education system locally, regionally, nationally and on a European level in the following manner: -An increased recognition of digital and hybrid learning programmes for soft skill development of VET students-An increased readiness to use digital and hybrid learning programmes in their educational work with VET students-An Increased the willingness to seek cross-sectoral cooperation for skill and competence development of VET students-An increase the readiness to participate in international VET cooperation on a European scaleThe project brings together a partnership of cross-sectoral character composed of a VET centre (HU), a teacher association (SLO), a private company (DK), a network of entrepreneurs (SK), and two NGOs (HU, RO) facilitating European cooperation and supporting VET learner mobilities across Europe.

Youth unemployment has been a problem in Europe for a long time, but it took a particularly bad development with the economic crisis following the credit crunch of 2008.Even though economic observers claim economic recovery for large parts of Europe, the unemployment rates of young people are still double as high as those of the general population standing in November 2019 at 6,3% (EU28, total) respectively at 14,3 (EU28, youth). These leaves more than 3.200.000 young people without employment in the EU28. In Bosnia-Hercegovina and Montenegro, the unemployment rate of young people stands at 46% (BiH) and 26% (MNE) respectively in 2018.This being said, it is evident that youth employment is of high societal relevance and manifest one of the key challenges for young people. The EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 also highlights the importance of youth employment by formulating with the 7th European Youth Goal “Quality Employment for All” a separate goal on youth employment.In this context, civil society organisations play a crucial role to support the integration of young people into the labour market by using various educational and informational support measures. Accordong to the research “What Works in Soft Skills Development for Youth Employment?” (Youth Employment Funders Group, 2017) two aspects are key here:- Build coherence around Soft Skills (including a focussing on core skills while taking a holistic view)- Catalyse essential partnerships (including creating education and training partnerships with businesses, and developing linkages between CSOs, businesses and educational institutions)Accordingly, the 22-months project “YEES – Building local capacities for Youth Employability and Entrepreneurial Skills” aims to build sustainable capacities for youth employability and entrepreneurial skill development in BiH and MNE for local youth stakeholders by pursuing the following objectives:- To increase the competences of youth workers to foster young peoples` employment opportunities through educational and informational programmes including on entrepreneurship education- To strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation between CSOs, municipal youth structures and the private sector for raising youth employability and entrepreneurial soft skill development among young people- To enhance the availability and accessibility of educational resources and lifelong learning opportunities on youth employability and entrepreneurial soft skill developmentIn essence, the project intends to contribute to- fostering cooperation and exchanges in the field of youth between Programme Countries and Partner Countries from the Western Balkans- improving the quality and recognition of youth work and non-formal learning in the Western Balkans and enhance synergies and cooperation with the labour market and public sector- fostering the development, testing and launching of educational and informational programmes of non-formal learning on youth employability