Programme description

Title: German business internship programme for the countries of the Western Balkans
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia
Overall term: 2011 to 2013

Context

The positive economic development of recent years in all Western Balkan nations is driving demand for qualified, skilled staff in growth industries. Yet young newcomers seeking careers on the labour markets of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Macedonia are frequently inadequately qualified to meet the needs of today’s business enterprises. Their university education focuses strongly on theory, and generally does not require internships as a mandatory component of training, so businesses hardly offer such placements. Consequently, young graduates often lack the skills and experience needed to implement theoretical knowledge in practical applications.

Objective

The employability of young people entering the labour market in the Western Balkan states has improved. This improvement is helping drive economic reconstruction, and a network aimed at promoting German business and industry is establishing itself in the region.

Approach

The project enables young people at the start of their careers to gain practical experience in German companies and to use their skills to help drive economic development in their native countries. Working in close cooperation with the German private sector, corporate internship placements are arranged with German businesses for highly qualified students and young graduates from the participating countries. An accompanying programme of events is organised for the intern groups, along with regional follow-up gatherings and other alumni activities.

The programme thus supports economic reconstruction in the Western Balkan states and establishes a network for German business and industry throughout the region. It also serves to transfer German expertise to the private sector in these economies while simultaneously bolstering the image of economic cooperation with this region in the eye of the German public.

These efforts additionally aim to foster regional cooperation and reconciliation in the Western Balkans by stimulating networking and exchange between the young talents from these various countries. The programme thus builds on strategies for European integration and for regional cooperation and reconciliation among the Western Balkan states.

The German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA) is in charge of implementing the internship programme. Its major partners are the Dr Zoran Djindjic Fund in Belgrade and the offices of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce Abroad in the individual countries involved.

Results achieved so far

Including the 2010 class of interns, to date a total of 280 students and young graduates have completed internships at some 65 leading German enterprises. Follow-up tracer studies of the classes of 2004 to 2009 reveal the following about the internship alumni:

• Some 30 percent continued their studies after returning home.
• 9 percent have found employment at national institutions in their native countries.
• 18 percent work for national companies in their native countries.
• 16 percent are employed by foreign businesses.
• 20 percent have continued working for the same company that hosted their internship.
• 6 percent have been hired by some other German business.
• 1 percent are unemployed and looking for work.

Taken as whole, these efforts are creating a cross-industry network of well-qualified young employees dispersed throughout the region. Indeed, the programme enjoys considerable political attention among its Balkan partners as well as in Germany.

The 60 leading companies that have hosted such training internships so far include Deutsche Bank AG, Daimler AG, Metro AG, Siemens AG, Bilfinger Berger Industrial Services AG, SAP AG, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG WPG, SMS Demag AG, E.ON Ruhrgas AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Commerzbank AG, Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd. & Co. KG, WAZ Media Group, MAN Ferrostaal AG, LEMKEN GmbH & Co. KG, RWE Aktiengesellschaft, GAZPROM Germania GmbH, ThyssenKrupp AG, KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (audit, advisory and tax services), Software AG, John Deere, KION GROUP GmbH, TUI AG and Volkswagen AG.

Further information

• German Business Internship Programme
  http://www.stipendienprogramm.org
• German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OA)
  http://www.ost-ausschuss.de
• Dr Zoran Djindjic Fund
  http://www.fond-djindjic.org