Project description

Title: Reforming vocational education in Serbia
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Republic of Serbia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia
Overall term: 2001 to 2012

Context

Since 2000, Serbia has been undergoing a difficult economic and political transition, accompanied by high levels of unemployment, political instability and some degree of self-imposed political isolation. Furthermore, the restructuring is being carried out by institutions which have limited capacities and resources, and is taking place through processes which are not clearly defined.

Young people are particularly affected by the hardships associated with the transition process. Youth unemployment In Serbia is well above the European average. Around 80 per cent of Serbia’s young people have never visited another country.

Serbia’s vocational education and training system – a school-based system with vocational secondary schools – is in urgent need of reform. It is geared towards the skills requirements of a planned economy and does not adequately meet the needs of Serbia’s transition economy. The business community itself has low expectations of the system and shows very little interest in training.

Objective

The employability of young people equipped with useful qualifications from a secondary vocational school is improved.

Approach

The project centres on the reform of commercial training. It involves 46 schools – more than half the commercial schools in Serbia – in 39 towns and cities, around 9,600 students and more than 1,200 teaching staff.

The core concept is to establish a well-functioning subsystem of vocational training, to include standard vocational training programmes as well as motivational and organisational measures for teachers and school directors involved in the project. They are carrying out tasks which the institutions themselves do not perform due to a lack of human resources or sensitivity to training issues.

New commercial training occupations
The project has introduced five new training occupations. The starting point for the development of these occupations was provided by employment analyses carried out by Serbia’s Statistical Office and within the project framework. Industry experts were involved in developing the following occupational profiles:

• Business Administrator (2003, at 23 schools)
• Financial Administrator (2004, at 23 schools)
• Bank Clerk (2005, at 7 schools)
• Insurance Clerk (2007, at 9 schools)
• Commercialist (2007, at 19 schools).

The occupational profiles are designed to provide two types of qualification: they equip young people with workplace skills, but also qualify them to enter higher education.

Advanced training for teachers
New training profiles alone do not guarantee market-relevant qualifications, however. In parallel, the project has developed comprehensive advanced training schemes for teachers, with two dimensions:

• Methodological: The teachers learn how to encourage their students to engage in self-motivated learning and how to facilitate their learning processes. Active learning increases students’ motivation as they ‘learn how to learn’. This strengthens their core skills. With the support of the project, 25 advanced training schemes had been developed and accredited by the end of 2009.
• Thematic: The teachers receive advanced training, delivered by industry experts, for each new training occupation in a multi-stage training scheme. A theoretical introduction is followed by practical training and then coaching for the duration of the entire four-year pilot phase for each new occupation.

Practical training in virtual companies
The simulation of business operations in virtual companies at schools forms the core of the practical training. By the end of 2009, 162 of these virtual companies had been set up. Seven pilot schools have even simulated banking operations in virtual banks, working with banking software commonly used in the Western Balkans and donated by the Pexim company.

The practical training also includes simulation of trade fairs. Every two years, the students present their virtual companies and products at a nationwide training company fair. Some training companies also attend international trade fairs in other countries. The most recent training company fair was attended by 2,900 students and adults, even though it took place at a venue some distance from Belgrade.

New vocational school-leaving certificates
New training occupations and methods require new types of examination. With support from the Ministry of Education, the project has developed a new final examination system which enables students to demonstrate their planning, decision-making and practical skills by completing practical tasks and case studies. Around 170 teachers are involved in this project component at present, and in 2009 they developed around 1,000 theoretical and 250 practical exercises for the new examinations.

Associations of teachers and school directors
Around 250 teachers and 40 school directors are actively involved in the project in line with the principle of subsidiarity. Alongside their normal workplace commitments, they take on additional project tasks on a voluntary basis. They are involved in developing challenging practical exercises for use in examinations, devising seminars, training teachers, monitoring, revising the curricula, arranging nationwide training company fairs and much more. School directors develop proposals for legislative and regulatory amendments, provide training for their professional colleagues, and deal with school development.

Teaching staff have established an association, known as Dositej, while school directors have set up their own association. Both these organisations work with partner associations in Germany.

Both organisations are supporting the Ministry of Education by actively contributing to vocational education reform. They provide advice to the Ministry, and develop standards for equipment and pilot schools.

The future financing of these activities is secure. The two associations are funded from the services – mainly training for teaching staff and school directors – delivered by the associations’ trainers. By the time the project ends in 2012, the associations will be organised on a permanent basis as civil society organisations in the training sector and will thus be able to maintain the structures created by the project on an independent basis.

Results achieved so far

More than 9,600 students are currently training for the five new commercial occupations at 46 vocational schools in 39 towns and cities across the country. The pilot schools have set up more than 160 virtual companies.

The project has trained 22 teachers as trainers. They in turn have delivered advanced training to more than 1,600 teachers and developed seven seminar programmes with a total training time of 580 hours. Three further programmes are being developed at present.

Around 2,100 students have completed the ‘Business Administrator’ training, and approximately 1,200 have successfully completed the ‘Financial Administrator’ training.

Roughly 250 teachers are working on a voluntary basis, alongside their workplace commitments, in 21 project working groups, and 35 school directors are members of six school directors’ working groups.

To date, two ‘training office’ fairs have taken place. More than 6,000 students from across Serbia have attended the fairs.

The newly established teachers’ association ‘Dositej’ has forged links with the Association of Business School Teachers in Germany.

Further information

• Association of Teachers ‘Dositej’
  http://www.dositej.org.yu