Job shadowing activities are important for support partnership building based on trust and understanding, peer learning, and creation of common vision for the sector. Each project partner by the end of the project will host 2 representatives coming from local including rural CSOs and grassroots organizations enabling 14 participants to join the program for two months each.

The on the job mentoring for them is envisaged to cover topics related to the general operations, key annual events organization lessons learnt and dos and don’ts  in partnership practices with other CSOs. So we are very happy to introduce you with our five mentees from North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.

First of them is Sara Ristevska who was mentee in NYCM in North Macedonia, during may and june. Her mentor, Aleksandra Filipova reported that Sara achieved all planned requirements. Sara was helping the NYCM staff to fulfill the organizational administrative procedures for different project activities, and also closely collaborating with the Membership coordinator and International affairs and policy coordinator in order to gain additional knowledge for youth policies and youth participation.

Sara was also working on different tools for improving internal and external communication of the NYCM. “The Job shadowing experience in this organization further increased my interest and motivation to continue working in the youth sector and to improve the position of young people in North Macedonia”, said Sara Ristevska.

Azra Šogolj from Bosnia and Herzegovina was working as part time Project Assistant, Social Media Manager and Platform Editor in MUNJA Social Innovation Incubator for 2 months- from January 17th to March 17th. Azra acquired knowledge in many aspects, such as NGO management, event management, social media (Instagram, Facebook, Canva, YouTube,etc), ability to meet deadlines, flexibility, communications skills, ability to work alone and project implementations. 

She is member of the non profit organization “Index” from Goražde and as she said, this job shadowing helped her`s communication and organizational skills. “This experience is very useful for my personal development, and also for the development of “Index”. I can transfer my knowledge form NGO management, social media, event management, etc., to my colleagues there”, Azra explained. 

Third mentee is Hanifa Bulić who was working on the same position as Azra, also for two months- from August 16th to October 15th. Her tasks were to make content for social media (Instagram) on Canva and posting it and searching for opportunities and interesting contents (advices, information etc.) for young people and posting it to web platform (hocu.ba). 

Hanifa mentioned that this experience was really worthwhile for her. “Beside the improvement of my interpersonal skills, I had a support for the projects that my team and I were working on in our organization (Student Council). We expandend our networks with contacts of many companies and individuals who had important role for the projects we were working on”, said Hanifa. 

Nejla Murić from NGO Karika in Montenegro was chosen to work for two months in Student Business Center in Podgorica. She was in charge of graphic design and creating content for social networks. Thanks to Nejla, the progress can be seen in the content shared on SBC social networks,  and in the creation of content that influences young people to be much more interested in this organization and their activities.

Nejla explained that this was a really beneficial experience for her. “I was able to perform what PR and graphic design do allthe time. In addition to these duties, I was involved in other segments, such as project preparation and implementation, beginning with project documentation preparation, contacting participants, communication, implementation, reporting, and all other activities. A priceless
experience that cannot be obtained anywhere else”, said Nejla.

During november and december Denis Alizoti was part of JA Albania.  He was assisting the Education Manager on daily tasks, had direct involvement in preparing and implementing By leap activities and he was helping with successful implementation of JAA activities.

Denis said that he had such a great experience working at Junior Achievement of Albania even if it was for such a short period of time. “This shadowing experience taught me procedures done in a variety of programs that I got lucky to be part of. Programs like: BY LEAP, Debating Economics, Financial Bootcamp, Startup and Leader for a Day, in which I was previously a participant and now part of the organization team”, explained Alizoti.