Regional Entrepreneurial Learning Partnership Building Forum in Skopje was held from October 26 to 28, in Skopje- North Macedonia.
After welcome and opening remarks by Mariana Angelova from National Youth Council of Macedonia and Darko Radičanin from Junior Achievement Serbia the first panel on the Forum begun.
Panel named “The importance of entrepreneurship education” was moderated by Nikola Mićunović from Junior Achievement Montenegro.
Participants of this panel were Blerina Guga (JA Albania), Kristina Velkovska Dias (JA Europe), Ljupka Panchevska (JA Macedonia), Emine Secil Celebi (JA Turkey) and Nebojša Bjelotomić (Digital Serbia Initiative).
JA in Europe has 43 members and also a unique program when it comes to the entrepreneurship education of student and youth and helping them to establish their companies and gain entrepreneurial knowledge. Speakers shared good practices from their countries and also pointed out that every action of each member of JA do represents learning experience which includes success but also and failures,but open mind, vision, passion and innovation are the most important thing on this way.
On the second day of the Forum first panel named “Regulation framework for youth and student companies in Western Balkans and Turkey” was moderated by Marko Stojanović from Westerm Balkans Institute. Participants of this panel were Kristijan Panev (BY LEAP national consultant from North Macedonia), Gerion Treska (JA Albania), Ivan Piper ( BY LEAP national consultant from Montenegro) and Miodrag Savović (Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia).
The second panel named “Strategic partnerships for youth entrepreneurship in the region” is in progress. The moderator is Filip Kulakov from National Youth Council of Macedonia and participants are Enver Husejin (Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Polity of North Macedonia), Marko Gjorgevski (Director of National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility, North Macedonia), Marijana Marinković (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia), Mladen Perazić (Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro), Mariana Angelova (Youth Council of Macedonia) and Vukasin Grozdanovic (OPENS Association Serbia).
The last panel of the Forum “Support to youth and student entrepreneurship & success stories from the Western Balkans” was moderated by Ksenija Milić from Junior Achievement Serbia. Participants of the last panel were Nenad Stojanović (Director of Coworking Association of Serbia), Nikica Mandzukovski (Association Youth Can- BY LEAP Grantee), Marko Nišavić (BY LEAP Business Transformation Mentor Montenegro), Andjela Kanjo ( representative of successful student company in Serbia) and Celik Kubilay Oren (BY LEAP Mentor from Turkey).
One of the main conclusions were indicating the need of provision of funds that will help young entrepreneurs to establish their business and that entrepreneurship is way of thinking that involves less talk and more work.
The forum aimed to encourage building partnerships in the region between all stakeholders for youth and student entrepreneurship, and was attended by over 120 participants from civil society organizations, representatives of institutions and the business sector, the youth sector, young entrepreneurs and successful student and youth companies from North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey.
Attendees had the opportunity to discuss the regulatory framework for youth and student companies in the Western Balkans region and Turkey, as well as the potential for strategic partnerships for youth entrepreneurship.
This event is organized in the scope of the BY LEAP Project (Balkans Youth: Linking Education, Abilities and Partnership Potential in Regional Employment Practice) funded by the European Union and implemented by Junior Achievement in Serbia (coordinator), National Youth Council of Macedonia , JA Albania, Western Balkans Institute – WEBIN, JA Turkey, Munja Business Incubator Sarajevo, Student Business Center and JA Europe.