“I had no job of any kind, I was looking for work. I completed high school for mechanical technician and I hope to get a full time job here.” These are hopeful words of Edin Tahirović from Skokovi, Cazin municipality, young father of three years old boy. He is one of 110 trainees, beneficiaries of the project “Models of employment for young people in Una-Sana Canton” implemented by the Development Agency of Una-Sana Canton with support of Save the Children.
Based on received feedback, Save the Children started to consider various models of vocational education for young people that would allow them to get employment and improve living conditions for their families. Una-Sana Canton was selected as project implementation site for several reasons: unemployment rate in this canton reaches almost 60%, even though this region has great economy potentials and long standing tradition in wood and metal processing and food industry. In addition, newly adopted Law on Education of Adults in Una-Sana Canton prompted cooperation between education and business sector that resulted in development of new vocational education programs and coordinated activities of education, state, business and civil sectors with the aim to ensure efficient use of existing resources, increase of competencies and job creation.
The director of Development Agency of Una-Sana Canton Haris Komić underlines an increase in employment rate in manufacturing industry in this Canton in 2014, where significant percentage of newly created jobs were created through the Agency’s efforts.
“It is important to emphasize that the highest number of newly employed persons are young people. We believe we achieved impressive results through this program and we will invest even more efforts in order to ensure funding for continuation of support to the private sector and employment through such projects, “ stresses Komić.
This project showed that a lot can be achieved through cooperation between state, civil and private sector through synergic action and fund-matching. Besides Save the Children, funds for this project were provided by the Federal Employment Bureau and municipalities from Una-Sana Canton.
(Source: savethechildren)
