Sarajevo, May 19th 2015 – At the recently held MS NetWork 5 conference, a round table was organized regarding the topic on “How to keep the youth in B&H – can IT industry help?”. In addition to the Minister of Education, Science, and Youth of the Sarajevo Canton, Elvira Kazazović, and the Minister for Science and Technology of the Serbian Republic, Jasmin Komić, the round table was also attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technologies, Jasmin Azemović. Representatives from Apeiron University and companies such as Sys Company, Lanaco, HT Mostar, Mistral Technologies, Microsoft B&H and Microsoft Croatia were also present, as well as representatives from the British Council and USAID.
The moderator of the round table was Edin Mehić, founder of the Posao.ba portal, who in his introductory speech, emphasized the importance of the competitiveness of young people in the labor market, but also highlighted the fact that there are two labor markets in Bosnia and Herzegovina – competitive and non-competitive.
The aim of the meeting was the exchange of experiences, good practices, and challenges, with the adoption of specific conclusions and recommendations, which resulted in participants having a highly productive discussion. The unemployment rate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially among young people, is very high. In April, 2014, it amounted to 43.71%. At the same time, IT companies struggled to find qualified labor force. It was pointed out that in the future, it might be necessary for IT companies to develop their own staff rather than worry about recruiting individuals, because it is difficult to find skilled personnel in today’s market.
At the conference, a project was proposed by Microsoft that plans to address the above mentioned problems – Microsoft Skills Center (MS SC). The project represents a collaboration between the selected faculties in B&H and the Microsoft community, in order to reduce the gap between supply and demand in the labor market for ICT skills and occupations. The survey related to workforce conducted in 2013 showed that the negative trends in the market have the strongest impact on young populations between age 15 and 29, as shown by the following statistics:
- The unemployment rate in BiH is around 50% – which is much higher than the EU average of 25%
- More than 50% of young adults and youth in BiH are economically inactive – they’re unemployed, and are not actively seeking employment
- For the ones who are actively looking for employment, more than 50% of young adults and youth in BiH are waiting more than a year to get a job
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the real sector, to link the academic community with administrative bodies, and to identify concrete steps that can be taken to resolve these issues. Round table participants developed a list of proposals to be sent to the administrative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
ST
