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SOCIETY
Ivana Aleksic
Senior Education Consultant
Serbia & Wider Europe, British Council
Engaging Employers in
the Western Balkans –
How and Why?
E ver since the start of the education systems need to be looking
global economic crisis, across the boundaries of their sector
countries have been on a in an effort to align their work with
hunt for new and innova- demand for new skills and jobs. Al-
tive approaches to mobi- though much of the public discourse
lising both firms and individuals in is evolving around the concept of in-
hope of an economic revival—a better creased competitiveness, it is fair to
response to today’s skills and produc- say that this is a struggle for economic
tivity challenges. A lot of pressure has survival.
been put on education systems to de-
liver modernised programmes to en- Employers can help. By engaging
sure a skills match between what is them in the work on education re-
taught in schools and what is needed form, we can increase relevance of
in the labour market. In the Western education programmes and improve
Balkans, the past several years have supply of needed skills. In the West-
been marked by the struggle of edu- ern Balkan countries, some regional
cation authorities to find new ways considerations need to be taken into
of addressing these challenges. The account as well. These countries still
key words in today’s education reform fight the legacy of a very different eco-
include employability, qualifications nomic model inherited from socialist
frameworks, entrepreneurial learn- times, both educators and employers
ing, workplace learning, to mention a have low awareness about the ben-
few. All of them clearly indicate that efits of employers’ involvement in ed-
ucation reform and they are still not
50 November 2015
