Taiex Seminar on Building Opportunities for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Republic of Serbia National Employment Service The Role of Active Labour Market Policy Measures for Youth Employment Bratislava, May 2016

Definition of youth Republic of Serbia (Law on Youth) – persons aged between Reasons for adopting a more flexible approach:  poverty  low rate of youth employment

Characteristics of unemployed youth in Serbia Vulnerable group in the labour market, exposed to the increased risk of poverty Difficulties while entering the world of labour Lack of work experience They usually enter the world of labour through temporary and underpaid jobs and stick to them Exposed to informal employment Lower quality of employment, compared to adult persons:  lower salaries  less opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills necessary for permanent employment Become jobless more easily

Youth labour market indicators in Serbia Indicators* Youth (15-24) Working age population (15-64) Unemployment rate38.8%17.3% Employment rate18.3%53.2% High unemployment rate – the possibility of unemployment is doubled, compared to general population *Source: III quarter of 2015.

Characteristics of registered youth unemployment in Serbia Large participation of youth unemployment (15-29): 186,893 (25.2%) Most of them are first-time jobseekers: 116,484 (62.3%) 51.5% looking for a job more than 12 months Source: NES, I 2016

Structure of unemployed youth in Serbia 1.6% - PWDs 4.0% - Roma 50.5% - women Unfavourable status of unemployed young women – their participation in the total women unemployment is 24.9% Source: NES, I 2016

Structure of unemployed youth in Serbia Unfavourable education structure of unemployed youth 18.9% - without qualifications 22.2% - with higher education 58.7% - with secondary school education Source: NES, I 2016

Youth employment in 2015 Young persons are mainly employed in the following fields of economic activity: Geology, mining and metallurgy % Agriculture, food production and processing % Mechanical engineering and metal processing % Areas of social and humanistic sciences - 9.9% Upbringing and education - 9.0% Chemical industry, non-metal industry and graphic design - 8.3% Young persons with the following occupations/educational profiles are the most commonly employed: economic technician, mechanical technician, automotive technician, seller, nurse, cook, graduate economist, road traffic technician, food-processing technician

Causes of youth unemployment in Serbia Overall economic situation and changes in the economy Lack of job - seeking experience Low mobility of youth Increased expectations of employers in terms of education level, specific knowledge and skills Employers prefer persons with work experience Employers prefer to engage young persons without concluding employment contract

Legal and strategic base for tackling the issues of youth unemployment and inactivity The ministry in charge of employment and NES are responsible for the creation and the implementation of employment policies and activities Several legal and strategic documents (directly focused on the better position of youth in various spheres of life) have been adopted: National Youth Strategy National Employment Strategy 2011 ‒ 2020 Economic Reforms Programme (ERP) Employment and Social Policy Reform Programme (ESRP), etc. One of the key objectives of all strategic documents – enhancing the youth employability and employment

National Employment Strategy Youth – one of the policy priorities In order to offer larger opportunities and improve the position of youth, the Strategy envisages: Introduction of the system of integrated services Special programmes and measures for youth employment Young persons often have multi-field problems (there are prospective clients of various institutions) Tackling the problem of youth exclusion through building connections and cooperation among the key institutions: NES, Centres for Social Work, education institutions, youth offices, local self- governments, etc.

National employment action plan 2016: Service package for youth A set of steps for keeping workable and useful the competences (knowledge and skills), relevant for competitive labour market entrance and avoiding long-term unemployment of youth Includes: Employability assessment for young unemployed persons Development of individual employment plan and identification of the most adequate measures for enhancing activation and employability Job placement services or participation in active employment policy measures that may contribute to successful placement (information and counselling on career development opportunities, vocational practice, employment subsidies, support to self-employment, functional elementary education programme, acquiring of practical knowledge, etc.)

Participation of youth in ALMP in 2015 Measure Number of youth included Youth share in the total number of persons Career guidance and counselling services236, % Job mediation223, % Active job seeking measures21, % Job club2, % Training in active job seeking13, % Motivation/activation training5, % Job fairs22, % Vocational guidance16, % Provision of information about career development possibilities 3, % Career development counselling6, % Selection for employment8, %

Participation of youth in ALMP in 2015 Measure Number of youth included Youth share in the total number of persons Further education and training programmes4, % Vocational training programmes3, % Training in response to labour market needs1, % Entrepreneurship development and employment programmes 9, % Entrepreneurship stimulation and development programmes 5, % Subsidies for job creation and workplace adaptation 2, % Public works1, % PWD subsidy programmes % Programmes under Local Employment Action Plans 4, % Total included 238,955 (33.3%) youth in all ALMPs

NES plans for 2016 aimed at promoting youth employment Development of new models and services for supporting youth employment at the local level, through local partnership, with the support of EU IPA new Career Guidance and Counselling Centres – CGCC: 10 within NES premises 10 within local governments’ premises Installation of 80 new self-service workstations in the premises of local governments

NES plans for 2016 aimed at promoting youth employment 60 new job clubs: 20 within NES premises and 40 within local governments’ premises Launching of the ’Employment Caravan’ pilot service in 21 NES branch offices – mobile employment teams improving accessibility of NES services to the population in rural and remote areas

Support to self - employment Support to self-employment includes professional assistance, training in entrepreneurship and self-employment subsidies 1.Professional assistance for self-employment purposes is offered to job seekers through information and advisory services in NES

Support to self - employment 2. NES is engaged in organising training programs for acquiring entrepeneurial knowledge and skills:  Defining the business idea  Legal aspects of self employment  Taxes and contributions  Business plan workshop 3. Support through self – employment subsidies 4. Support during the first years of business operation is provided through mentoring programmes and specialised trainings.

Encouragement of youth entrepreneurship The educational process is still in the approaches that do not support sufficiently entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial culture The education system prepares young people more to get a job, a lot less to create a job Requires an educational system which would be driven by entrepreneurship at all levels of education, from primary school to university

Republic of Serbia National Employment Service