STRATEGIC DIRECTION Youth Employability Program Studio Moderna

 Studio Moderna is the largest direct marketing company in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in Slovenia in 1992 and now has a presence in 19 other CEE countries. It has an average of 100hrs of infomercials, spots and live-to-tape shopping shows broadcasting daily on 100 terrestrial, cable, and local TV channels, reaching over 320 million people. FOR MORE INFO...

Situation in Balkans  Rates of youth unemployment vary from 20% in Croatia, up to 40 % in Macedonia and Serbia and they go up to staggering 60% in some of the regions (e.g. Kosovo)  Poverty is the most exuberant problem and the slow economic transition where young people’s poverty rate is 3 times higher than in EU.

Project Vision 10 countries of SEE 10 years 10 years 10 x 10 x 10 employed 10 employed________________________________________ TOTAL employed youth

Project Goals  Fight against high youth unemployment in Balkans  Providing economical and technical support for young unemployed people  Promoting unique cooperation between businesses and NGOs

Strategies:  Working on creation of favourable youth policies through various measures:  Matching young interns with companies and institutions  Providing employability trainings for unemployed youth  Providing young people with start-up grants for small businesses FOR MORE INFO...

What we did  Studio Moderna partnered with Balkan Children and Youth Foundation in the project Youth Employment Program for European Macedonia (2006) and Kosovo (2007)  183 young people employed (more than 60% of interns stay in the companies after the internship period)  More than 20 young people involved in cross-border job-learning exchanges  100 business involved in the program  More than 400 youth gained employability skills  Networking with IYF though Clinton Global Initiative established

SM Model - youth social entrepreneurship

Project phases  Studio Moderna supported the pilot phase of the employability program in Macedonia in 2006, Kosovo from 2007 and is planning to replicate it into other countries in the region FOR MORE INFO Phase pilot - Macedonia Phase scaling up -Kosovo Maturity phase - extension to other countries Phase scaling up Croatia, Serbia

Funds  The pilot phase of the project proved to be highly efficient, with low transaction cost, good replication potential and economy of scale  Budget estimation is that for $, up to 1000 youth per country could be employed  For 2,5 mil. $ in maturity phase of the project, young people could gain employment opportunities

Media and promotion  Media promotion through SM and other electronic media  Networking with business and institutions  Word of mouth  CGI, IYF and other partners  Through sharing and support of best practices  Project “allumni clubs” - Young Moderns  Publication and dissemination of “What works in youth social entrepreneurship”