Asocijacija nezavisnih elektronskih medija
Association of Independent Electronic Media
Beograd, Marsala Birjuzova 13a, tel/fax: ++ 381 11 2622 467, 3286 355
„Better Serbia“ month III, October 2007
25 features were produced for the third month of the project „Better Serbia“, to be broadcast
between October 1 and November 2, on each work day of the month.
Feature topics are from the wider area of Education and employment.
Topics, authors and broadcast dynamics:
1. Nis – Employment of single mothers. By Aleksandra Stankovic
80 percent of members of the Association of single mothers in Nis is unemployed. In order to
help them get a job, Association organized a basic computer training and English language course
for single mothers. In addition, they also organized remedial classes for their children in several
school subjects and classes to prepare them for addmission tests for high schools.
This project was supported by „Philip Moris“ company.
2. Kikinda – Find a job through job fair. By Milan Cekrdzin
Branch office of the National Employment Service in Kikinda is one of the most active regarding
organization of job fairs. Every year, they organize several fairs in five towns in Vojvodina –
Kikinda, Senta, Coka, Kanjiza and Ada. They are visited by several hundreds, sometimes
thousands of people.
3. Belgrade – Experimental education of bank clerks. By Ana Korelec
Virtual bank office has been opened in the First Economic High School in Belgrade and its
employees are pupils who attend the course for bank clerks. In this experimental school unit,
classes usually starts by role play: several pupils play clerks, others bank clients.
This experimental education in banking has been introduced into 7 school in Serbia so far, and
the number of pupils will depend on the labour market requirements.
4. Vranje – Private employment agency. By Zorana Radulovic
The biggest success of the local branch office of the National Employment Service in Vranje was
to reduce the number of unemployed simply by erasing 2.000 names due to irregular checking
into the office. In the meantime, private S.O.S. Plus agency employed over 400 people for little
over a year. Hiring services are charged only to employers and only upon hiring the profile that
they required, says Sonja Stefanovic, coordinator and the only employee of the agency.
5. Kragujevac – Employment of people on welfare support who are fit for work. By Gorica
Gligorijevic
There are almost 30.000 unemployed people in Kragujevac and, during several generations,
almost one in four families starts using welfare support. By analyzing the welfare users, city
management determined that 80% of them are fit for work. Therefore, they separated the welfare
support programmes: they offer jobs to those who are fit for work while their families are still on
welfare, but those who unjustifiably refuse work are denied further support.
6. Belgrade – Training for specific employer. By Ana Korelec
Ljubisa Milovanovic graduated from civil engineering high school six years ago, but all his
previous employments so far were officially illegal. He was invited by the National Employment
Service to a training for a welder for a specific employer. He accepted the training as he heard
that welders have solid salaries.
The training is financed by the National Employment Service and the employer is obliged to
offer full employment to all successful trainees.
7. Kraljevo – employment of the handicapped. By Nenad Bozovic
Goran Popovic from Kraljevo is 36, but he could not get a job for years on account of his
handicap. He has been recently employed by a company which sells optical cables.
Ivica Glisovic, 32, a locksmith, is also handicapped. He was employed three years ago by a
company in Kraljevo which gladly hires handicapped people.
The incentive was given by the branch of National Employment Service in Kraljevo that finances
the equipment and expenses of the position during the first year of employment.
8. Belgrade – Training for caretakers for the aged. By Ana Korelec
A hundred unemployed women had finished a training for caretakers for the aged during summer
and they were immediately employed. As a result, 300 aged people got support. Women of
various educational profiles and ages applied for this job. They were either unemployed and had
been working illegally for years.
9. Kragujevac – Inclusive education method for handicapped children. By Gorica
Gligorijevic
In the future, handicapped children from Kragujevac will be enrolled into pre-school institutions
with other children instead of being placed into special institutions. Center for inclusive
education, which was formed earlier in the year as part of “Nada Naumovic“ institution for
children, supervises the process of inclusion of the children into pre-school and school system.
10. Mladenovac – Serbian language classes for Roma children. By Ana Korelec
During summer, Roma children in Mladenovac were able to improve their knowledge of Serbian
language, which is often their main impediment in education. Zoran Beljakovic, director of the
School for education of adults, says that children have made good progress through work and
play. Classes were financed by municipality of Mladenovac, which has around 7.000 Roma
citizens. They introduced these classes after the results of analysis had revealed that Roma
children have difficulties in following classes due to language barrier: they fall behind and
ultimately, drop out of school.
11. Belgrade – Course for unemployed women. By Ana Korelec
Women are the largest sub-group within the unemployed population in Serbia. On average,
women wait for employment longer than men with same qualifications.
Dubravka Dobrosinovic Ilic, 40, is a journalist who lost her job three years ago. Dubravka
decided to start her own business after going through the training for unemployed organized by
the Committee for gender equality of Municipality of Rakovica and the Association of business
women.
12. Cacak – Employment fairs. By Zorica Kreculj
National Employment Service office in Cacak has organized four employment fairs during this
year. After more than a year of job hunting, Ana found a job at one of these fairs, as a business
secretary in “ Sveti Sava“ educational center. Director of the center, Katarina Krstic believes that
job fairs are the best way of communication between employers and potential employees.
13. Nis – Studying via Internet. By Aleksandra Stankovic
Software development company Uniforgold from Nis and Faculty of information technologies in
Belgrade organized a special educational programme that enables free-of-charge studying and a
guaranteed job. Students follow lectures via Internet in company’s business premises in Nis.
Goran Ciric, director of the company says that it is very hard to find experts of the specific
profile they seek and therefore, financing their education is a good return on investment.
14. Belgrade – Project for continuation of education. By Ana Korelec
Around 50.000 people under 18 years of age in Belgrade did not finish high school, do not have a
diploma or any qualifications. Marica, Jelena and Janko are continuing their education which they
have interrupted more than a year ago, each from its own personal reasons. As thousands of
other Belgrade citizens, they received an invitation, sent to their home address, to apply for
education for jobs in short supply, within city programme “School – a friendly place for all” .
15. Subotica – Center for Roma education. By Milan Cekrdzin
Roma educational center in Subotica is engaged in inclusion of Roma citizens into local
environment, primarily through education, starting with pre-school. Assistant works in every
school and kindergarden attended by Roma children and helps them to overcome language
barrier and create a connection between school and family.
Stevan Nikolic, president of Center’s Management Board, says that one has to start with the
youngest in order to break up this chain: povery – illiteracy – unemployment – poverty that keeps
Romas at margins of society.
16. Belgrade – „Prisma“ programme for retraining. By Ana Korelec
Goran Cenic, 44, was a non-commissioned officer who was retired early as army’s redundant
personnel. He worked as aircraft mechanic, same as Fehim Dubrovac. He was included into
retraining programme called PRISMA.
Retraining programme for redundant army personnel has started in 2004. More than 800 officers
have been retrained so far and subsequently, half of them found new jobs.
17. Valjevo – Job hunting club. By Sladjana Stevanovic
Dragan Nikolic, economist, managed to find a job in his field of training after a long period of
time, but only after he had been trained by the Job hunting club of the National Employment
Service office in Valjevo. He learned, among other things, how to be more presentable to
potential employers.
18. Kraljevo – Training in virtual company. By Nenad Bozovic
High school for economy and trade in Kraljevo introduced a course, for now experimental, for
business administrators. Pupils learn through simulation of work of a real company: they become
„employees“ in this virtual company and calculate taxes, purchasing and selling prices, while
pupils from other schools acts as buyers and suppliers.
19. Pancevo – Electronic school diary. By Ana Korelec
Since last year, apart from standard school diary, primary school “Vasa Zivkovic” in Pancevo has
the electronic school diary on the school’s website. Parents can regularly follow up on success of
their children and pupils themselves can check their grades at any time.
Tomislav Stosic, director, says that attempts to steal, burn or destroy school diaries have been
completely eliminated.
20. Majdanpek – Inclusion of handicapped in schools. By Dejan Zlatic
Handicapped children are less and less separated from other pupils in the primary school
„Velimir Markicevic“ in Majdanpek. Special-education teacher Miodrag Cokic says that these
children are included in all school activities along with others. They use the multimedia classroom
equally with other children and their favorites are also computer games.
21. Belgrade – Support to partially sighted. By Ana Korelec
There are 12.000 officially registered blind and partially sighted people in Serbia and most of
them are unemployed. Ramadan Alijevic is partially sighted and working at computer is quite
strenuous for him. He was in the first group of handicapped which finished a three-month
training for working on computers via speech software and now for him work is easier and more
independent. Purpose of training is for the blind and partially sighted people to acquire additional
skills and therefore, find jobs easier.
22. Novi Becej –„My school – school without violence“. By Milan Cekrdzin
„Josif Marinkovic“ school in Novi Becej is one of 70 schools in Serbia which conducts a Unicef
programme – „My school – school without violence“. Goal is to reduce violence among children
and violence of adults over children. Children learn to solve conflicts without violence and
teachers learn to be more attentive and listen, says special-education teacher Rajka Pavlovic.
23. Obrenovac – Remedial classes for Roma girls. By Ana Korelec
Nevena is one of 30 Roma girls from Obrenovac municipality who continued primary school
after leaving it ten or more years ago. She is an unemployed single parent. In a year, she will
finish fifth and sixth school grades within the project „Encouraging Roma girls to primary
education”.
24. Cacak – High school pupils’ hostel. By Zorica Kreculj
Although high school pupils’ hostel in Cacak is not the best and most modernly equippped, its
residents – pupils are satisfied because extra curriculum activities are well organized and there is
also a large number of clubs. Average pupils’ grade is 4,5 out of 5 and teacher Bratislav Dezanic
says that there are very few pupils who are not included in any of the activities.
25. Loznica – New sports hall. By Sladjana Stevanovic
Primary school „Vuk Karadzic“ was opened more than 40 years ago but it was only recently that
they got the new modern sports hall. Its construction began 14 years ago, they ran out of
resources and stopped. The construction was resumed after a former pupil donated funds from
abroad.
Children say that the sports hall is excellent.
Project “Better Serbia” is funded by European Union through Media Fund – programme for support to
professional media development in Serbia – managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction and
technically implemented by Press Now
Project is realised due to financial support of European Union. Programme content is solely the responsibility of ANEM
and it does not represent views of the European Union.