The EU funded project Education for Employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina successfully concluded its activities on June 16, 2023.
In an effort to overcome a high unemployment rate and a huge mismatch between the education system and the demands of the labour market, in the past 33 months of its activity, the project worked intensively on developing and strengthening human resources within the education sector in accordance with the demands of the labour market in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project principal beneficiaries and partners were representatives of educational authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, headed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH. Through variety of jointly conducted activities, BiH institutions received support in improving the capacity and the structure for planning the educational process and improving its quality.
Some of the most significant project results and achievements include, among others, developing over 100 drafts of study programs for 10 different study courses at eight public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the current world trends in the field of education.
The draft curricula have been developed as part of the training on Implementation of Occupational/Qualification Standards in Teaching Study Programs, which was successfully completed by 65 university teachers. The primary goal of the training was for attending university teachers to gain the knowledge and skills which would enable them to independently develop study programs based on learning outcomes referring to specific occupational/qualification standards. Upon completed training, five public universities out of a total of eight, will for the first time create a dual-subject study system; the existing system will be improved at two universities, while one university aims to develop a teaching module for two different faculties that share the same subject which include teaching competencies.
As part of project activities, a large number of useful materials were produced for the training sessions and developed by the team and the working groups. These were handed over to educational authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina for future implementation. They include the Manual on Implementation of Occupational/Qualification Standards in BiH Study Programs, the Manual on Preparation of External Exams, the Guide for Monitoring and Evaluation of Educational Initiatives, the draft Manual on Training Teachers on Integration of Digital and Entrepreneurial Competences in Teaching and Learning in Elementary and Secondary Schools in BIH, the Manual on Professional Orientation in the Ninth Grade of Elementary School, the proposed Model on Continuous Professional Development of Teachers, among many others.
During the three-month extension of the Education for Employment project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a pilot project of external examinations was implemented in 13 BiH high schools. Regular external examination of students’ achievements is a standard procedure for monitoring educational outcomes in well-developed education systems throughout the EU and worldwide.
The above mentioned results were accomplished through intensive and productive efforts made by project team, 22 project working groups and the Steering Committee, whose members were representatives of all ministries of education in BiH, as well as representatives of pedagogical institutes, employment institutes, educational agencies, and the teachers themselves as direct participants in the educational process.
The Education for Employment project was implemented through four project components, as follows: Transition from Education to Work, Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Accordance with the Demands of the Labour Market, Reform of Initial Teacher Education, and Human Resources Development in Education Sector
