Belgrade Open School organised the 8th Career Guidance and Counselling Fair, in cooperation with the National Association of Youth Offices. Unlike previous years, the Fair brought together not only school career guidance and counselling teams, but also representatives of civil society organisations and youth offices. Snežana Klašnja, Advisor for Youth Policy at the Ministry of Tourism and Youth, highlighted the importance of career counselling and guidance, as well as cross-sector cooperation in this field for the development of young people, their professional development, and career advancement. She emphasised that lifelong career counselling and guidance should begin at an early age.

At the eighth Fair, 15 career guidance and counselling programmes and activities were presented, showcasing their key results in improving young people’s employability skills. In addition to the competing exhibitors, the Fair was attended by more than 70 participants from schools, public institutions, the business sector, civil society organisations, and other interested stakeholders. Representatives from Subotica, Čačak, Belgrade, Niš, Šabac, Pančevo, Sečanj, Zrenjanin, Bor, Stara Pazova, Bač, and Požarevac presented their programmes and competed for valuable awards.

The jury, composed of Sanja Milojević (Secondary Vocational School, Kragujevac), Milena Mirić (Euroguidance Centre), Ramona Bacelj (Euroguidance Centre), Lazar Jovanović (Serbian Chamber of Commerce), and Aleksandra Đurović (Belgrade Open School), faced a challenging task of selecting the best teams across three different categories.

The award in the category of diversity of implemented career guidance and counselling activities was won by the Seventh Belgrade Grammar School. The award for innovation in career guidance and counselling was given to the Technical School “Ivan Sarić” from Subotica, while the award for cooperation in career guidance and counselling went to the Technical School from Bor.

In addition, commendations were awarded in several categories. The commendation for the best career guidance and counselling programme was given to the “Branko Radičević” Grammar School from Stara Pazova. In the category of development of local career guidance services, the commendation was awarded to the Career Centres Network within the E2E project. For the development of career counselling services for young people from vulnerable social groups, the commendation was awarded to Caritas Zrenjanin.

Through its Employability Improvement programme area, Belgrade Open School has been working since 2002 on establishing and developing career guidance and counselling services in Serbia. Over the past seven years, it has organised the Career Guidance and Counselling School Teams Fair, where more than 100 school teams have presented their activities as examples of good practice. The Fair has been attended by more than 800 representatives of schools, the public sector, and civil society organisations.

The 8th Career Guidance and Counselling Fair was implemented within the project “Quality Career Guidance and Counselling Services: Standards for Better Youth Employability”, implemented by the Belgrade Open School in cooperation with the National Association of Youth Offices, and supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Youth.