According to data from 2019, a small number of young people in Serbia have access to career guidance services (according to a survey on the position and needs of youth, as many as 49% of youth have never participated in career guidance activities), which is why it is important to work and implement quality career guidance services that will be available to all students in order to empower as many young people as possible to make professional decisions. Quality career guidance services can have a positive impact on improving the employability of youth in Serbia, preventing unemployment and positive personal and professional development.

During August 22-23, the Belgrade Open School team organized training in order to strengthen the competencies of teachers for the implementation of career guidance and counseling services for high school students in order to empower their career management skills.

The certified training "One step further towards comprehensive and quality services of career guidance and counseling “ realized within the KVIS 2020 project with the support of Solidar Suisse - Office in Serbia was attended by 19 teachers from 10 schools from Ruski Krstur, Pančevo, Smederevska Palanka, Vrnjacka Banja, Kragujevac, Ćuprija, Niš and Belgrade.

In the first part of the training, participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with: modern and traditional concept of career, career development planning process, career management skills, and competencies of career practitioners required for their further work with high school students.

In this context, participants pointed out that one of the main problems of career information for youth is the lack of relevant and systematic information on future jobs at the national level.

The impact of accelerating technological development, global economic turbulence, and the current impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the labor market have conditioned the development of an increasing number of new jobs that do not require a specific educational profile but specific skills. The transition to online, "remote" or work from home, is further intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.

What are the online employment platforms, which online resources are available for career information, guidance, and counseling in these challenging situations, and how to encourage students to make career choice decisions were some of the important topics that our participants could discuss during the training. Participants will implement the gained knowledge through the creation of career guidance workshops for youth, which will be conducted in their schools in the following period.