First action plan on youth employment in Macedonia
A three-year action plan on promotion of more and better jobs for 135,000 youth aged between 15-29 was presented by Minister of Labor and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski at Sunday's press conference.
The first action plan in this field will be implemented by 2015, worth EUR 27 million, allocated by the Government, EU's IPA funds and donors.
According to Minister Ristovski, focus should be given to youth's vocational secondary and university education, highlighting that the Employment Service Agency's analyses have shown that the majority of unemployed in Macedonia study the field of social sciences, whereas the labor market cannot absorb such amounts.
"On the other hand, vocational education, both secondary and university, is in short supply at the Macedonian labor market. We expect increased interest in this field, since domestic and foreign investors primarily seek persons with vocational skills. Therefore, our main focus will be to motivate youth to take on vocational education", stressed Ristovski.
He added the action plan represented a concrete result from the efforts by the Government and social partners towards preventing the negative trend with regards to employment of young people.
"Our goals include improving institutional effectiveness at the labor market, improvement of opportunities for employment of the youth, stimulation of youth employment through development of the private sector, as well as involvement of youth at the labor market", said Ristovski.