Dissimination Road to Employment

Six ambitious young people from North Macedonia have participated in an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange held in Croatia. Hoping to increase their chances when searching for a job in the near future, they set the path to improving their skills in a professional manner, as well as in social ways.

This autumn from 15-23 October 2019, forty-two young participants showed their will to attend a project lasting nine days in order to learn the fundamental skills required before getting a job. Coming from multiple countries in Europe – namely Croatia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal – they settle down in a small city called Djakovo, waiting to be hosted by the CET organization. There they have had time to get to know each other via various energizing games and activities.

Organized in entertaining ways, each day was focused on a particular topic useful to avoid common mistakes when trying to reach for your dream job. Some of the topics discussed were provoking thought about an ideal future job, and others were putting it into practice by creating the perfect CV and Motivational Letters to be accepted on the job. Every topic had its own unique presentation, but things became more interesting when they were introduced to a local entrepreneur. Besides hearing all about the challenges experienced when starting up your own company, the participants were also required to spend a considerable amount of time on creating a business plan, impressive enough to get the attention of the judges and the audience.

Working in groups, these ideas challenged the team and time-management skills where they had to put everything they learned into practice, with a limited amount of budget. One of the stretching tasks was given for each of them, preparing and going to the city and try to find a real job. Using this, you would need to apply your gained knowledge about fast preparation, critical job searching and having a perfect interview in order to be given the job. But it wasn’t all hard work. The days ended either with pub quizzes, movie nights or intercultural nights. On the last one, the young would familiarize themselves with the foreign culture where each country gives entertaining, funny, creative presentations for where they come from, as well as present some of the delicious local food they brought from home. The city games piqued the interest about the place surrounding them, by trying to complete tasks of finding different monuments and local cafés. On one of the days a tour guide gave her information about the most important parts of this small city and a view from a different angle for the magnificent city cathedral.

Teamwork, dances and enhanced knowledge are only a few of the words used to describe this Erasmus+ Youth Exchange. With provided accommodation, food, and travel expenses, there was little to worry about with a participant, and more to enjoy and learn.