Young Entrepreneurs: Creating New Opportunities for Young People

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 13:58

Government statistics reveal a dire situation awaiting youth in Serbia upon matriculation. Youth represents over 40 percent of the total unemployed population in Serbia. The youth unemployment rate is two-and-a-half times greater than the national unemployment rate and is three times greater than the EU average. It is little wonder why young people in Serbia are very concerned about their future and why so many young individuals are motivated to leave the country and pursue opportunities elsewhere.

Prompted by these problems, the Ministry of Youth and Sport drafted a National Youth Strategy (adopted by the Government in 2008) which has as one of its objectives the creation of employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Serbia’s youth. Cooperation with Junior Achievement (JA) is a perfect fit for the Ministry’s objectives, as JA is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. JA operates in over 100 countries worldwide and reaches 8.3 million students per year. JA (which USAID’s Economic Security Project currently supports in 40 high schools from 15 municipalities) has been operational in Serbia since 2002 and has already seen early participants fulfill the program’s promise.

Since the inception of the JA program in Serbia, USAID has provided approximately $400,000 towards the implementation and development of Junior Achievement activities. USAID assistance to JA institutional strengthening, program expansion and sustainably has helped it grow to serve 25,000 students throughout 200 schools in over 60 municipalities. This year, the Junior Achievement program will be implemented in 90 high-schools across Serbia with the assistance of USAID’ Economic Security program, the City of Belgrade Secretariat for Education and local self-governments.

Junior Achievement protégés continue to achieve

Entrepreneurial wisdom suggests that a good and original idea is much more important than the capital needed to start-up a business, as capital can always be raised while a great idea is hard to come by. The importance of a good business idea coupled with a can-do attitude and strong work ethic, can be witnessed through the stories of two young entrepreneurs, Nenad Ristić, a Novi Sad University Faculty of Technology student, and Ivan Todorov, an Anthropology student at Belgrade University. The two 25 year old claim that the JA program had planted in them the seeds that triggered their decisions, at a later date, to become entrepreneurs.

Nenad Ristić, took part in the JA’s computer-based business simulation program in 2003, as a high school student in Kikinda. His team won a national competition and was rewarded with a trip to attend JA’s “Global Trade Institute” conference in Chicago, Illinois. The conference was the first time that he had an opportunity to participate in a workshop where participants from all over the world were assembled to think critically about real-world problems and to come up with solutions to address these problems. “The Junior Achievement program provided me with the confidence, knowledge and experience needed to start my own business. I remember back, not so long ago, when I wondered to myself whether I had it in me to present my business idea in front of 100 people. The JA program made this possible for me,” said Nenad. Furthermore, he adds, “the biggest value of the JA program is that it helped me to acquire practical knowledge, strengthen my decision making abilities and accept responsibility, as well as teaching me how to work with people in a team setting.”

Nenad participated in the United States Work and Travel visitor exchange program three years in a row from 2005-2007. During this time he worked during the summer months as a waiter, cook, delivery driver, and a handyman. His own experience started him thinking about how much other Serbian youth would benefit from similar experience – thoughts that would eventually turn a good business idea into reality. In 2006, he registered a new company “Starway” and began organizing work and travel exchange trips to the US for his peers from Serbian universities. “It was not easy at the beginning. The initial process of registering a company was complicated. I had to take initiative myself and began reading the laws and regulations surrounding opening a business. But the effort has handsomely paid off,” says Nenad, adding that “my participation in the exchange program and the JA conference meant the world to me, as I made valuable contacts, which I used when opening my business. The agency has organized trips for over 350 Serbian students to work and travel abroad in the course of the last three years. Nenad is a passionate advocate of the JA program in Serbia and has participated as a speaker at JA-related events.

Ivan Todorov, another JA protégé and young entrepreneur, is the owner of “Globe Dotters” company in Belgrade. He believes that everything that he learned to help him become an entrepreneur came from activities during high school like JA. Despite the fact that he still has over one year left to finish university, he decided to start his own business ten months ago. Globe Dotters is an internet consulting company that specializes in web design, graphic design, and search engine optimization. Last year he had an opportunity to work for the Brussels-based CET Marketing services, he applied for the position of the web administrator. He was accepted and is currently working as a web administrator and consultant. He is particularly proud of his current involvement in the project ‘Gardens of Europe,’ which provides information on Europe’s best public gardens. “I will never forget the conference organized by JA Europe, held in Madrid. “Those brainstorming sessions and team building exercises, and the tolerance and respect that I learned to have for other people’s opinions, as well as the communication skills that I learned, contributed significantly to my personal and professional advancement later on,” says Ivan who further explains that his experience with JA also helped him during sessions held for the European Youth Parliament, held in Switzerland, where he represented Serbia as a mock-ambassador to Switzerland. He currently sits on the board of the European Youth Parliament in Serbia.

Both Nenad and Ivan are ardent supporters of the Junior Achievement approach and are part of the ever expanding pool of JA Alumnus that have gone on to turn practicing being an entrepreneur into reality. With the likes of them leading the way, the prospects for Serbia’s youth are already brighter.