Advocacy campaign: Strengthening the enabling environment for JA Student Companies – Tirana

41 representatives of the employment offices, carrier education unit, Municipality of Tirana, Youth directorate, City Council, civil society organizations participated in a roundtable organized by JAA in the frame of the campaign “Strengthening the enabling environment for JA Student Companies”.  

As in the other regions the round table served as an information space not only on the “Student Company” program and the need to better support the established companies, but also on initiatives, programs and projects applied by public institutions and civil society organizations. Establishing a direct communication of these important stakeholders with the students and young people in general is a key step in creating an enabling environment for Students Companies.  

The participants emphasized that even though in Tirana Region there exist much more services and opportunities compared to other regions of the country in terms of supporting such youth initiatives, there is still a lot of work to be done to directly inform students at schools on the existence of these programs and the ways they can benefit from. They agreed on the need to establish a direct communication with students in the high school settings to promote their involvement in programs and initiatives that empower them.

This campaign is organized by JAA in the frame of the project Balkans Youth: Linking Education, Abilities and Partnership Potential in Regional Employment Practice (BY LEAP), funded by the European Union. The project aims to strengthen the participation of grassroots CSOs and youth initiatives in regional network, and ensure sustainability of young entrepreneurs (student/youth) companies through demonstration and training/mentoring activities. The efforts are aiming toward improving the policy environment and supporting human and institutional capacity/workforce development initiatives that respond to the needs of the CSO’s and local/grassroots beneficiaries.  The overall objective is to contribute to youth entrepreneurship opportunities and strengthen employment perspectives of youth in the Western Balkans.