02/02/2022 | News

3rd Call for WBAA Projects 2021 – These are the selected projects

WBAA Projects 2021

The projects of the 3rd Call for WBAA Projects in 2021 were already approved in November and now that the elaboration phase is coming to an end, we are very pleased to present you the 8 projects belonging to the third batch of the WBAA Projects 2021. The implementation phase for the following projects runs until June 2022.

Self-branding training - personal development, teamwork, leadership, and professional capacity building skills

Project Coordinator: Aleksandar Davkov

Branding yourself allows you to market your skills to meet the customer’s needs. Regardless of the stage at which you are in your career, it is important to stay marketable by creating a unique brand for yourself, separate from your identity within your company. As your personal brand awareness increases, you may be invited to speak at industry events, contribute to industry-related stories, and so on not because of your status within a company, but because of your branded expertise within the wider industry in your country or abroad.

This project aims to use special tools by trainers for creating soft skills which will turn the young person into a brand that will creatively use the gained skills and contacts for branding itself.

As a result of this project that will be implemented in Shtip North Macedonia, between 01/2022 and 06/2022, improvement in 34 students’ self performances for those who were or who will study abroad will be achieved. They can direct their energy to gain new contacts and building their own network, as well as reviving good practices and skills, and to use them in right place and at right time, thus making themselves unique brand recognizable by employers. The success will be measured by a questionnaire.

Skills and individual values for alumni and future alumni students involved in the European projects

Project Coordinator: Kiril Jordanov

A particularly important feature of volunteering is the personal development of the young person engaged as a volunteer. Personal development refers to creative processes of realization and increase of psychological, social and spiritual potentials, but in accordance with the age of the young person and the specific experiences and needs of the person. By building different individual competencies, the different needs of each individual are approached, with particular emphasis on increasing the educational potential of people coming from countries where the education system has not incorporated these competencies. Through volunteering, a person can develop self-respect and respect for others, as well as apply their knowledge and skills through different types of volunteering activities. The four-day project idea addresses contemporary and current issues of volunteering, volunteers, and their role in improving communities and society as a whole. In the absence of general awareness of the benefits of volunteering, the project idea intends to emphasize the importance of the personal and professional development of young people through active engagement in various volunteer programs. The project will unite 60 WBAA members, future WBAA members, experts in the field and other stakeholders which during the 4-day activities will work on capacity building and promotion of positive values. The final goal is the development of entrepreneurial skills and individual values for alumni and future alumni students working on European projects.

Online Business – Model in overcoming Economic Corona Crise within Young Entrepreneurs

Project Coordinator: Sonja Sovljanski

Because of COVIC situation, trend of online sales or services started raising explosively, so it became essential for entrepreneurs to know how to open and run online sales and which social platforms bring the best results.

The goal is to strengthen the capacities of young entrepreneurs in Serbia to acquire skills needed for opening online business and marketing products or services in Serbia or internationally. This will be done (January to June 2022.) through online trainings, 18 workshops, divided in 3 modules: Digital Marketing/Social Networks, Business Life Cycle and Ecommerce Soft Skills, and Manual consisting all the information from trainings. Our objective is that by June 2022, at least 30 percent of about 50 participants will open online business and increase selling products or services through social media networks.

Mobility for beginners

Project Coordinator: Adnan Rahimić

The M4B guide aims to promote Erasmus+ international mobility by explaining the step-by-step process of creating the infrastructure and applying for mobility. It is intended not only for the applicants (students, teaching, scientific and non-teaching staff) but also for the Erasmus+ coordinators and officers. They have to deal with different regulations when implementing this program, so experience from the guide will help them in their everyday job.

The proposed timetable is:

February 2022: project start (research about Erasmus+ and its influence in the Western Balkans, creating and sending a survey, collecting data)

March 2022: the content (analysis of collected data, writing, and producing the content)

April 2022: finalization (translation to English, creating the design of the guide, the printing of the booklet, printing of the promotional material)

May 2022: promotion

June 2022: end of the project and reporting

The guide's contents will be created with the help of a survey sent to Erasmus+ coordinators and WBAA alumni in the region. The questions in the survey will follow the chronological approach to the implementation of the international credit mobility - from the beginning and applying to the budget, approval, to the preparing and publishing the calls for mobility and support. The survey results should show a similar approach to this program implementation with different variations depending on national regulations.

After survey analysis and creating this guide, the project coordinator will organize the promotion. As we do not expect more significant changes in the first half of 2022 when it comes to organizing events with a physical presence, we will plan to have it (at least the first session) online. However, if the circumstances allow, the coordinator will present the project in a live session planned in May 2022 by the University of Sarajevo (7th International Staff Training Week).

Many Erasmus+ coordinators will be able to use the manual and find out how to promote their HEIs for future collaboration, how to find partners, or just how to structure the process of nomination and evaluation of candidates. All potential applicants will use this manual to learn about the best options for their mobility and have guidance while applying. This way, we create a structure to successfully implement the Erasmus+ (and possibly other EU-funded mobility programs) in the WB region.

Students Exchange Portal (studentskerazmene.rs)

Project Coordinator: Oleg Slatina

Objective: Increase participation of students and youth in mobility schemes and position WBAA as a relevant source of information for youth and students in this field. Input: We will use knowledge base and contacts of our partner organization in order to build quality content website. Activities: 1. We will organize two (2) working groups. One group will be made by Project Coordinator, ESN volunteers and WBAA members, this group will gather all relevant information, articles, reach out to people that participated in mobility programmes in order to make testimonials. This group will later systematize those information and forward it to relevant stakeholder or authority in order fact-check it. A second group will me made by Project Coordinator, Co-organizer and Web Development Agency that will work closely in order to make websites as impactful as possible, but also to follow the work of the hired Agency in order to meet deadlines as set in the Timeline. 2. Promotional campaigns and launching event will be organized after the completion of the website. Promotional campaign will consist of social media posts, youth and mainstream media articles, as well as contacting other youth and student organizations in order to promote the event and website. This launching event will be organized online via livestream, with a Q&A session at the end. 3. Distribution of promotional materials and articles to HEI. Output: One Students Exchange Portal will be developed and published. One promotional event will be organized. Promotional materials will be printed and distributed to HEI. Outcome: Widening participation of youth and students in mobility schemes and making it easier for them to access relevant information through the website. Familiarize youth and students with WBAA and position it as relevant source of information in this field.

Empowering youth in Albania through WBAA alumni knowledge transfer

Project Coordinator: Sara Zekaj

In an ever increasingly globalized world and knowledge-based economy, producing competent human resources who are knowledgeable and equipped with technical and human skills is a challenging task for higher learning institutions. Through continuous engagement with young people through my job, I have noticed that many young people do not know how to create a good cv or motivational letter and they lack work-ready skills as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity; the ability to deal with complexity and communication. This problem coming from the lack of career counseling modules in the schools, affects their access to the labor market and reduces the chances for them to experience programs of the European Commission for young people.

Higher education institutions in Albania have been participating in many Erasmus (Mundus/ +) projects, especially for exchanges of students and academics. But the further you go from Tirana, the less information there is available for the Erasmus Plus. In some universities the distribution of scholarships is more nepotistic, and applications go through the dean's office. To summarize, the project, through its activities, aims to promote ongoing educational and professional opportunities of Erasmus + for young Albanians, to improve their professional skills and career development through training and a mentorship program. The activities of the project are thought to be Hold In-Person, Virtual, & Hybrid, subject of change to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, which we also consider as our main challenge. In order to bring some regional perspective to the project, the idea is to include WBAA members as trainers and mentors. The idea is that the young people get trained and mentored from young leaders and experienced change makers from WBAA which will also share their national experiences. On the other side they get to know Albania which helps reduce prejudice and reconciliation process in the Balkans.

The main objective is raising the level of youth employability by improving their professional skills and career development through training and a mentorship program. From writing a cv and motivational letter, to the first phase of an interview for a job, to the skills needed for most positions: leadership skills, motivation for achievement, inner critic, time management, negotiation, presentation and communication skills. It aims also to promote ongoing educational and professional opportunities of Erasmus + for young Albanians. By wanting to give a regional approach to the project, and contribute also to the reconciliation process in the Western Balkans, the workshops and the mentorship programme will be delivered by WBAA alumni, who will share also their national experiences.

Training of Strategic and Action Planning, and Writing Public Policies, as a Mechanism of Public Advocacy

Project Coordinator: Milan Stojanovic

With this 4-day project we will try to face one common issue present in our region, and it is a lack of understanding and practice regarding initial research, preparation and implementation of strategic planning and action planning, alongside with preparation of grassroots policy papers aimed at modernization of Higher Education. The training is designed to include interactive lectures, workshops, group divisions and teamwork. Regional participants will contribute with their specific experiences from their respective countries. The group work within the seminar will thus include particular, real life examples to better connect the theoretical inputs and ideas with the actual situations in the field. This will enable better knowledge transfer and additionally prepare the participants to better deal with the Higher Education modernization changes they want to see in their countries. This training will contribute as well to WBAA visibility by engaging WBAA members firstly in learning about strategic and action planning and then by disseminating this knowledge and know-how practices to other social and educational stakeholders of their respective countries as a follow up activity and according to the findings and conclusions they obtained from this WBAA training. And finally, bringing together 25 WBAA members from all over the region for sure will have a great impact in regional interaction and connectivity and in the long term will lead to better utilization of WBAA resources.

Bankruptcy, a forgotten option in the pandemic times.

Project Coordinator: Vjoela Allkanjari

In Albania business’ are insufficiently aware which chances bankruptcy procedures can provide, as they are confused between bankruptcy/foreclosure itself and bankruptcy proceedings trying to protect business from foreclosure meanwhile. Legal & Economical Experts in Bankruptcy Law want to set up an additional panel, first with a conference and its evaluation. The aim is to prepare a non-academic network on practical issues relating to insolvency proceedings and to deepen this with subsequent projects. All parties to such bankruptcy proceedings should not only be involved, but they also drawing attention to existing problems, should take part in establishing a network and discussion panel or create its basis. In addition, they should capture the different perspectives on existing problems.

The project aims to be implemented by obtaining concrete information, not only on theoretical grounds but also on bankruptcy proceedings conducted in the Republic of Albania.

It is also designed in such a way that any information obtained will be subject to analysis in the future from professionals and practitioners in bankruptcy proceedings.

In this regard, the accurate source of information and professionalism of the parties that we will involve in the project, is to be considered as guarantee result that will be the basis of study for taking further steps to improve the staff: legal awareness of all actors for the conduct of bankruptcy proceedings.In this context , the expectations are to be followed in sequential use with :

  • Projects for intervention for improving the legislation.
  • Projects for training of judges, administrators of bankruptcy , attorneys , prosecutors for the implementation in practice of legal cases for practical cases of bankruptcy proceedings.
  • Projects with state institutions for implementation and applicability of legislation as opportunity for business to solve the cramp of companies in difficulty , as the possibility for giving a solution to the part of the economy that is in difficulty.

A first Albanian bankruptcy network is to be found and set up to find joint solutions to existing problems in future projects.

Germany, Cologne

2 February 2022