Workforce Development

The ability of SMEs to compete successfully within the EU ultimately rests on the expertise and skills of the people who manage and work for them. The lack of adequately-skilled workers remains one of the most complex obstacles to the growth of the FIRMA-supported value chains.

Most vocational schools, universities, and training centers in BiH – with a few notable exceptions – operate well behind the cutting edge of industry. Industries and schools communicate poorly with each other, and this has resulted in a labor force with outdated or inappropriate skills, undoubtedly contributing to BiH’s elevated unemployment rate, which reached 24.1% in 2009.

Inadequate management, marketing, information technology, and financial management skills constrain all three FIRMA supported sectors. In the wood processing sector, insufficient expertise in product design is a problem. In light manufacturing, employers complain that students have no basic knowledge in materials and technical documentation. In tourism, even with numerous relevant secondary-level school courses, students are not developing the skills expected by employers in client management, communication, and foreign languages.

FIRMA applies a comprehensive approach to address the needs of the sectors both in the formal and non-formal educational systems. By working closely with employment institutions, FIRMA supports improvements to regular labor market surveying methodologies to obtain information on industry needs. Through our implementing partners, the project encourages dialogue mechanisms between industry and formal educational institutions for improvement of curricula. FIRMA supports business development services providers to develop training programs that are responsive to market demands in tourism, wood processing and light manufacturing. These workforce development activities will increase the employability of the labor force, address a key obstacle to enterprise competitiveness, and reduce unemployment.