On 2 October 2018, Partners Albania organized in the city of Berat the second round table in order to present the findings from the Monitoring Report on the Index of  Social, Political and Economic Inclusion of Youth, for the period January-June 2018. 16 representatives of local civil society organizations and local government institutions were presented with report findings to further discuss on youth inclusion indicators, under the local point of views of all actors involved in offering youth services.

The importance of career counseling at an early age and the impact that this service has on career choice and consequently on the employment and professional performance of young people was one of the concerns raised by the attendees. Despite local institutional efforts to improve career counseling in schools, representatives of youth organizations in Berat think that should be a change in the methodological approach. Focusing on career counseling in theory and the lack of closely knowing their professions, often leads to a lack of accurate orientation in the vocational education choice. Lack of knowledge of labor market needs leads to a non-compliance between professional orientation and market demand. Increasing staff in providing this service, individual work with young people, adding personal skill tests to the consultation process, and especially combining visits to and sharing of concrete experiences with private and public sector professionals, were some of the suggestions offered by the participants in the round tables.

The project “Youth Bank Hub for Western Balkans and Turkey”, is implemented by Partners Albania for Change and Development in Albania, “Ana i Vlade Divac” Foundation in Serbia, Association for Education – MLADIINFO International in Macedonia, ”Prima” organization in Montenegro and “Community Volunteers Foundation” in Turkey. The project is funded by the European Union.