Bitola, 28 April 2022 – An event was held in Bitola today, aimed at networking young people with companies and civil society organizations from Bitola and the region, also marking the opening of the “MladiHub” Youth Center in this city. This facility is envisaged to serve as a space for work, networking and organizing activities and will be made available free of charge to young people in the region.
“Bitola Municipality is working continuously on finding ways to support young people from all over the region, because only in this way can we all, together, contribute to keeping the new generations here. For this reason, Bitola Municipality will meet its legal obligation and announce a call for selecting a youth organization or an organization for young people that will continue to manage this youth center, in accordance with the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies. In this way, the Municipality will provide a space where programmes will be prepared and implemented for improving young people’s well-being and development of personal, social and professional life, a space that will provide information of importance and interest to young people and will cover other aspects of young people’s lives,” said Toni Konjanovski, the Mayor of Bitola. The MladiHub Youth Center was opened as part of the project “MladiHub – Building Skills for Employment, Competencies and Opportunities for Youth Networking,” funded by the British Embassy in Skopje and implemented by the National Youth Council of Macedonia in cooperation with the CEED Hub Skopje.
“Young people have limited opportunities to learn and practice their skills in reality. They need opportunities to engage with companies and businesses at the beginning of their career in order to gain experience in the real world. British Embassy supports local organizations in opening up more opportunities for young people, supporting their skills and opportunities for gaining practical experience. The purpose of this support is to incorporate a system that shall provide young people with skills and competencies that will help them find employment and achieve their own economic independence,” said Rachel Galloway, the British Ambassador in Skopje.
Today’s opening was attended by young people from the municipality and the region, who had an opportunity to meet with representatives of various companies and organizations and talk with them about the opportunities and open positions they have at the moment. The MladiHub Office in Skopje has been operating for more than two years and is being used daily by young people as a space for organizing meetings, get-togethers, workshops and events. By opening the first regional office in Shtip and the MladiHub Youth Center in Bitola, the National Youth Council of Macedonia aims to expand its scope and to include as many young people in its project activities as possible.
“Within the project’s frameworks, in the past three years we have offered a great variety of opportunities for promoting the status of youth in society, starting from trainings for strengthening IT skills up to internship programmes, connecting young people with employers and increasing the self-confidence of young people when stepping into the labour market. However, what makes us especially proud is the opening of such youth centers in several cities around the country, including this center in Bitola. With this space, we want to provide sustainable resources for continuous support to young people in every sphere of their lives. Such results are only possible through joint efforts of all stakeholders, local youth organizations, municipalities, as well as the donor community – and I believe that all of us involved in the process of establishing this center will continue our support and ensure more activities to support young people,” said Mariana Angelova, Secretary General of the National Youth Council of Macedonia.
