Skopje, 31 May 2025 (MIA) - Helping young people find jobs in the country, stopping emigration, and helping people at social risk acquire new skills and get jobs to become economically independent are among the measures of the 2025 Operational Plan that the Government adopted at a session and was presented by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Wednesday. 

The Government organized on Saturday a panel discussion on the 2025 Operational Plan, entitled "Vision for Change". Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska, Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Demography and Youth, Gjoko Velkovski, and the director of the Employment Service Agency, Selatin Beluli, addressed the panel, speaking about the measures and expected effects of the Operational Plan. 

Janevska pointed out that in terms of ​​education, the Operational Plan will offer additional education, additional training or retraining to 600 people, regarding which Mden 70 million have been earmarked. The goal is to enable them to join the labour market and the measure will be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Centre for Adult Education (CAE), which will organize short three-month courses through training announcements. Janevska pointed out that the training courses will be on modern technologies, entrepreneurship and all that is useful for the development of society.  

"Those who apply will receive Mden 12,000 per month. The training will be conducted by accredited organizations that have experience and staff. Those who will be selected to conduct the training will receive Mden 30,000 per month," Janevska told the panel. 

She pointed out that only 25 percent of people aged 25 to 64 are involved in some form of education, compared to 47 percent in the EU. Our goal, she noted, is to reach that percentage through this Plan.

"All of this is carefully organized. We already know what we expect from this Operational Plan and what effects we will see, unlike in the past when it was not planned and the solutions were ad hoc, without a further development plan other than immediate assistance. The point is to include the unemployed and the senior citizens in the labour market because it is an open secret that we currently have a labour shortage. Unfortunately, emigration from the country is huge and with great regret I say that in the past seven years, 17,000 students and 7,000 university students have left the country, which could be disastrous for a small country like Macedonia if such trend continues," Janevska pointed out.  

Deputy Minister of Social Policy, Demography and Youth, Gjoko Velkovski, said demography is an important segment of the Plan, and also in the focus of the Government, which is why it was included in the Ministry's name. The approach within the Plan, he added, puts demography first in order to help young people find jobs in the country. 

"We are focusing on young people up to 29 years of age. Unfortunately, the state system has forced some of them to leave, and this will continue if we do not do something substantial. That is why we have these measures with better conditions for the young people, for those up to 29 years of age. We are opening up opportunities for them to stay in Macedonia, be part of the employment system and create their lives and future right here," said Velkovski.   

The 2025 Operational Plan, he pointed out, also includes incentives for marginalized categories of citizens, such as beneficiaries of guaranteed minimum assistance, people with disabilities, Roma women, and victims of domestic violence.

According to him, the guaranteed minimum assistance that vulnerable families at social risk currently receive is not enough to get them through the month. In order not to remain permanently dependent on assistance, Velkovski said the goal is to employ those who are able to work, pointing to self-employment and entrepreneurship as planned measures. The measures remove the barriers that beneficiaries face and will help them gradually become independent. 

Director of the Employment Service Agency, Selatin Beluli, said the agency is actively preparing to implement the measures provided within the Operational Plan, noting that the software for the activities is ready, both at the central and local levels.

According to him, the impact and efficiency of the measures will be monitored through implementation indicators that are defined with each individual measure within the Operational Plan itself. The transparency of the entire process, in turn, will be guaranteed by a selection committee with members from nine institutions, Beluli said, among other.

The 2025 Operational Employment Plan is valued at EUR 40 million and covers 16,000 unemployed persons, 65 percent of whom are expected to be young people under the age of 29.

"At the latest government session, we adopted an Operational Employment Plan worth EUR 40 million, which will cover over 16,000 our fellow citizens – 12,537 through active employment measures and 3,520 through employment services," Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said at a press conference presenting the Operational Plan. 

Photo: print screen / Government of the Republic of North Macedonia Facebook