“We now have a tool to recruit skillful and talented employees willing to learn quickly and become productive workers. This reduces our recruitment costs and contributes to increasing our productivity. We recommend My Career to other SMEs.”
Nikola Marinovski Owner and Manager, Kuli-Tex
Macedonian businesses—and the jobs they offer— are concentrated in the capital town of Skopje. To better reach marginalized and underserved regions throughout the country, My Career applied a regional focus over the last two years. The program’s experience in Prilep, a medium-sized town in central Macedonia, shows how My Career’s on-site coordinator works closely with local small-and-medium enterprises to provide internships and jobs for local people.
Through My Career, Biljana Shopcevska, a high school graduate from Prilep, landed her first job: at Kuli-Tex, a family-run SME specializing in apparel exports. She was first engaged as an intern in October 2010, and only after a month was offered a job. “I’m happy I was able to find a job at this labor market, and I’m very satisfied with the working environment here at Kuli-Tex,” Shopcevska said.
Local entrepreneurs appreciate the program as well. “My Career … provided us with a tool for on-the-job training for new, prospective employees. Since the supply of workforce from the vocational textile high school in Prilep doesn’t match the practical needs of the apparel industry, through My Career we are now providing in-house, on-the-job training for our new employees,” said Nikola Marinovski, owner and manager of Kuli-Tex, which took on 10 interns and hired 6 of them.
Another successful example from Prilep is the family-run Miki Dairy. “We are in constant need of skillful and dedicated employees,” said owner and manager Roza Vasiloska. “My Career provides a framework to hire qualified employees, and gives us the flexibility of a three-to-six months’ period to evaluate their performance and their commitment to learn new skills. We offered jobs to all interns that successfully completed the training process. Although there is great supply of workforce, good employees are hard to find, and we are eager to keep them, once we identify them.”
My Career provides internship opportunities and jobs to students and graduates. Since its start in early 2009, My Career—spearheaded by the USAID’s Macedonia Competitiveness Project—has facilitated 1,821 internships and 345 jobs for young Macedonians.