First Career Center Opens for Secondary Students

On April 14th at ‘Orce Nikolov’ High School in Skopje, PEP hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for the official opening of the first Career Center in the secondary education. This is the first of three Centers that USAID will pilot in different municipalities in Macedonia to help students become aware of the relationships between school and employment, and the relevance of their learning. With these Career Centers, PEP WFD component team strives to enhance career education with career information and materials for both teachers and students. The event was attended by many representatives from USAID, OSCE, the responsible people from education department of the City of Skopje, representatives from several universities in the country, teachers, parents and business partners of the High School ‘Orce Nikolov.

“With career education, students can learn about different career opportunities and how these relate to their strengths, weaknesses and interests. It will also help them think about what classes and universities they should take to help pursue their dream jobs,” said Sharon Kellman Yett, USAID DOC Office Director.

Exposing students to career education can help them and their parents to make informed choices at key stages in their education, including the selection of elective subjects in secondary school; high school vs. vocational school; whether to pursue a degree program; and appropriate employment priorities.

USAID PEP CoP, Nebojsa Mojsoski stressed out: ‘‘We believe that information about future educational opportunities and different careers, that can be found in the Career Center, will provide students with career counseling and assessments to help identify personal interests, values and skills.  For parents, the Centers will have information such as parent guides, and will provide individual counseling upon request’’.
Career Center in High School ‘Orce Nikolov’ was equipped with new furniture, PC, TV set, digital camera, laser printer, materials and literature. Total value of provided assistance by PEP is about 5000$.
Selected teachers and students from the school attended suitable trainings for CV and motivation letter writing, job interview preparation and career planning.

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