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HOW TO IMPROVE THE EMPLOYABILITY OF GRADUATES

Neda Bokan University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Studentski trg 1, Serbia

neda@rect.bg.ac.rs

Petar B. Petrović University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Eng., Belgrade, Kraljice Marije 16, Serbia

pbpetrovic@mas.bg.ac.rs

Miša Živić Student Conference of Serbian Universities, Belgrade, Studentski trg 1, Serbia

misa.zivic@skonus.org Abstract: Globalization of markets, technology sophistication, rapid changes in economic and business environment and demand for high profile individuals with specialized knowledge, created a shift in labor markets around the globe. The number of graduates with different academic backgrounds, abilities, skills and practical knowledge increases from day to day, raising the bar and competition on labor markets in that respect. However, in this competition, graduates from all countries do not play the same role. But despite the competitiveness, we also have to have in mind that one among the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to develop a global partnership of all countries in order to achieve this development. We discuss here some aspects of economy and higher education developments in the Republic of Serbia which are strongly connected with the employability of graduates and with its improvement, as well as the ways of achieving this competitiveness in the realization of this previously mentioned goal.

1. A RETROSPECTION ON GLOBAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Globalizations of markets, technology sophistication, and rapid changes in economic /

business environment have been recognized worldwide within last several decades. These

circumstances have implied changes in education, research, labor markets, etc. We have

recognized the necessity for high profile individuals with specialized knowledge and

ability to learn how to build their own capacities on a “life-long” basis, creating also a shift

in labor markets. The number of graduates with different academic backgrounds, abilities,

skills and practical knowledge increases from day to day.

Four Ministers of Education participating in the celebration of the 800th Anniversary of the

University of Paris shared the view that the segmentation of the European higher education

sector was outdated and harmful (see [2]). One year later, The Bologna Declaration of June

1999 [3] was been signed by 29 Ministers of Education, which had put in motion a series

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of reforms needed to create the European Higher Education Area by 2010. It was the

beginning of the Bologna process. From the start, the three overarching objectives of this

process have been: introduction of the three-cycle system (bachelor/master/doctoral),

quality assurance and recognition of qualifications and period(s) of study.

In the Leuven Communiqué of 2009 [17], the Ministers identified the following priorities

for the next decade:

Social dimension: equitable access and completion;

Lifelong learning;

Employability;

Student-centered learning and the teaching mission of higher education;

Education, research and innovation;

International openness;

Mobility;

Data collection;

Multidimensional transparency tools;

Funding.

After more than ten years of intensive reforms, ministers met on 11/12 March 2011 in

Budapest and Vienna to officially launch the European Higher Education Area, as decided

in 1999.

The EU also works to support the modernization agenda of universities through the

implementation of the 7th EU Framework Program for research (European Research Area)

and the Competitiveness and Innovation Program, as well as the Structural Funds and

Loans from the European Investment Bank. Please refer to [30] for more details.

We also point out that the employability problem has been considered by the European

Community (see for example [4] and many other documents). When we discuss the

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employability of graduates, we need to recognize the “brain-drain solution” of

employability for individuals, typical for many undeveloped countries whose GDP is also

low and consequently with the same tendency in the future, since those countries’

economies stagnate because they lose well-educated young people. From that point of

view, their investment in education is also lost.

At the European level, in the framework of the ‘New Skills for New Jobs’ initiative, a

group of independent experts recommended the development of 'a common language

between education/training and the world of work'. This commitment has recently been

affirmed at the highest level through ‘Europe 2020: A European strategy for smart,

sustainable and inclusive growth’ and the Conclusions adopted by the Education Council

on 13 May 2010, which call for a common language and an operational tool.

The intention is to gradually develop a multilingual classification of European

Skills/Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO), which will be sufficient to

broadly meet the needs of Member States who do not have their own classification system

and to enable those with existing national and sectoral classifications to link with each

other.

According to ESCO there is a tendency that employers should focus less on formal

qualifications, but should be concerned with what employees know, understand and are

able to do in practice. Furthermore, there is a growing understanding of the importance of

transversal skills, such as learning to learn and initiative-taking, complementing

occupational skills.

At the same time, education and training systems are moving away from approaches

defined around the time spent on learning and where the learning takes place (the input

approach), towards a focus on the knowledge, skills and competences achieved through the

learning (the outcome approach). In line with the European Qualifications Framework

(EQF), all Member States are in the process of developing National Qualifications

Framework (NQFs), which describes qualifications in terms of learning outcomes. To

respond to these shifts and to improve matching between supply and demand, a number of

Member States have felt the necessity to develop systems that classify skills and

competences and enable these to be related to qualifications, occupations and job

vacancies. At sectoral level, similar initiatives have been taken.

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The European development and competitiveness has been discussed by European

Commission which has developed European Technology Platforms (ETP), as new political

instrument focused on three main targets: 1) providing a framework for stakeholders, led

by industry, to define research and development priorities, 2) ensuring an adequate focus

of research funding on areas with a high degree of industrial relevance, and 3) addressing

technological challenges that can potentially contribute to a number of key policy

objectives which are essential for Europe’s future competitiveness (please refer to [5], [7],

[8], [11], [13], [15] for more details).

2. THE PROGRAM OF NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS OF SERBIA

When we observe the employability of graduates in Serbia within the previous five or six

decades, we can see that it is in a close correlation with the level of development of

industry. Hence, the main goal in this section is to present one among alternate models of

reindustrialization of Serbian economy in the period 2010-2030. This model of

reindustrialization is based on endogenous approach, which implies building up strong

engineering and research human resources, indispensable for intensive development

processes in medium and high technology domains. The foundation for this approach lies

in the Program of National Technology Platforms of Serbia (NTPS Program), which has

been recognized as one of the strategic priorities in current industrial policy of Serbia.

2.1 Present situation in Serbian industry

Serbian industry has been facing serious problems that last for almost two decades.

Stagnation in all sectors has been present since the nineties, and this process has been

associated with the aftermath of the disintegration of the former Socialist Federal Republic

of Yugoslavia, and various related processes, that have had a serious impact on the overall

economy, especially industry.

The quantification of the stagnation process can be achieved based on three aggregate

indicators: 1) the index of industrial production, 2) the number of industrial workers, and

3) the share of industry in GDP. The Index of Production (IoP), measures the volume of

production of the manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and energy supply industries. The

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IoP is a major contributor to the National Accounts. GDP measures the sum of the value

added created through the production of goods and services within the economy.

Statistical trends of these aggregate indicators are given in Figure 1(a). The trends show

the evidence for sudden collapse of industry output, huge loss of human resources

(together with explicit/formal and tacit knowledge for technology and industrial

production), and marginalization of the role of industry. Figure 1(b) shows the dynamics of

accumulation and erosion of human resources. In fact, the crisis from the nineties has

triggered the process of intensive deindustrialization of Serbian economy. Over the five

decades, it is possible to identify three characteristic periods:

1960 – 1990 The context that preceded the crisis: Serbia as a part of Socialist Federal

Republic of Yugoslavia; stable industrial development; rapid industrial

development, average growth rate over 3 decades: 7.8% per year.

Data for the year 1990: IoP_1990 = 100, 998.000 workers, 28.6 % GDP;

1990 – 2000 Collapse of the Former Yugoslavia: Massive disintegration processes and

ethnic conflicts; severe economic downturn; enormous inflation and collapse

of the national fiscal system; extensive fragmentation of the industrial system;

UN economic sanctions, etc; all together created serious consequences and

severely damaged the industry.

Data for the year 2000: IoP_1990 = 43.3, 643.000 workers, 24.7 % GDP;

2000 – 2010 Democratic changes: The emerging Republic of Serbia; economic

liberalization process/ market economy; extensive privatization process

(almost completed); openness for foreign direct investments; global economy

crisis in 2008.

Data for the year 2010: IoP_1990 = 45.9, 312.000 workers, 15.9 % GDP;

For a more comprehensive insight into the condition the industry is in, it is necessary to

introduce another indicator that refers to the quantification of manufacturing industry

sectoral technology content, i.e. industry technological profile. Industry technological

profile is defined by the sectoral classification of investment intensity in research and

development (products, processes and/ or business systems), i.e., R&D expenditure as

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defined in [1] and [6]. This indicator is not systematically monitored in Serbia, but it can

be derived from the industry statistical data that are collected regularly. Figure 2 shows the

sectoral technological profile of Serbian industry for 2008 (source: Republic Development

Bureau, Republic of Serbia).

Figure 1: The index of production (indexed to the year 1990), industrial workers, and total

industry share in GDP creation within the past five decades (a). A five-decade process of

accumulation and erosion of human resources, i.e., the national intellectual capital for

industrial technologies and production (b).

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For the purpose of comparison, the sectoral technological profiles of two leading world

economies, the US and the EU are also given in Figure 2, expressed through R&D

investment of industrial companies (the investment funded by the companies themselves

and for their own technological development, [16]).

The differences are almost dramatic, and clearly show a high degree of technological

erosion that had occurred. It is clear that in the past two decades the process of

technological development in Serbia had an inverse character, i.e., a downward direction of

development helix that has transformed a former, highly dynamic and technology

intensive, industry into a recourse-based and low value-adding industry. In this regard,

consequences on the overall corpus of engineering, especially in education, as well as

R&D activities in the field of industrial technologies, have been very negative

(destructive).

Figure 2: Comparison of the sectoral profile of Serbian industry in accordance to the

intensity of technology for 2008 and RTD technology investment profile of industrial

companies in EU and USA.

2.2 The NTPS program

The NTPS Program is based on the concept of European Technology Platforms and in all

aspects of its activities is highly focused on establishing and developing various forms of

collaboration, especially with individual technology platforms having strategic research

agendas complementary with research and development priorities of Serbia. The Program

was formally launched in 2010 and the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Serbia

(AINS) is responsible for its development and implementation.

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There are four basic objectives that govern the NTPS Program:

Creating a new formal framework for a smart and systemic transformation of the

technological basis of Serbian industry;

Strengthening science – industry interaction by better focusing of RTD programs

and funding on areas of high relevance to Serbian industry and ending the situation

in which investment in R&D often produces less than expected;

Focusing on technology as an important component for the process of European

integration;

Recognizing the challenges of technology which can potentially contribute to the

realization of key societal priorities and deliver benefits to Serbian citizens.

Figure 3: NTPS structure: Core governing level and up to 10 individual technology

platforms, dedicated to one or more societal priorities of Serbia.

Regarding the methodological framework, the NTPS Program draws its foundations from

the respective national potential for technology research and development (well-developed

educational and RTD infrastructure), the respective industrial tradition that spreads out for

nearly two centuries, and also cultural and regional specificities.

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The NTPS Program is organized as a structure that is composed of two hierarchical levels:

1) The NTPS Core, which is located within the Serbian Academy of Engineering Sciences

and governed by the NTPS Committee, and 2) NTPS Individual Platforms, a set of up to

10 individual platforms that emerge from the NTPS Core as a system of mutually

complementary, networked and interacting entities. Figure 3 shows the general structure of

the NTPS Program.

Any of the NTPS individual technology platforms should be:

1. A Response to a Major National Challenges: The Platforms are mission oriented

and address major national economic – environmental – technical – social

challenges. NTPS is not a short-term, problem solving instrument.

2. A Strategic National Initiative: Platforms should be set up only when there is a

well-defined, national, strategic need for such an instrument, and national added

value can be clearly justified.

3. Politically Highly Visible: To affect change across national, industrial,

technological boundaries, the NTPS individual platforms must create strong

political support and be highly visible at a national, European, and even at a global

level.

4. Industry Led: To be effective, the NTPS individual platforms must be driven by

actors from the applications/ problem end of the innovation process. Individual

platforms should not become too academic and the most relevant stakeholders in

the sector should be included. The governing bodies of the platforms must be led

by a person who is coming from the industrial domain.

5. Well-planned and executed: There must be a ‘road map’, with a long-term vision,

a sound strategy for achieving this vision and a detailed action plan for carrying out

the necessary activities. The platform must be big enough to be representative.

The NTPS Program is recognized by the Serbian Ministry of Science and Education as a

program of strategic importance for technology development, technology transfer and

innovation system development. This program is also incorporated in the ‘Serbian

Industrial Policy 2020’, as a strategically important pillar for rising high technology

content in Serbian industry [25].

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NTPS-Production is the first individual platform that has been derived from the NTPS

Program and put into operation. It is an industry-led voluntary association of stakeholders

in the field of industrial production. This technology platform is closely related to the

process of recovery and transformation of the industrial system in Serbia. In this process,

NTPS-Production activities are predominantly focused on strengthening the interaction of

industry and science, including the educational aspects, with active participation in the

following instruments and strategic projects:

1. 3R Packet of Instruments for the recovery and transformation of industry as

defined by the actual Industrial Policy 2020:

Revitalization (2011-2015) – The first stage of the recovery process,

targeted to big industrial companies and systems;

Reengineering (2015-2020) – The second stage of the recovery process,

targeted to the modernization of technological basis and organizational

structures of big companies and stimulation of mass development of small

and medium enterprises in the field of industrial production;

Expansion and growth (2020-2030) - The third stage of the recovery

process that is dedicated to transformation of the technology profile of the

industry from dominantly low-tech to high-tech sectors.

2. Horizontal transformation programs / FaBS Initiative (the Serbian Factory

of the Future - clean, green, lean concept):

Ecologically sustainable and compatible industry;

Energy and recourse efficient industry;

Digitalized manufacturing processes and production – ICT agenda for

industry: Digital Factory, Smart Factory and Virtual Factory programs.

3. TeMaS Project – Technology Maps of Serbia.

For the above listed activities the cooperation with the following individual technology

platforms at EU level is of particular importance: ManuFuture: Future Manufacturing

Technologies of Europe, EUROP: European Robotics Platform, MINAM: European

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Platform on Micro- and Nano-manufacturing, ARTEMIS: The European Technology

Platform for Advanced Research and Technology for Embedded Intelligence and Systems,

and EPoSS: European Platform on Smart Systems Integration. This cooperation is

considered as a vehicle for fast technology transfer (technology shortcut), as well as for

adaptation of Serbian industry to European industry standards and organizational models

of industrial companies, especially in the context of new paradigm of customized

manufacturing that radically changes the general framework of industrial production. In

that sense, of particular importance is the initiative of ManuFuture technology platform

named Factories of Future (FoF), which was launched by the European Commission in

2008 within the Economic Recovery Plant, as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with an

allocated budget of 1.3 billion EUR. The FoF PPP is cross-thematic, encompassing the

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Theme and Nanosciences,

Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies (NMP) Theme. FaBS

Initiative (Serbian Factory of the Future), is a complementary action at the national level,

which is closely related to the FoF PPP, focusing in parallel on the national specificities of

Serbian economy, as well as on the European priorities in the field of industrial

technologies, covering both the RTD and the educational aspects.

Figure 4: The general model of the development of a common language between

education/training and the world of work, i.e., labor market (adopted from ESCO).

Besides the technological aspect, the FaBS initiative is also focused on educational

aspects as well as interaction of education system and the labor market. The general model

of interaction between the education system and the labor market in sense of the

development of 'a common language between education/training and the world of work',

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adopted from ESCO, is given in Figure 4. It is essential that the occupations and

skills/competences generated by the system of higher education in Serbia should be highly

responsive to the needs of the reindustrialization process of Serbian economy.

3. FORUM OF STUDENTS AND BUSINESS PEOPLE OF SERBIA 2011

The geopolitical changes in the region of the Western Balkans, as well as the globalization

of markets and rapid changes in economic frameworks have also played a role in some

higher education processes in Serbia. When we had a well-developed economy, we also

had a well-developed higher education system, very internationalized universities with

numerous students from all over the world (Please refer to [26] ).

We have already pointed out in the previous section that reindustrialization, the NTPS

Program, and consequently the employability problem of graduates, are closely related to

the development of education. This problem has been discussed by the Government of the

Republic of Serbia [9], [12], the Serbian Chamber of Commerce [21], the Student

Conference of Serbian Universities [24], etc. We refer to [22], [14] for some observations

on relations between a university and labor markets in the frame of skills, competences and

knowledge achieved by graduates. In this section, we first present the current situation in

higher education, especially according to the graduates’ employability. In the second

subsection we recognize the new skills, competence and knowledge of graduates to realize

reindustrialization proposed by the NTPS Program. In the last subsection, we propose

some steps to improve the educational system of Serbia, which would allow graduates to

achieve new skills, competence and knowledge.

3.1 Current situation in higher education in Republic of Serbia

When we discuss the Bologna process in Serbia, we may point out that our Minister of

Education signed the Bologna declaration in 2003. In 2005 the Parliament passed the Law

on Higher Education, and in 2007 and 2010 some amendments to the Law were accepted

(see [10], [20]), which are compatible with the ideas of the Bologna process. At the end of

2010, all study programs and higher education institutions have been accredited, following

the spirit of the Bologna Declaration. The priorities of the Leuven Communiqué were

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taken mainly into consideration with initial results already recognized. So, let us mention

that our universities are involved in the projects of mobility of students and academic staff

through the Erasmus Mundus Action Program. The entrepreneurship is developed through

master programs and Business-Technology Incubators (see [22] for more details). The

social dimension of the Bologna process is developed through the Tempus project “Equal

Access for All: Strengthening the Social Dimension for a Stronger European Higher

Education Area” (www.equied.ni.ac.rs/en/). Universities have established Centers for:

career development and counseling of students, lifelong learning, students with disabilities,

for transfer of technology, quality assurance, etc; with the goal not only to recognize

formally the priorities of the Leuven Communiqué, but also to make a progress in this

spirit.

The Center of Career Development of the University of Belgrade carried out a pilot

research “First Destination Data” / Gde ste, šta radite / in the period from December 2009

to March 2010, with the aim of providing, among other information, the data regarding the

employability of graduates of the University of Belgrade. The fact that this was a pilot

project (online type, size, and structure of the sample), does not allow us to draw a more

general conclusion based on the information, yet it gives us some insight into what

happens with our students after graduating. Out of all examined graduates that actively

searched for a job, 60% had the opportunity to work within the first six months after

graduation; 25,1% of the jobs were found within the first 3 months. Graduates that got a

job fastest were from the Faculty Mathematics, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and

the Faculty of Economics. However, we need to point out that analyzing the applicants for

enrolling in bachelor degree studies at the University of Belgrade, for example, and data

from the National Employment Service, one can see a misbalance. More precisely, the

interest of candidates for some study programs, and the supply and demand on the labor

market are different as Appendix and [31] show.

Some problems of graduates employed in small and medium enterprises were analyzed in

[19].

One can draw a conclusion that a progress is recognizable, but more contribution can be

made and many challenges can be recognized. Some ideas are discussed in the upcoming

subsections.

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3.2 Competencies, skills and knowledge of graduates

We have already checked in previous sections that the industrial development and

consequently the employability of graduates heavily depend on the quality of all levels of

education.

The representatives of students in Serbia, as we mentioned above, in the frame of the

Student Conference of Universities of Serbia, have also taken the employability problem

into consideration, as well as the role of various stakeholders in this setting. For that

purpose, they organized a “Forum of Students and Business People of Serbia”, from 6 to 8

December 2011 in Belgrade (we refer to [24] for more details). The Forum has been

organized in the form of a panel discussion and 15 round tables in four sessions:

I session: Essential challenges for compatibility of educational system with

labor market demands;

II session: Recommendations for improvement of educational system;

III session: Improvement of established recommendation (rotation of

participants in various round tables);

IV session: Ranking of recommendations.

The panel discussion was devoted to the higher education reform, with a view of

harmonizing it with economy demands in the Republic of Serbia. The keynote speakers

were: Mr. Boris Tadić, President of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Žarko Obradović,

Minister for Education and Science, Mr. Branko Radujko, Director General of Telekom

Serbia, and Mr. Bojan Radun, President of Serbian Association of Managers.

The final conclusions of this Forum were given in two documents:

Enhancement trends of study programs in higher education institutions of the

Republic of Serbia;

Recommendations: How to improve the educational system in the Republic of

Serbia.

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Listed below are some of the most important skills and knowledge which have been

recognized as unavoidably necessary for someone who would like to see themselves

employed in 21st century:

Professional knowledge and skills anticipated by study program;

Practical experience to achieve the ability of team work, communication skills,

etc.;

Entrepreneurial skills;

Managerial skills;

Problem-solving skills and analyticity in business challenges, as well as in

everyday life;

Knowledge of economy (marketing, financial management, accountancy);

Knowledge of labor law (rights and commitments);

Inquisitiveness and interest in building capacities and lifelong learning;

Flexibility and adaptability to various circumstances in business environment in

the frame of moral norms;

Motivation to work and make a career progress in the company;

Persistency in reaching a final solution to a problem;

Being well-informed and keeping up with the current trends in the profession

and the company;

Individuality – to be able to, without team assistance, overcome difficulties in

his/her job;

Mobility according to business requirements;

Interest in intersectoral connections because of good cooperation;

etc. (one can find more details in [24]).

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3.3 On Improvement of Educational System in Republic of Serbia

According to recognized competences, knowledge and skills, the participants of the Forum

have proposed how to improve the educational system of the Republic of Serbia. We

present here some of these recommendations involving some comments of the authors.

Modernization of teaching process. As we know, the reform of higher education

through the last 15 years has been done in such a way that the system has been

changed from a teaching to an educational system. It involves a shift from a lecture

form to a student-centered approach, a shift in the paradigm from measuring

educational attainment to measuring competence (please refer to [27] and

references therein for more details). In the century of internet and an enormous

growth of information available, students have to possess the ability to access the

right information and to learn how to use it in a proper way. Many authors have

already discussed this problem. It is necessary to involve students in research, to

prepare them to use various information sources and consequently enable them to

draw conclusions in the right way. In this way, students will not learn how only to

memorize the numerous data presented to them as it has so far been the case.

Academic staff needs to encourage students’ creative and critical way of thinking,

not only the formal one. We refer for some case studies to [29], [28]. It is necessary

to introduce an entrepreneurship course, at least, for the students of technology

sciences, more practical teaching hours, interactive work in teams, simulations of

real situation in professional work by „case study“ approach to achieve problem-

solving competence. To show how one can apply some theoretical knowledge in a

real business environment, it would be recommendable to organize lectures held by

business representatives for students.

Modernization of study programs according to the development of

corresponding sciences, technologies, experience at other universities and the

possibilities of our country. A bigger number of elective courses may contribute

to a better profile of graduates, also having in mind the employers’ requirements.

Although it is officially regulated by some bylaws, it is necessary to encourage

more mobility within one university; to put it more precisely – elective courses

might be chosen at other faculties, not solely at the one the student is attending. It

would also help to achieve the functional integration of the university. Although

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soft skills are developed through seminars organized by the Center for Career

Development, it would be welcome to develop them in the frame of many courses.

Internship in a company is more and more unavoidable. We refer to [22], where

the first-listed author of this paper already discussed this problem and some of its

solutions. We point out here that an internship is very important for graduates as

they may achieve the first work experience in a company during an internship, they

may also prepare their diploma work, master work, seminars, etc. Internship has to

be organized in such a way that it is involved in a study program, defined by

standards in accreditation procedure and recognized in diploma supplement through

ECTS. Of course, standards have to be clearly defined so as to establish which

companies can offer students internship. The supply and demand for internships

need to be presented transparently in a data base. To encourage internship

development, it is necessary to give tax facilitations to companies which accept to

offer internships for students, scholarships and support for project realization.

Subsidies in equipments for small and medium enterprises are also welcome to

support the realization of these proposals.

New evaluation system. It is necessary to create a new evaluation system of

students which recognizes their abilities important for employers, like evaluation of

volunteering, activities in student associations and non-governmental organizations,

etc., where they can develop skills outside the theoretical type courses. The

development of a methodology by teaching staff and textbook evaluation need to

involve recognition of competences, research abilities, quality and effectiveness of

students’ studies, work in company, etc. A committee whose members would be

representatives of academic staff, students and business people need to develop a

methodology for ranking of faculties and study programs.

Financial support for harmonization between the supply and demand of the

labor market. It might be achieved by the analysis of labor markets demands and,

on the government level, by a decision on enrollment quotas for the corresponding

study programs.

The strategy of graduates’ employability. It is necessary to motivate employers

and companies to be interested in hiring employees without experience.

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Acknowledgement

This work has partially been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the

Republic of Serbia, Project III44006.

The authors express with great pleasure their gratitude to Professor Branko Kovačević,

Rector of the University of Belgrade, Mr. Bojan Radun, President of Serbian Association

of Managers, Mrs. Vidosava Džagic, Vice-President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce

for valuable discussions. We also kindly thank the National Employment Service,

Academy of Engineering Sciences of Serbia - AINS, and the administrative staff of the

University of Belgrade who offered data important for our analysis.

R E F E R E N C E S

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[13] European Commission, (2007), Third Status Report on European Technology Platforms – At the Launch of FP7, Directorate-General for Research, Directorate C – European research Area: Knowledge-based economy, Unit C1 – European Research Area Policy, EUR 22706 EN.

[14] Neda Bokan, (2009), Career Center as a Bridge between University and Labor Market, DECOWE, Proc. Conf. 1-8.

[15] European Commission, (2009), Fourth Status Report on European Technology Platforms – Harvesting the Potential, Directorate-General for Research, EUR 23729 EN.

[16] European Commission Joint Research, Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, (2009), Monitoring Ind. Research: The 2009 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, EUR 24079 EN, ISBN 978-92-79-14058-7.

[17] Leuven Communique, (2009), http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/conference/index.htm

[18] Center for Career Development and Student Counseling, (2010), http://www.razvojkarijere.bg.ac.rs/docs/GDESTESTARADITE.pdf

[19] CeSID, (2010), Survey of Public Opinion among Representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurs, CeSID, Belgrade.

[20] Law on Amendments and Annexes to the Law on Higher Education, (2010), “The Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia“, Nr. 44/2010 (in Serbian).

[21] Serbian Chamber of Commerce, (2010), Belgrade, Measure and Activity Plan on Overcoming the Noted Obstacles to Business and Investment in the Reindustrialization Process, Addendum to the Industrial Development Strategy and Policy of the Republic of Serbia 2011-2020, Belgrade, (in Serbian).

[22] Neda Bokan, Gordana Danilović-Grković, Dejana Lazić, (2011), A View on New Skills for Better Employability, Proc. International Conference on Employability of Graduates & Higher Education management Systems, Vienna, 22-23 September 2011.

[23] P. B. Petrović, V. R. Milačić, (2011), National Technology Platforms of Serbia, Proc. 34th International Conference on Production Engineering, 28.-30. September 2011, Niš, Serbia.

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[24] Student Conference of Serbian Universities, (2011), Guidlines for Modernization of Studying Program on Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Serbia, http://www.skonus.org.

[25] Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia, (2011), Strategy and Policy of Industrial Development 2011-2020, Belgrade, (in Serbian).

[26] Dragomir Bondžić, (2011), Development of international cooperation of students of Serbia, Throug time and Serbia, Beograd (in Serbian).

[27] Neda Bokan, Tijana Sukilovic, Srdjan Vukmirovic, (2012), On Modeling of Competences in a Descriptive Geometry Course, Pollack Periodica, 173-183, DOI: 10.1556/Pollack.7.2012.S.17.

[28] Marko Hemmerling, (2012), Computational Design and Construction, GEFFA - Kickoff Meeting February 8-9, 2012, Belgrade.

[29] Srdjan Vukmirovic, (2012), Teaching Geometry in 21st Century - our experience, GEFFA - Kickoff Meeting February 8-9.

[30] http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-education/doc1290_en.htm

[31] National Employment Service of Republic of Serbia, (2012), http://www.nsz.gov.rs/page/zanezaposlene/sr/expiringItem.html

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APPENDIX The figures given in this Appendix show the interest of candidates for studies at bachelor

level on faculties of the University of Belgrade in the academic years 2008/2009,

2009/2010, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. The interest is presented on the vertical axis as the

ratio of the number of candidates who applied for the studies and the number of enrolled

students, i.e., faculty attractiveness ratio. One can see that it is not a stable trend and

changes from year to year and from one faculty to another. Furthermore, it is generally

rather independent of the labor market demands.

Technical and technological sciences group

Medical sciences group

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Humanities and social sciences group

Natural sciences and mathematics group