Activities in Serbia

Project on Institutionalization of Mentoring System for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Background of the Project :

Serbia still faces several economic problems such as high unemployment rate, lower per capita GDP, low level of productivity and innovation activities compared with EU countries. To tackle these issues, National Agency for Regional Development (NARD) of Serbia introduced Mentoring service as SME support program in 2005 and National Employment Service joined the program in 2006.

In late 2008, the Serbian Government introduced "Strategy for Development of Competitive and Innovative Small and Medium-size Enterprises 2008-2013". The Strategy indicates that the experience gained show that, besides exiting type of non-financial support, there is an unquestionable need for further development and expansion of offer, which include the beneficiaries of non-financial support (training, counseling, mentoring etc.) in preparatory stage of a start-up and in the initial years of operation.

• Project type : Technical Cooperation Project
• Project objective : Standardized model of mentoring service is established and implemented
• Project site: Belgrade, Zrenjanin, Krusevac, Uzice, and Kragujevac
• Duration : August 2008 − August 2011
• Executing Organization : National Agency for Regional Development
• Project outputs

  1)	Outline of standardized model of mentoring such as function, management structure, and role of respective stakeholders are clarified and defined.
  2)	Trainers of mentor and mentors are produced under standardized model.
  3)	Mentoring services according to standardized model is implemented.Trainers of mentor and mentors are produced under standardized model.
  4)	Case study and a database for enterprise diagnosis as textbooks in training are developed