The Third Education and Employment Fair of the city of Gradiška was held in the Arena Gradiška sports hall with participation of 21 exhibitors.

The official fair opening by the Deputy Mayor of Gradiška, Dragana Ilić, was followed by short film presentations of secondary schools, which delighted the numerous visitors.

‘Gradiška is specific for the fair, and I can say freely that we are forerunners in this regard because we are in a point in the middle of the educational process and the labor market, and tomorrow’s students, after finishing primary or secondary school, will choose an adequate school where they will continue their education, and those who will not study because they will find an employer or a field in which they will prove to be hard workers’, Ilić said.

The press room of Arena Gradiška also hosted three panel discussions on the topics Role of education in modern societies and economic processes, Modern information technologies and digitization supporting Gradiška’s business development, and Role of the diaspora in the development of local communities.

Dragana Radulović, senior science and research associate at the University of Banja Luka, said that this was the first time that the University featured in Gradiška as an exhibitor, and that their goal was to promote all the good offered by the Banja Luka University and to have as many future students as possible enroll in this University.

‘We welcome today’s fair; this is one of the ways for educational institutions to connect with businessmen and to show students what businesses are seeking, that is, where they can find employment in the future. We from the Chamber of Commerce are very dedicated to dual education activities; lately we have focused on training mentors, so we can say that in the last two years we have trained 114 mentors and 79 business entities and that owing to cooperation with donors, the trainings are free of charge’, said Dijana Đaković, head of the Chamber of Commerce office in Prijedor.

Vladimir Đurić from the company Prima ISG, which primarily produces furniture and currently employs 350 persons, points out that this company is represented at almost all European markets, it owns 60 retail stores in Croatia and eight in North Macedonia.

‘For the wood processing industry, the cooperation with the Technical School in Gradiška is satisfactory, however, we lack upholstery staff, which is essential for us’, said Đurić.

Jasmina Boloban, assistant minister for secondary education and training and adult education from the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, commended the organization of Gradiška’s fair and noted that this was a true opportunity for businessmen and students to acquire extremely useful knowledge.

‘The goal of the fair is to promote, present and connect educational institutions, business entities and final grades of primary and secondary schools. This year we also have three panel discussions, which is a novelty in the organization of fairs in Gradiška’, concluded Darko Vrhovac, head of the Division for Development Planning, Business Zones and Investments at the Department for Development and International Projects.

The company Rapić, i.e. animal feed factory Farmofit, which traditionally presented its brand for the third time, emphasized that their goal was to interact with all potential applicants in this field, ranging from various artisan occupations to agricultural technology engineers.

‘There is already a good cooperation with the business sector, and dual system has proven to be the right system for good employers and good children. After finishing secondary school and completing private practice in those companies, these children mainly stay to work and have an employment’, the director of the Gradiška Technical School, Vlado Tomić, told reporters.

Participants in the panel discussions were Jasmina Boloban, Vlado Tomić, Vladimir Stanišljević, Branislav Banjac, Zoran Đurić, Drago Gverić, Krešimir Bodrožić, Saša Aćić, Zlatan Klokić, Branko Pjanić, Stojan Stevanović and Borislav Tomić.

Source and photo: PORTAL MICRO MREŽA