In March 2019 the project expert Robert Babic provided 2 days of theoretical training to 34 Monitoring Officers from the Employment Agency and Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare in how to effectively monitor grant scheme projects. The training was designed based on the findings of a Training Needs Assessment, two focus groups with proposed Monitoring Officers, and meetings with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and Employment Agency. The overall satisfaction with the training was high and the majority of participants found it useful (average rate 4.84 out of 5).

Following the training the Monitoring Officers were divided into monitoring teams, and in April and May 2019 undertook the first round of practical monitoring visits to the 6 grant scheme beneficiaries of the Grant Scheme “Support to Vocational Training, On-the-job Training, Self-employment and Entrepreneurship”. Prior to the visits the monitoring teams analysed the Grant Scheme project documentation and a perpetration meeting was held between the monitoring team and the Robert Babic.    The first round of monitoring visits was completed successfully. All projects recorded progress in implementation and there were no significant issues arising during the visits.  Following the visits the monitoring teams prepared monitoring reports, based on the visits, and submitted them to Robert Babic, for review and recommendations for improvements.

.  The successful grant project under this Grant Scheme is:

• Municipality of Gjilan/Gnijlane – Youth in Agribusiness -East Economic Region;
• University of Pristina/Prishtina ‘Hasan Prishtina’ – VentureUP – University of Pristina Venture Incubator;
• Forum for Civic Initiatives (FIQ) – Accelerating self-employment and entrepreneurship in Kosovo;
• Kosovar Catholic Church Caritas (C.I.K) – Empowering youth and women towards employment in Ferizaj/Urosevac and Mitrovice/Mitrovica region;
• Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK) – Training & Education with marketable ICT Skills for Employment and Self-Employment in Kosovo; and

Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD) – EPIC – Employability & Private businesses Incubator Centre. Easy access to labour market for youth and women.

Output
34 Monitoring Officers trained in how to effectively monitor grant scheme projects and the first round of monitoring visits, to the 6 beneficiaries of the Grant Scheme “Support to Vocational Training, On-the-job Training, Self-employment and Entrepreneurship”, were successfully completed