“Sarajevo – the Entrepreneurship Center”
Within the EU/ILO supported Project “Sarajevo – the Entrepreneurship Center “, CEFE BiH established effective partnerships with key institutions in the Sarajevo Canton, including municipalities, ministries, companies, universities, and other NGOs. As a result, CEFE BiH established the Center for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Sarajevo – a focal point for entrepreneurs of BH capitol. In its first year of operations, the Center provided the support in Business Startup for over 100 candidates and financial support for registration of over 30 businesses, primarily in high-profit sectors of ICT and creative industries. Upon the registration, CEFE BiH continues to provide mentoring services for supported entrepreneurs. In the first year of operations of the Center for Excellence in Entrepreneurship, CEFE BiH provided over 70 days of training and 50 days of mentoring. Training and mentoring methodology was adapted to the requirements of social distancing, due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The cooperation with key donors and partner institutions is planned for the upcoming year, with even more significant results. “Sarajevo – the Entrepreneurship Center” is supported through EU4Business project, implemented by ILO, GIZ and UNDP and supported by the EU.
As the covid-19 pandemic made it impossible to conduct presencial training, the CEFE BiH team decided not to wait for better times, but in record breaking time of couple of months developed, tested and applied their own CEFE BiH Online Training Methodology, based on the principles and settings of the CEFE Methodology. Modern technologies used with creativity, imagination and training expertise led to the fact that our Online Training Methodology is almost as interactive and participatory as standard live training. We are very proud to the fact that several hundred satisfied participants talk about the quality and success of the online methodology. Perhaps the best indicator on quality of our online training methodology is the fact that in the couple of groups, participants who have started training live (first module) and then continued online, in final training evaluation valued their preference of live and online methodology to 50%-50%.
Year 2020 will stay infamous in history of the civilization, among else in regarding to catastrophic effects that the covid-19 crisis had on economies and businesses around the world. We have faced many of the challenges that most other businesses, especially those based on physical human / social interaction, have faced. Many businesses are struggling to survive and have either ceased or drastically reduced their operations in this year. We in CEFE BiH have decided to fight back and do whatever it takes to adapt and survive, and we can proudly say that CEFE BiH finishes this year stronger than ever, with new vital tools and resources at hand, increased infrastructure, training and consulting capacities and perhaps most importantly, reputation, among our clients and beneficiaries, of a company and team that will always deliver, even in most difficult circumstances.
Tamara Bjelic
Zoran Kulundzija
