News
Oliver Streit and Jelena Stefanović at the WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 venue
A career-matching tool developed under the NIRAS-implemented Education to Employment (E2E) project was showcased in Shanghai, China, alongside international initiatives strengthening technical and vocational education and training (TVET). A jury of peers gave the hybrid tool ─ developed by NIRAS, JOB INFO centar Asocijacija, Infostud and gateway.one, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation ─ unofficial recognition for its practical, innovative approach.
Our colleagues in the Education to Employment (E2E) project showcased SkillCompass — a pioneering career-matching tool — at the first-ever Skills CoLab, a new programme under the WorldSkills Conference 2026 held at Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Centre.
From 23 to 24 September, as part of the wider three-day conference, the Skills CoLab featured 26 projects from 20 countries, selected from over 130 applicants around the globe and designed to address gaps in TVET. SkillCompass, E2E’s flagship initiative, was the only one from the Western Balkans and unofficially recognised as one of the best tools on show.
The WorldSkills Conference attracted around 2000 participants across ministries, governments, TVET institutions, international organisations, and other key stakeholders. Moreover, at Skills CoLab, participants had a chance to explore the 26 projects through focussed consultations booked beforehand with project teams, including E2E’s SkillCompass.
Organised every two years since 2007, the WorldSkills Conference is a global event where leaders, experts, and the youth gather to discuss and contribute to TVET’s future. This 2026, the conference theme was “Shaping a Skills-driven Future”. Skills CoLab is a new format in this year’s edition, creating an interactive space where 26 select projects met with delegates to exchange knowledge and potentially form new partnerships.
"It was a great privilege to show our work to fellow TVET professionals who had come from around the world,” says Jelena Stefanović, the National Leader for E2E's Career Guidance component. “Career guidance generally asks young people what they want to be, but with SkillCompass, young people are asked who they are first. Being able to showcase this in Shanghai is something we’re very proud of.”
At its core, SkillCompass is a hybrid tool that marries technology and human knowledge, giving young people a greater sense of their strengths and how they can maximise these in the job market.
Using gateway.one’s scientifically validated diagnostic tools — namely WayFi, IdentyFi, and Basic Check — SkillCompass assesses vocational personality traits, interests, and competencies identified through psychometric tests. Then, results are delivered to trained career counsellors across 11 job info centres from JOB INFO Centre Association’s network for interpretation, ensuring the guidance young people receive is personalised.
Lastly, because SkillCompass connects with Infostud, which is the largest job-matching platform in Serbia, jobseekers learn about actual vacancies and opportunities aligned with their skill sets.
Even with Serbia's overall unemployment falling to 7.2% in the second quarter of 2026, youth unemployment (15–24 years) sat at around 23% in early 2026 and remains above the European Union's average of 15%.
In E2E's experience, these numbers point to a matching issue, where young people struggle to find where they belong in the labour market and employers have a difficult time finding the skills they seek.
SkillCompass continuously tackles this issue, having supported more than 60,000 youths in Serbia since its development. During Skills CoLab, the E2E team engaged in a series of conversations with delegates worldwide. Throughout the exchange, delegates gained clarity on the practical solutions SkillCompass provides for young jobseekers.
“Most delegates asked the same two questions: ‘Would this work in our country?’ and ‘Why do you still need a human counsellor?’ Our answer to the first is that SkillCompass is not a Swiss product exported to Serbia, but a model we adapted together — language, local occupational profiles, norming with Serbian data, and above all, a network of partners who deliver it. That is what makes it transferable,” explains Oliver Streit, E2E's Team Leader and NIRAS' Technical Director for Education, Skills and Employment.
“To the second, the tests give young people an objective picture of who they are, but it is the trained counsellors who turn that picture into a decision, and the link to real vacancies that turns the decision into a job. Delegates also wanted to know what remains once the donor leaves. Here, we could point to 60,000 young people already reached and a delivery network that is owned locally — that is the part we are proudest of,” he adds.
On the last day of the conference, the team visited TVET facilities and the WorldSkills Museum to see how skills training can leave an indelible impact on young people’s careers.
Oliver also participated in the Sino-Swiss Roundtable with the theme "Building Future-ready Skilled Workforce" as a discussion partner, sharing the project's diagnostic solutions with both Swiss and Chinese high level discussion partners, such as the Swiss State Secretary Dr Martina Hirayama for the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.
“The goal is to leave something that will outlive E2E,” Oliver shares. “Going to Shanghai for SkillCompass is only the first step in bringing this model outside of Serbia — and we are more than ready to co-develop and adapt it with partners who share the same vision.”
The vision of the Education to Employment (E2E) project is to provide decent job prospects for all young women and men in Serbia regardless of their social status. The vision is achieved through the promotion of modern active labour market and skills development measures, based on the Swiss model and adjusted to local needs.
Through our education, skills and employment digital work we support governments through, e.g., national employment agencies, private companies, civil society organisations, workers, technical vocational and education training (TVET) schools and their trainers to prosper in Industry 4.0.
NIRAS began working in Serbia in 2003, and has since then built local expertise and knowledge of the Serbian and Western Balkan context. Our office in Belgrade was initially established in 2010 as a representative office with the aim of providing a more hands-on and tailored approach to the projects that are implemented in the country and the region at large. Since its establishment, the office has thus functioned as the focal point for NIRAS’ development projects across the region.
