Karanović & Nikolić hosted the "Empowering Students to Enter the Workplace" HR conference, held on the 30th of November in Belgrade, Serbia. The event was organised in cooperation with Stanton Chase, one of the top 10 global retained executive search firms, and the guests and panellists included leading professionals in the field of human resources, as well as employment law experts.

Helping people grow professionally and personally is seen as a strategic priority at Karanović & Nikolić. With that in mind, fostering individuality and creativity are integral values of our student internship and trainee programmes – the Summer internship and the KNdidates programme.

However, a large number of students in Serbia are not able to take part in relevant programmes that would help them develop the professional and inter-personal skills needed on the job market. According to statistics:

• 15.3% of young people (ages 15 to 24) does not work and is not involved in any educational system;
• the unemployment rate for young people is 28.9%, while the general unemployment rate is 11.8%; and,
• in general, 23.4 months passes from the moment a person graduates until they land their first job.

Due to legislative issues, a lot of students who would take part in internships or other educational programmes are forgotten, while 94% of interns does not receive any remuneration for the work that they do.

The welcome speeches at the conference were delivered by Ivana Karanović, attorney at law and head of Learning and Development at Karanović & Nikolić, and Tijana Tadić, HR Director at Karanović & Nikolić. After presentations by Marko Ćulafić – a graduate of both the Summer internship and the KNdidates programme, and currently a trainee at Karanović&Nikolić, and Milena Papac, attorney at law, who leads the Employment practice group at Karanović & Nikolić, followed the discussion panel titled "Student engagement challenges and solutions".

The panellists included: Dejana Lazić, Centar za razvoj karijere Univerziteta u Beogradu; Mirjana Parpura Đorđević, enjoy.ing; Vladimir Damnjanović, Continental; and Milena Papac, Karanović & Nikolić. Some of the topics discussed included problems finding internships, their organisation and quality control.

The panellists agreed that often the students' preferences, their potential and motivation matter more in the selection process than their type of formal education. And, of the varied methods in the intern selections process, simple conversation often proves most effective. A students GPA is usually an indicator of good work habits, according to the panellists, but sometimes there is a discrepancy in the interns' ability to learn theoretical knowledge and their ability to apply it in practical situations.