On the last day of December, the “Student digital HUB” project, which was jointly implemented by the Entrepreneurship Center Split and the Student Entrepreneurship Incubator of the Faculty of Economics in Split, ended. The project was implemented throughout 2021. year with the aim of strengthening personal and professional development and the competitiveness of young people on the market through the development and implementation of a digital program of informal learning. Also, by strengthening the capacity of young people in the higher education system, efforts were made to encourage young people to become more involved in the development of the local community. The project is co-financed with funds from the European Solidarity Forces program of the European Union.

In the area of ​​strengthening development and skills, emphasis is placed on digital and entrepreneurial skills and personal development skills:

• Digital skills, where the emphasis is on digital intelligence and literacy, the use of digital tools in learning and virtual collaboration, and programming languages
• Entrepreneurial skills with an emphasis on digital marketing, communication and presentation skills, sales skills and business negotiation as well as writing project proposals and project management
• Personal development skills where emphasis was placed on leadership, teamwork, preparation for the labor market, and ideas generation and testing techniques.

In the project, over 11 thematic months, in cooperation with 33 experts from industry and entrepreneurship, a total of 56 trainings were held, which included over 1100 participants.

The target group of the project was young people, namely young people in the higher education system who, by participating in the activities foreseen by the project, would acquire additional skills and competences that would give them professional breadth and round them off as young experts. Considering that in today’s dynamic society, emphasis is placed on entering the field of work as early as possible and it is made known that in this way it will be easier to fight for employment, it is necessary for students to develop additional skills through informal education.

The activities achieved what was planned, they motivated them to work more on themselves and their skills, they were of great importance for the professional progress of young people. This is what the feedback from the participants themselves tells us:

“The workshops opened my eyes to what I should pay attention to and what I should work on in order to increase my competitiveness on the labor market. Since I’m in my final year, these workshops really came in handy and I’m glad they’re free for students.”

“Extremely useful and allows deviation from the “diploma itself” – to a potential employer, attending additional training shows the candidate’s proactivity. In the sea of ​​various educations from various sources and at different prices, it is wonderful that students have the opportunity to develop in this way, with quality presenters and current topics, and I consider your projects to be first and foremost noble, not to mention useful.”

The influence and importance of such activities for students and young people was also recognized by potential employers, and according to the feedback of participants who applied for employment after participating in the activities, the reactions of employers were extremely positive and enabled them to stand out from the crowd of candidates.

The project also has added European value because it is in line with the agenda of the European Commission “Digital Europe for the period from 2021 to 2027.” where, among other things, emphasis is placed on the development of digital transformation, the development of advanced digital skills among pupils, students and young entrepreneurs and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies throughout the economy and society. For all participants who met the requirements and successfully completed education in a specific thematic area, we issued digitally signed credentials in accordance with the EU Action Plan for Digital Education (2021-2027). A total of 233 digital credentials were issued through the project.