Across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, NURTURE apprenticeships gave young people structured, mentored first work experience in NGOs and a clear view of roles and skills in the sector. Evaluations consistently praise open, steady communication between mentors and apprentices, with reported gains in teamwork, communication, and confidence—and noticeable benefits for NGOs’ mentoring practice and everyday capacity. Participants describe the experience as a bridge from theory to real tasks, while mentors underline the value of clear tasks and regular feedback. The model proves that NGOs are real workplaces and that skills gained in NGOs are transferable to any sector.
The project “Nurturing the World Can Be a Job – NURTURE” is implemented by a partnership led by PiNA (Slovenia) with LDA Europe (Albania), BRAVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mladiinfo Montenegro (Montenegro), and Youth Career Center Dubrovnik – CKM Dubrovnik (Croatia). Under the Erasmus+ call ERASMUS-YOUTH-2023-CB (Capacity Building in the Field of Youth), NURTURE develops and delivers an 80-hour NGO apprenticeship model and establishes National Support Points (NSPs) that connect young people, non-governmental organisations, and the labour market in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The model combines career counseling, quality mentoring, and project-based learning, with learning outcomes formally recognised through certificates.
Motivation & Context — Challenges of Young People and the NGO Sector in the Region
Across the Western Balkans, many young people face a difficult first step into the world of work: limited entry-level opportunities, uneven access to mentoring, and few chances to test themselves in real roles. This creates a skills–experience gap precisely at the moment when they need clarity, confidence, and practical evidence of what they can do. At the same time, the organisations closest to community needs—local NGOs—operate with constrained resources and little structured support to onboard and develop young talent.
Despite this, the NGO sector is a genuine workplace and an effective learning environment. It offers real tasks (project coordination, communication, outreach, administration), immediate responsibility to a community, and the kind of mentoring that helps young people turn classroom knowledge into action. Yet NGOs are often under-recognised as first employers: their contributions to employability, civic participation, and skills development remain undervalued, and pathways from volunteering to paid roles are not always visible or systematic.
NURTURE was designed precisely at this intersection: to make the first professional step clearer for youth and to help NGOs structure that step through counselling, matching, and mentored apprenticeships. By creating National Support Points (NSPs) and a shared apprenticeship model, the project addresses two regional needs at once—youth employability and NGO capacity—showing that civil society can be both a training ground and a credible bridge to long-term work.
NURTURE follows a person-centred pathway that connects young people with real work and guidance. It begins with career counselling and careful matching, continues with an 80-hour mentored apprenticeship, and builds in ongoing monitoring and feedback, ending with formal recognition of learning. The experience is structured through four progressive modules—know the sector, job shadowing, challenge your skills, and do your own thing—which gradually increase responsibility, prompt reflection, and translate learning into practice.
NSPs (run by LDA Albania, BRAVO, and Mladiinfo) informed and counselled youth, supported host NGOs, organised mentor seminars, coordinated matching and monitoring, and promoted NGOs as employers in cooperation with employment services—the bridge that keeps quality consistent and the model replicable.
Guidance, Growth, and Real Work: Testimonies
Mentors across all three countries describe a clear win–win: apprentices added real value in day-to-day NGO work—communications, basic project support, administration—while showing steady, week-by-week progress once tasks were clearly defined and feedback became routine. The process didn’t just help young people; it also strengthened mentoring practice inside organisations, prompting mentors to structure work more transparently and tailor guidance to different learning styles. Several mentors noted a practical constraint—the 80-hour frame is a strong starting point yet short for deeper transfer across full project cycles.
From the apprentices’ perspective, the programme often represented a first real workplace: a chance to see how NGOs actually function and what professional standards look like. They report tangible gains in confidence and transferable skills—teamwork, communication, independence, time management—and a clearer sense of career direction. The through-line in their reflections is the value of open, accessible communication with mentors: regular check-ins made it safe to ask questions, take responsibility, and grow. A recurring wish was simply for more time, so they could engage with longer tasks and follow an entire project cycle from planning to results.
Country nuances reinforce these shared themes. In Albania, mentors praised LDA’s guidance and CRM tools for tracking progress and leaving comments, while apprentices highlighted confidence, teamwork, and improved career clarity. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, evaluations emphasise “open, clear and productive” mentor–apprentice communication and report growing responsibilities over time, with duration flagged as the main constraint. In Montenegro, the quality of matching stood out: good matches kept young people involved even after the formal hours, with mentors citing the “freshness and new perspectives” apprentices brought, and apprentices naming networking and new opportunities as major benefits.
Taken together, the summaries point to a simple equation: clear tasks + steady feedback + good matching = meaningful contribution and growth. Apprentices built portfolios of evidence and confidence they can carry into any sector, while NGOs strengthened internal organisation and mentoring culture—especially where communication was purposeful and consistent.
In Montenegro, the apprenticeship pathway translated into clear next steps for many participants. In the 30 cases reviewed, a majority stayed engaged with their host NGOs after the 80 hours—most as volunteers supporting ongoing projects and communications, and at least one who extended the placement and became a full-time project manager. Several apprentices shifted across the civil-society ecosystem, joining other organisations (notably Mladiinfo Montenegro) where they quickly took on logistics, youth-work, and project-writing tasks, including participation in international trainings.
A notable share moved into public or private institutions, carrying over the coordination, communication and reliability honed during the placement. Examples include an apprentice who pursued programming (her primary field of study) in a private company while continuing to assist the team on the KOMPAS website.
Not every journey continued immediately—a smaller group currently shows no follow-on engagement, including at least one apprentice who left his previous job during the placement and is actively seeking a new role. It’s also important to note that some entries combine outcomes (e.g., staying in the host NGO and starting in media), so pathway totals overlap.
Three lessons stand out. First, good matching and regular feedback made it easier for organisations to keep apprentices involved, whether as volunteers or staff. Second, volunteering acts as a bridge: many remained active in their host NGOs while exploring paid opportunities elsewhere, keeping civic engagement alive as careers unfold. Third, the skills gained—communication, project support, outreach, reliability—are highly transferable, enabling movement within the NGO field and into media, marketing, tech, and finance. In short, Montenegro’s experience points to a healthy conversion from first exposure to sustained participation or employment, with mentoring and relationships as the drivers.
In Albania, the apprenticeship pillar was delivered in full: 30 young people participated and all 30 completed their 80-hour placements across 11 host NGOs during a focused spring implementation. Mentors and apprentices consistently highlight good, steady communication, clear tasking, and supportive feedback as the drivers of progress. As a result, participants report strong gains in confidence, teamwork and communication, a better understanding of how NGOs actually work, and clearer career direction after the placement. The Albanian cohort demonstrates that, when matching and mentoring are well organised, apprenticeships reliably produce transferable skills and readiness for next steps—within civil society and beyond.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the apprenticeship pillar was delivered in full: 30 young people participated and all 30 completed their 80-hour placements across 10 host NGOs in a well-coordinated spring cohort. Mentors and apprentices consistently underline clear communication, regular feedback, and gradual increase of responsibility as key drivers of progress. Participants report strong gains in teamwork, communication, and independence, alongside a clearer understanding of how NGOs operate and where they see themselves next. The BiH experience confirms that, with good matching and steady mentoring, apprenticeships reliably build transferable skills and open credible next-step opportunities—within civil society and beyond.
Contest snapshot and the Winners
Across three countries, the NURTURE contest turned apprenticeship ideas into funded action. In Albania, a compact call received two submissions; Montenegro drew the strongest response with twelve proposals; Bosnia and Herzegovina assessed eight entries. The pipeline was lean and focused, designed for quick implementation of the best youth-led ideas.
In Montenegro, the winning project is AstronoMY—an inclusive STEM and astronomy day for young people aged 9–17 that makes science hands-on and accessible through adapted materials, dedicated support staff, and practical experiments; evaluators highlighted its clear methodology and strong relevance.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the award went to Solidarity in Action – Youth for the Community, a month-long programme in Zenica translating solidarity into practice through support to the community kitchen, home visits to older people, city-wide food drives, and volunteerism workshops—praised for its well-structured plan and clearly defined target group. In Albania, the selected project is Northern Motion: The Butterfly & Young Leaders Camp, a two-day camp that weaves sport, nature, and cultural heritage into a single empowerment track, with participants acting as badminton “athletes” and guides-in-training to build leadership, teamwork, and communication.
All three winning projects received €3,000 to support implementation.
Across the three countries, the voices of participants point to the same arc: clarity through real work, backed by steady mentoring. In Albania, winner Suada Kalemi (Leaders on Tour) describes how taking youth outdoors—linking sport, nature and local heritage—turned leadership and teamwork from concepts into lived skills. Fellow Albanian participant Enxhi Roci (AI Albania) found his direction at the intersection of tech and social good: “My apprenticeship at AI Albania helped me understand how technology and social innovation can create real change. Through mentoring and hands-on experience, I learned project coordination, teamwork, and communication skills that shaped my professional goals. The Nurture experience showed me that growth comes when you’re part of something that matters.”
In Montenegro, winner Una Sredović (PRONA) shows what inclusion looks like in practice: an astronomy day designed so that every child can participate—an experience that, for many young organisers, opened networks and first professional roles. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azemina Kovačević (HO Merhamet) and her team translate solidarity into everyday action—food drives, community kitchens, home visits—giving young volunteers visible responsibility and community trust.
And from the broader cohort, Jovana Jagetić (Phiren Amenca) captures the learning mindset that ran through NURTURE: “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Even if you choose wrong, there are countless ways to gain new knowledge. Non-formal education is just as valuable as formal.”
Together, these stories underline the model’s promise: with clear tasks, a mentor by your side, and a real community to serve, young people don’t just “gain experience”—they build confidence, skills and a portfolio of impact they can carry anywhere. NURTURE has shown a simple truth: when young people are given real tasks, clear frameworks, and a mentor by their side, they deliver—and they grow. Apprenticeships in NGOs are not a “test drive,” but a first real job with responsibility to the community, visible results, and transferable skills that matter in every sector. Organisations gain energy, ideas, and a new generation ready to take on roles; young people gain confidence, networks, and an impact portfolio they can show.