Skopje, 26.10.2023 – “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje in cooperation with the “Alternativa Liberale” Institute as well as in support of the Economics Fundamentals Initiative from the USA successfully held a panel discussion on the topic: “Empowering youth through economic education” among students, lecturers and guests from other institutions.

In this panel discussion, the panelists, Izet Zeqiri, Ph.D., Bujamin Bela, Ph.D., Assoc.Prof. Bukurie Imeri Jusufi, Mr. Arben Halili from ECNWM and Assoc.Prof. Neritan Turkeshi in front of the audience gave factual evidence from their scientific research, and empirical research from the problems and solutions of the future for young people in the public, private and other sectors.

Rector of MTU, Izet Zeqiri Ph.D., thanked the co-organizer for this mutual cooperation and briefly elaborated on the topic “Economic Education: The Necessary Skill of the 21st Century” where he gave special attention to management challenges on the role and empowerment of young people through economic education. Rector Zeqiri also paid attention to management challenges and business successes, where, among others, from theoretical to practical elaborations, he elaborated creative and very significant examples in front of the audience.

Pro-Rector for Finance, Investments and Development Bujamin Bela Ph.D., in the panel discussion, among other things, said that “the common characteristic of the new generations is high education, high expectations, dissatisfaction, researchers and comparisons that forces companies to maintain a balance between work and life in general. Social, economic and technological processes in the world strongly influence human resource management programs by increasing the importance of work teams, increasing the number of temporary and part-time or flexible workers, increasing the cultural diversity of employees, increasing the processes of mergers and acquisitions of companies – mergers, revolutionary development of technologies, organizational restructuring by reducing the number of hierarchical levels, demographic changes and economic globalization.” – said Pro-Rector Bela.

Dean of the Faculty of Technical Sciences, Assoc.Prof. Neritan Turkeshi, during the panel discussion, emphasized that ‘due to the various and complex impacts of inflation on economic growth, it is important that governments and central banks carefully monitor and manage the level of inflation in order to achieve a sustainable goal of economic growth. A careful balance between inflation and economic growth is important for the overall health of the economy,’ said Turkeshi.

Dean Turkeshi highlights youth empowerment through economic education as an important effort to prepare young people to successfully manage their finances and make wise financial choices in the future.

The deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board in the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia (ECNWM), Mr. Arben Halili emphasized that ‘university cooperation is more necessary to create a new generation of professional staff, and that at the time of studies, the curricula will include theoretical knowledge intertwined with practical experience. For this to happen, we must have an economics subject in every school at an early stage, from high school. And secondly, we need fundamental reform in the education system. At least in the third and fourth year of studies, we should have more practice than theory, in this way students will be better and properly prepared for the labor market’, said Mr. Arben Halili. 

In the introductory part, Assoc.Prof. Bukurie Imeri Jusufi discussed the impact of education on the growth of the country, as well as the mechanisms through which education can influence economic growth. Bearing in mind that the Government has prepared a strategy for young people, from the research carried out with the age group from 15-29 years old, it was concluded that 55% of the respondents are not informed about these strategies. It was discussed about the conditions offered to young people to start their own business and what are the reasons for these initiatives undertaken

and some of the influencing factors for the high migration of young people and their adaptation to the work market in European countries.

The panel discussion composed of eminent persons in the field aimed to promote the debate on the importance of economic education towards the empowerment of young people, whether they are high school students or students from non-economic fields. An economically educated young person is likely to be more active in social life, to better understand the economic events that impact daily life, making them more conscious citizens.