In the framework of the Intervet Western Balkans project, Institute for New Age Education (ZNI) hosted a group from Kosovo that stayed here from September 3rd until October 1st in 2022. Sending organisation of the group was CEM Chamber of Economy of Montenegro and the project was coordinated by our long term partner, Uniser Società Cooperativa Sociale Onlus from Forlì, Italy.

Students Damjan, Anja, Milena, Lazar, Jelena, Emina, Jovana, Isidora, Velizar, Jovana and Nora arrived to Maribor from Zagreb Airport on 3rd of October. They were accompanied by their tutor Radomir. The group had a few days of preparation which included many activities: presentation of Mobility program and getting to know each other at the ZNI office, Safety at work course at IVD centre, Interview simulation and CV workshop, presentation of Slovenia and visiting National Liberation Museum with a Guided city tour: What can Maribor offer me?

The group's mentor was Lea Korošec and was guiding and mentoring the group through their mobility in Maribor. As part of mobility programme activities, the group went on a trip to Pohorje hill, must see hiking spot in Maribor, where they had an opportunity to get to know each other better and spend quality time in nature. 

Practical trainings for the students were organised by ZNI mobility coordinator Rebeka Čeh in different companies in Maribor. Students were placed in the following companies: hotel 5START d.o.o., marketing agencies Verus d.o.o. and Rdeča Oranža d.o.o., designing company Studio Habitat d.o.o., IT company WideLabs d.o.o., beauty and cosmetics salon Perfect Body owned by Maja Žižek s.p., company that offers ergonomical solutions Ergonomske rešitve d.o.o., electronic PCB boards production company Smartronik d.o.o. and pharmacy Lekarne Maribor. In the companies the students had been given the opportunity to develop, both personally and professionally, and had improved their knowledge in different fields. 

The main goal of this mobility was to encourage students to learn, as well as socialise and meet new people. Students spent their free time going around Maribor, walking by the Drava river and going to the city park. They loved  exploring the city as much as they could and spending time with people they met here in Maribor. Students expressed their wish to come back to Maribor in the future. They grew professionally but also personally. They bonded as a group, met a lot of new people and made life-long friends.

Damjan (Verus d.o.o.)

»My name is Damjan, I'm 17 years old and I come from Podgorica, Montenegro. I was working at Verus d.o.o. in Maribor. This is a marketing company which specializes in marketing and websites. My one month of the internship here was amazing because I could improve my skills even more and I am looking forward to come back here to study because I think the city is beautiful.«


Emina and Jovana (Studio Habitat d.o.o.)

»My name is Emina, I come from Podgorica and I worked together with Jovana in Studio Habitat.«
»My name is Jovana. We worked as assistants of an architect. I think this experience will be very heplful and valuable for our future careers.«
 

Anja (5START d.o.o.)

»My name is Anja, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Montenegro. I stayed in Maribor for one month as a tourism student. I worked at 5START d.o.o. at Hotel Bolfenk on Pohorje. It was a really good experience and I learned a lot there. This experience will be great for my further education and for my future job. I would also like to get a chance to go out of my country again in the future.«
 

Jelena (WideLabs d.o.o.)

»My name is Jelena and I'm an IT student. This experience here in Maribor will for sure help me in my future job and studies. I mostly learned how to be more independent and met many new friends with whom I wish to stay in touch for the rest of my life. Other than that I learned how it is to work somewhere out of my country. The time here passed do fast and I don't really like the fact that we must go home.«


Lazar (Rdeča Oranža d.o.o.)

»My name is Lazar, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Montenegro. I stayed in Maribor for one month and I worked at Rdeča Oranža d.o.o. that is a marketing company. This experience is important for my future education and job. I really liked my time here and I would reccommend anyone to try new things and try this mobility experience for themselves.«
 

Velizar (Smartronik d.o.o.)
​
»I'm Velizar, I'm from Montenegro and I'm 17 years old. I stayed in Maribor for one month and worked in Smartronik where I was working on motherboards for computers. I'm very satisfied with my work experience and would like to continue working in this field in my future.«
 

Jovana and Milena (Lekarne Maribor)

»My name is Jovana and I come from Montenegro. I worked at Lekarne Maribor as a pharmaceutical technician. I was mixing creams and sometimes prepared medicine for patients. I'm really glad that I took this opportunity and got this experience.«

»My name is Milena and I'm from Montenegro. I worked in Lekarne Betnava and my experience was amazing. I was taught how to make creams, my coworkers introduced me to some medicines and my coworkers helped me to learn more about this job. I will definitely continue my work as a pharmaceutical technician.«

 
Isidora (Perfect Body)

»My name is Isidora and I come from Podgorica. I worked as a beauty technician in Perfect Body beauty center. I'm very satisfied with my experience and I'm happy that I didn't miss this chance to see Maribor and to work here which was very nice. I had a chance to observe a lot of treatments such as LPG, RF, massages, relaxing massages for face and body, maderotherapy and much more. I could also work with clients and had a chance to communicate with them. I earned a lot of new things and I'm very happy that I came here.«
 

Nora (Ergonomske rešitve d.o.o.)

»My name is Nora, I come from Montenegro and I worked at Ergonomske rešitve d.o.o. where I worked at the field of digital marketing. I learned about new programs and also worked a lot of content for social media. From this experience I learned how to work in my field. I had amazing colleauges who were always there to help me. I wouldn't change this experience because it was really great.«

Kleo (GMG Peter Žula d.o.o.)

​»I'm Kleo, I'm from Albania, I'm 17 years old and I came to do the internship in Slovenia. I was working at Gradbeništvo Žula. The work was about construction which is what I'm studying for. I really loved it here and I loved the work. I tried to do my best, to be as much productive and helpful as possible. Maribor is a very good city, I like it. Any young person or a student can also apply just like our group did and enjoy the experience.«

In the framework of the Intervet Western Balkans project, Institute for New Age Education (ZNI) hosted a group from Albania that stayed here from January 27th until February 25th in 2022. Sending organisation of the group was Albanian Skills - National Association for Skills Competitions and the project was coordinated by our long term partner, Uniser Società Cooperativa Sociale Onlus from Forlì, Italy.

Students Musa, Erald, Rei, Fabian, Klevi, Briland, Laerti, Melisa, Etis, Kristian and Juled arrived to Maribor from Vienna Airport on 27th of January. They were accompanied by their tutor Seldan. The group had a few days of preparation which included many activities: presentation of Mobility program and getting to know each other at the ZNI office, Safety at work course at IVD centre, Interview simulation and CV workshop, presentation of Slovenia and visiting National Liberation Museum with a Guided city tour: What can Maribor offer me?.

The group's mentor, Patricia Hrnčić, was guiding and mentoring the group through their mobility in Maribor. As part of mobility programme activities, the group went on a trip to Pohorje hill, must see hiking spot in Maribor, where they had an opportunity to get to know each other better and spend quality time in nature. 

Practical trainings for the students were organised by ZNI mobility coordinator Rebeka Čeh in different companies in Maribor. Students were placed in the following companies: construction company Kodel d.o.o., security company REAL security d.o.o., marketing agency Kainoto d.o.o., online accounting development company E-Računi d.o.o., company with gaming equipment Colby d.o.o., a restaurant Nana gostinstvo d.o.o., electronic PCB boards production company Smartronik d.o.o., daily center for children and youth PIKA dnevni center za otroke in mladostnike Maribor, private investigation company Intellegos d.o.o. and a hotel on Pohorje hill 5START d.o.o. In the companies the students had been given the opportunity to develop, both personally and professionally, and had improved their knowledge in different fields. 

The main goal of this mobility was to encourage students to learn, as well as socialise and meet new people. Students spent their free time going around Maribor, walking by the Drava river and going to the city park. They loved spending time outside and exploring the city as much as they could. Students expressed that living in Maribor was a great and very valuable experience for them. All of the students improved their English and communication skills and also became more independent.

My name is Vittoria Romagnoli, I’m 17 years old and I’m on mobility in Maribor, Slovenia.

I heard about this experience by my English teacher, and I immediately participated because I think that Erasmus+ project is a great opportunity to improve my skills and to grow personally.

When I first came here, I was a little bit scared because it was my first long experience abroad alone, but at the same time I knew that it would have been a wonderful experience, so I started to talk with the other students that are here with me, and we built a strong friendship so everything became simpler.

We live in a dorm where we have a shared kitchen and shared bathrooms, at the beginning it was a little bit strange because, of course, it’s very different from our home, but a couple of days after I started to get used to it. We organized and divided the duties we have to do and, even if not always everyone respects that, we’re doing great.

During the first days we did some preparation activities with ZNI in order to get used to the culture of Slovenia and also to the world of work, in fact, after watching some PowerPoints about Slovenia, we did some exercises about Europass CV and job interviews simulations. These activities have been very useful, especially because most of us have never worked before.

After these activities, we had a job interview with our company and then we started working. I work at ZNI with my friend Martina and today is my sixth day at work, so I still have a lot to learn but it’s an interesting job, we work with social media, and we also help our colleagues doing simple things in the office.
​
Last weekend we took a trip to the mountain Pohorje, we followed a path into the wood, and we arrived at a chalet where we had lunch with traditional food. It’s been stunning and it’s been also an occasion to get to know each other more.

I’m learning a lot of things and, most importantly, I’m improving myself and my adaptability. It’s a lovely place and people are friendly so I can say that, until now, my mobility has been successful.

In this month and a half I felt really comfortable in everything, my hotel room was large enough and we had plenty of space to put our food and clothes, it was always tidy and clean.  I got along very well at work, I had nice and always available colleagues and despite my difficulties in speaking English, we understood each other.  I learned a lot in this experience and it helped me to learn to live alone.  We were always followed and monitored by ZNI, and for anything we needed, we could write to them. - ​Emanuele

In this experience I rediscovered myself. I did not know I understand English well; I had a bit of difficulty in speaking it but I have always tried and this helped me to understand that I want to learn English even better.  At work, at first I felt out of place but after I began to feel at ease and working in a vegan pastry shop, I know that in the future, if I ever find a job in a vegan pastry shop, I'll be ready!  it was nice to work with my colleagues; there were a lot of fun moments and we worked together very well!  This Erasmus experience gave me what I know I will need in the future; it was a really good experience that I fully recommend to many others!  And I thank ZNI who have been close to us and for all the help! Thank you very much!  Maribor is a really beautiful city I will return there one day for a weekeed with my friends. - ​Maimuna

In this experience, I have learned and improved my English, the company and my colleagues were very nice and fun. The hotel where we were based was very nice enough space for clothes and food, we never lacked anything. Everyone in the company was very friendly and available if I had any doubts. In case of problems or doubts there was the support of ZNI. Thanks for everything. - ​Leta

In this experience I learned a lot of new things. My work colleagues were very good even though I had difficulties with the language. I didn't know I was that good and able to live alone without my parents. I felt good in the hotel with my partner, and we always kept the room clean. - Khady