Within the framework of social needs month, interesting trends were identified in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on behalf of InnoSchool desk – research for the development of an Innovative Learning System for students’ entrepreneurship skills.

The social need that our project partners from Bosnia and Herzegovina have identified is brain drain, more exactly the emigration of highly trained or qualified people from a country. Migration, in a simple definition, is the movement of people from one country to another. One of the major problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina is youth migration. Young people from this country mostly migrate to European countries. Factors which have an influence on the youth migration, such as unemployment, political uncertainty and relationship between demographic differences, as well as the tendency of the youth to emigrate have attracted a great curiosity.

Around 3.8 million people live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Approximately half of them have indicated they would be prepared to work abroad – the highest proportion in south-eastern Europe. The conclusion is that not only educated young people are affected with this social need, then other members of the society. Most people who are willing or planned to leave are between the ages of 20 and 45. In the six-year period, 92.638 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina moved to the one of the EU countries. The five key countries where these citizens migrated are: Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Italy and Croatia. That is particularly worrying because the number of those leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina from year to year is growing. At the beginning of the six-year period, that was about 11,000 people, and at the end of the period about 19,000.

This is a growing need for the future because of the possibility of earning a higher remuneration than in your home country, difficulties finding a job in your home country, guaranteed employment abroad, employment terms better than in the home country, acquiring professional experience, improving qualifications, possibility of learning a foreign language and willingness to experience another country. 

Everything mentioned above represents list of reasons why this social need is only going to be increased in the future. Since there aren’t any official strategies for decreasing this social need. According to the population census of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2013, there is 773 850 young people, aged from 15 to 30. They consist about 21.91% of the total population. In July 2016 the National Assembly of Republic of Srpska adopted the proposal of the Youth Policy of Republika Srpska for 2016-2020. The measures foreseen to achieve operational objectives are: Fostering employment and self-employment in rural and underdeveloped communities; Development and implementation of educational programs for enhancement of employability of young people.

Teaching young people about entrepreneurship, as InnoSchool initiative does, can provide them with future skills that can help them secure a job or start a business in their home country and not want or be forced to move to another country in order to achieve their goals and dreams.