Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment are the Main Topics of the Youth Speak Forum Conference

The student organization AIESEC Croatia is organizing the ‘Youth Speak Forum’ conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Zagreb at the end of April. The golden sponsor of the conference is Erste Bank, which supports youth and the development of their potential through this collaboration with students.

Erste&Steiermärkische Bank and the student organization AIESEC Croatia have signed a sponsorship agreement under which Erste Bank, as the golden sponsor, will support the activities of the organization and the organization of the ‘Youth Speak Forum’ conference, which will take place on April 29 at the Sheraton Hotel in Zagreb. The main topics of the conference are entrepreneurship and self-employment, and given that AIESEC has been collaborating with the UN since last year to promote global goals for sustainable development, it aims to find out what young people want and can undertake, as well as what they think about the biggest global problems.

Action, not talk

– This collaboration is a support to all young people in developing their potential. The ‘Youth Speak Forum’ is the only forum that focuses on creating action plans and steps, rather than just discussing the problems that surround us. The forum creates concrete outputs for ideas and an action plan that will be shared with our global network of 70,000 young people, alumni group, and other partners. The emphasis is on the interactive connection between the business world and students – emphasizes Aly Amr Aly Sina Tawfik, president of AIESEC Croatia.

A similar sentiment can be heard at Erste Bank, where they emphasize that connecting the real sector with faculties and educational institutions is essential for successful economic growth.

– This collaboration allows young people to see how what they learn at their faculties is applied in practice even during their studies. On the other hand, companies are given the opportunity to get to know their potential employees during internships. We believe that new, young forces from faculties bring freshness to our business, which combined with the experience and knowledge of employees contributes to success – emphasizes Anita Markota Štriga, deputy director of the Citizenship Sector at Erste Bank.

In addition to supporting the work of the international student organization AIESEC, which operates at 2,400 universities in 126 countries and gathers more than 70,000 active members, Erste Bank actively implements other programs aimed at students and their professional development.

Best Practice

To enable them to apply the knowledge gained in the fields of economics and IT in a business environment, two paid internship programs ‘General Rehearsal’ and ‘IT Lab’ have been launched, for which students can apply until April 30, with the internship lasting three summer months from June 15 to September 15. The General Rehearsal is intended for excellent regular students in the first year of master’s or final year of undergraduate studies in economics in Zagreb and Rijeka, and in addition to the educational part, the internship includes working with a mentor and involvement in the regular work of the bank’s organizational units. ‘IT Lab’ is intended for students of technical faculties, allowing them, along with professional practice in the bank, further professional development during mentoring work with experts and a program of education and workshops.