Serbia's New Growth Agenda - Serbia: Job and Training-Ready - Skills Development Policy Recommendations

Jul 19, 2026

Serbia’s New Growth Agenda sets out a skills-centered strategy to accelerate growth and improve labor market outcomes in a context of population decline and shifting work. The agenda targets modernizing general education, keeping vocational education and training profiles aligned with labor-market demand, and strengthening accountability and strategic relevance in higher education. It also promotes more equitable early childhood access by removing a preschool co-payment for the poorest families, aiming to reduce skills mismatch and enable a productive future workforce.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages47

Reading Time1 h 58 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Introduction

The Skills Landscape in Serbia

Skills Stocktaking: Diagnosis Through the Life and Education Cycle

Policy Recommendations

References

Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized THE WORLD BANK SERBIA Country Economic Memorandum Serbia’s New Growth Agenda Serbia: Job and Training-Ready At 3–4 percent economic growth a year, Serbia is not growing as fast as it could. Investment in its education and training system needs to focus on building the skills valued by today’s labor market. The priorities are to: 1. Modernize general education: upgrade the curriculum and focus on quality in upper primary and secondary education, and on socio-emotional development; and optimize the school network where feasible to work more efficiently with the municipalities. Modernizing general education would help rebalance away from over-enrollment in vocational education. 2. Keep vocational education and training (VET) profiles up to date by continuously assessing their market relevance through coordination between the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MoESTD) and chambers of commerce, Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran, and Social Affairs (MoLEVSA), NES and other labor market actors. 3. Enhance accountability and the strategic relevance of higher education using a higher education diagnostic to help set the strategic direction and find opportunities to introduce quality assurance mechanisms. 4. Increase equitable access to preschool education by removing the flat 20 percent preschool co-payment for the poorest families. Contents I. Introduction ................................................................................. 4 A policy imperative—the urgency to act now .......................................................................................... 4 Purpose and methodology of this note...................................................................................................... 9 Conceptual Framework—Skills in the life cycle ...................................................................................... 9 II. The Skills Landscape in Serbia ........................................................................................................... 10 III. Skills Stocktaking: Diagnosis Through the Life and Education Cycle ........................................... 17 Access, equity, and quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) ........................................ 17 Access, quality, and equity in general compulsory education ................................................................ 21 Access, quality, and equity in secondary education................................................................................ 28 Access, quality, and equity in higher education...................................................................................... 36 IV. Policy Recommendations................................................................................................................ 43 References................................................................................................................................................... 45 I. Introduction A Policy Imperative—It Is Urgent to Act Now 1. Serbia now has an exceptional policy opportunity to promote skills development and create a productive future workforce and a prosperous economy. With its population aging and the nature of work changing in a technologically transforming and globalizing economy, a highly skilled Serbian workforce would help generate growth in productivity. A more productive economy would then help Serbia to approach the living standards of its Western European neighbors as it moves forward on the path to EU accession. For Serbia, this is a policy imperative. 2. Serbia is struggling to improve labor market outcomes. Fewer than half of all adults are employed, with women, youth, and minorities particularly excluded from the labor market. And the productivity of the jobs that do exist is low.1 Employers report a lack of relevant skills as the main ob

FAQs

Why does Serbia need to improve skills development under the new growth agenda?

Serbia’s economic growth is below its potential and labor market outcomes remain weak, with low employment rates and low job productivity. A skills mismatch—especially in socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills—limits productive job creation.

What are the key actions proposed for general education modernization?

The agenda calls for upgrading curricula and focusing on quality in upper primary and secondary education, including socio-emotional development. It also recommends optimizing the school network with municipalities to improve efficiency and reduce over-enrollment in vocational education.

How does the agenda address vocational education and training (VET) relevance?

VET profiles should stay up to date through continuous assessment of labor-market relevance. Coordination among the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Ministry of Labor, chambers of commerce, and labor market actors is emphasized.

Jul 19, 2026

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