Three inspiring days at the EU Forum on Vocational Excellence 2026 in Graz, Austriа!
I had the honor of representing EMKICE KIC and N.Macedonia through two ongoing CoVE projects and major Centers of Vocational Excellence projects co-funded by the European Union under the centralized Erasmus+ programme:
– SEBCoVE – Smart Electricity for Buildings
– CAAIVE – Centers of Agricultural AI Vocational Excellence
During the three-day Forum at FH JOANNEUM, we participated in high-level discussions, keynote presentations, sectoral and transversal sessions, networking activities and exchanges with representatives of the European Commission, the European Training Foundation, vocational and higher education institutions, chambers, companies and CoVE partnerships from across Europe.
The Forum focused on Dual Education and Training for Competitive Regions and showed how cooperation between education, industry, government and regional innovation organizations can create better skills and stronger economies.
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We visited the Styrian Chamber of Commerce – WKO Styria, its impressive Talent Center and Center of Excellence, Graz’s technology and innovation ecosystem and Smart City Graz.
We saw how modern vocational education can be connected with talent assessment, advanced workshops and laboratories, applied research, industry, entrepreneurship and sustainable urban development.
There are currently 73 approved and launched CoVE projects from the 2021–2025 calls, excluding the 12 original pilots.
North Macedonia participates as a full beneficiary in three of these 73 European projects GREENOVET, CATALYST, SEBCoVE and CAAIVE—representing 5.4% of all CoVE networks. N.Macedonia has developed and establishing four CoVE ecosystems.
For a country with approximately 1.82 million inhabitants, this represents 2.19 established CoVE ecosystems per million inhabitants.
This gives N.Macedonia a very strong per-capita position compared with many much larger European countries.
I am especially proud that EMKICE KIC is a partner and national coordinator for North Macedonia in two projects SEBCoVE and CAAIVE.
The discussions in Graz created foundations for institutional partnerships, exchanges of experts and learners, joint training programmes, future study visits and new European projects.
Our goal is to bring the strongest European practices home and develop SPACE Park Skopje as a place where vocational and higher education, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, business and European cooperation come together.
Proud of N.Macedonia’s position in European vocational excellence, and even more motivated by the responsibility to transform it into real opportunities for our people and regions.
Not first, but committed to being among the best and different.
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