Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has announced that the UK will commit £10 million to help build digital skills and employment prospects for young people in the Western Balkans. The funding will see the British Council provide training to children in over 4,500 schools, to bolster digital literacy and core skills across the region. By providing access to a digital education, this funding will help foster the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, both in the Western Balkans and UK.
This £10 million project will run over three years. It expands the British Council 21st Century Schools pilot, enabling primary school age children to develop critical thinking, problem-solving and digital literacy skills. It will run in each of the six Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – reaching 4,500 primary schools and up to one million children. It will help foster the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs by providing computer programming and coding training.
Speaking ahead of the Summit, the Foreign Secretary said, “This new funding demonstrates the UK’s enduring commitment to the Western Balkans region. We are working internationally to provide young people, particularly young women, with the digital skills necessary to participate in the future economy and fulfill their potential. Importantly it also shows our desire to help the region overcome some of the most difficult chapters in their history and pave the way to an even more prosperous future.”
The Foreign Secretary will reiterate the UK’s commitment to the Western Balkans by announcing an additional £1 million to help the region address difficult legacy issues of the past, this includes working to find and identify the 12,000 victims still missing from the conflicts of the 1990s.