A €3.6 million dual-education centre in Vlasotince is adding workforce development to Serbia’s efforts to strengthen infrastructure and investment outside the country’s main economic centres. The facility, financed through a combination of Serbian public resources and international support, includes construction and equipment and is focused on practical qualifications needed in industrial and infrastructure-related activities.
Its programmes cover metalworking, electrical engineering, surveying and construction, connecting vocational training with skills required by employers.
Workforce development supports regional investment
The centre is being established in southern Serbia, a region that has historically attracted less investment and recorded lower wages than Belgrade, Vojvodina and some central industrial zones. The area can offer investors competitive labour and land costs, but companies increasingly require skilled technicians capable of operating modern production systems.
This places workforce development alongside transport and utility infrastructure as a factor in regional investment. Roads can improve access between factories and European markets, while industrial infrastructure can support new production sites, but neither directly provides the maintenance engineers, welders, electricians and CNC operators required by manufacturers.
Dual education connects training with employers
The dual-education model is intended to establish a closer relationship between formal schooling and employer requirements. For Vlasotince and neighbouring municipalities, the training centre also has a demographic dimension. Concentration of education, employment and infrastructure opportunities elsewhere can encourage young people to leave southern Serbia. Expanding access to technically skilled employment outside Belgrade therefore links industrial development and population policy.
Regional development requires combined investment
The €3.6 million centre represents one component of a broader regional-development approach. A single training facility cannot reverse decades of economic divergence between Serbian regions. Combining skills programmes with roads, water infrastructure, industrial zones and targeted investment attraction provides a development framework alongside the use of investment subsidies. For southern municipalities, the focus is increasingly on developing specialised industrial capabilities rather than relying primarily on their position as sources of relatively inexpensive labour.
