Opportunity in Germany for Medical Professionals from BiH

Triple Win is a project for employing medical staff in Germany, whereby project participants, medical professionals from BiH, can count on support from the relevant agencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Germany, reports DW, as carried by the Patria news agency.

Adisa Kamenjaš has been on the unemployment register since 2012. She says she does not want to wait several more years for a "job she may never get in BiH." That is why she applied for the "Triple Win" project.

"Nothing ties me to BiH anymore. I want a job and a better future. I don't expect 'milk and honey' to flow for me in Germany, but I expect normal working conditions and I am ready to make sacrifices for that," says Adisa.

Sabahudin Topuz says the experiences of his friends, who got jobs in Germany through the "Triple Win" project, are very positive. He adds that many of his friends have already left BiH and that the population structure in Sarajevo, where he lives and works, has changed significantly.

He is employed at the Clinical Center in Sarajevo, so his motive for leaving BiH is not exclusively economic. He wants to secure a "better future" for his family in a "more tolerant environment."

"I am mentally ready to leave, but I still need to improve my German. I have worked in BiH clinics for more than twenty years, and that experience will come in handy," says Topuz.

German lessons at the Goethe Institute

German language lessons for participants of the "Triple Win" project are conducted by professor Sanda Serdarević at the Goethe Institute.

"We hold classes with the course participants, medical professionals, twice a week. The participants of our course are relatively well-prepared and have basic prior knowledge of German. We work interactively, focusing on authentic situations with intensive communication exercises. I am very satisfied because everyone is trying to master the material as best as possible. I strive to make the lessons as interesting as possible, and I also use methods that relax the course participants," says Sanda Serdarević.

What is the Triple Win project

Triple Win is a project for the continuous employment of medical staff in Germany. It is implemented based on the Agreement on the procedure, selection, and mediation in the employment of medical staff concluded between the Federal Employment Agency of the Federal Republic of Germany (BA-Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and the Employment Agency of BiH, with the support of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).

Number of unemployed rises

The Balkans entered 2015 with more than 2,324,000 unemployed. In BiH, there are about 547,300 people on the unemployment registers, among them a significant number of medical professionals. According to some data, about 5,000 medical professionals are unemployed in BiH, of which about 3,000 in the Federation of BiH and about 2,000 in the Republika Srpska.