16th School for Young Leaders of President Ivanov
GENERAL TOPIC: “A Youth-Driven Agenda for a Sustainable World”
ABOUT
The School for Young Leaders is a project of the President of the Republic of Macedonia 2009-2019, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, primarily initiated in his first electoral program, following his idea and vision to enable young people from Macedonia and from abroad to upgrade and improve their skills, to develop their creativity and managerial capacities. The first School was organized in Ohrid in August 2010.
Almost 600 young people with various academic and professional focuses from all over the world took part in the past 15 trainings. The fourteen generations of participants in the School for Young Leaders had the opportunity to attend lectures by around 400 renowned lecturers from the Republic of Macedonia, Europe, and the world.
In 2018, the World Business Angels Investment Forum recognized the School for Young Leaders as the best socially responsible project in Europe for 2017.
🌍🎓 MISSION
The mission of the School is to stimulate positive values in the young intellectual elite and future political, cultural, and economic leaders, primarily of our country, but also to encourage and enhance their capacity for taking on global challenges, international competition, and cultural and religious diversities.
🙋♂️🙋♀️ PARTICIPANTS
The Program is intended for young people under 35 years of age who have completed higher education, including both graduates and professionals with work experience. Participants are expected to demonstrate a willingness to develop and refine their leadership skills and to contribute to the positive development of society and the environment they live and work in.
🗣️💼 PROGRAM
Through lectures, simulations, real-life examples, illustrations, and practical exercises and trainings, participants are provided with the opportunity to gain insight into various leadership practices, including business, political, and military leadership. This comprehensive program includes engaging lectures and trainings delivered by distinguished experts and guests from top educational and professional institutions, as well as politicians, parliamentarians, ambassadors, ministers, and successful business leaders.
The School’s program offers a wide range of activities, including:
- Interactive lectures featuring renowned speakers from both domestic and international arenas.
- Panel discussions focusing on topics aligned with the overarching theme of the school.
- Workshops aimed at enhancing practical skills.
- Soft skills training.
- Oratory events.
- Group projects to foster collaboration and problem-solving.
The program is adapted to meet the needs of the young generations and to deal with topics that are of particular interest to them.
With the planned activities in the program, we want to encourage the young participants to think analytically and act as leaders. To initiate and guide transformation, build self-confidence, enhance their skills, encourage their creativity, promptly address and initiate resolutions to the challenges they encounter, and invest in their advancement both in their professional and personal progress.
🌟✌️ GENERAL TOPIC
A Youth-Driven Agenda for a Sustainable World represents a vision and plan for the future in which young people play a central role in creating a global world that is sustainable in all aspects. This theme refers to a broader concept of sustainability, which is not limited to economic development but also includes the ecological, social, cultural, and political dimensions of life on the planet.
At the heart of this agenda is the responsibility of younger generations to lead changes that will ensure the preservation and restoration of natural resources, protection of the environment, promotion of peace and intercultural dialogue, as well as addressing global challenges such as climate change, social injustice, and economic inequalities.
Cultural differences, through cultural diplomacy, serve as an important bridge for mutual understanding, cooperation, and the building of trust among different communities and nations. It is precisely through these bridges that young leaders can overcome barriers and create new pathways for peace and sustainable development on a global level.
The agenda also encourages the inclusion of young people at all levels of decision-making—from local communities to international organizations—in order to ensure that their voices and ideas are heard and translated into concrete policies and actions. This is not only a matter of ecology, but also of building a more just, inclusive, and humane world where cultural differences are respected and used as means of connection and opportunities for dialogue, rather than as obstacles.
In other words, “A Youth-Driven Agenda for a Sustainable World” is a call to mobilize youth energy and creativity to jointly build a better future—a world where harmony between people and nature will be a priority, and sustainability will be the foundation of all human activity.
🗓️🏨 DATE, TIME, PLACE, FORMAT
The 16th School Program will be conducted online and in Ohrid.
This year, the School for Young Leaders will be held from November 3-16, 2025.
In the first part, November 3-7, 2025, lectures will be held online, with activities on the working days after 18:00 CET.
In the second half, November9-16, 2025, the activities of the School will continue with a full-day program in the Hotel “Inex Olgica” in Ohrid.
In the preparatory phase, one month before the start of the School, several activities are planned, up to twice a week on working days after 18:00 CET.
🙋♂️🙋♀️ CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
The Call for participants was open until June 30th, 2025.
