CELIM Milano, in partnership with Impact Hub, Smart Cities Corporation, the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, and several local institutions, has launched OPIK — a four-year project (2025–2028) aimed at tackling Kosovo's deep-rooted labour market challenges in the municipalities of Gjakova and Ferizaj.

Officially titled "Productive and Inclusive Employment in Kosovo: Development of Personal and Professional Skills and Entrepreneurship of Youth and Women (PiEK)", the project is funded by AICS — the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation — and targets the groups most affected by unemployment: young people, women, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian (RAE) minorities, and people with disabilities.

Kosovo's youth unemployment rate remains among the highest in Europe. OPIK addresses this directly by strengthening vocational school curricula across four institutions, delivering extracurricular professional skills programmes, and building the capacity of local business incubators to support aspiring entrepreneurs through every stage of their journey — from idea to launch.

The project has set ambitious, measurable targets: supporting 2,512 students (1,872 in vocational schools, 640 at university level), incubating 170 start-ups with at least 58% led by women, creating 170 new jobs, and raising the average hourly wage for employees in the target districts to €3. Grant and credit financing schemes, alongside structured mentoring programmes, will give entrepreneurs the tools to grow sustainably beyond the start-up phase.

The initiative is led by project managers Valon Mejzini and Nicola Bassi, with a consortium of partners that includes Impact Hub Gjakova, the Women's Chamber of Commerce, the Kosovar Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Gjakova Municipality, and West Kosovo DMO.

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