We already introduced you to the wonders of Jedna Mladost and what they do. Now we’d like to tell you the story about the great international collaboration that happened as a result of – you guessed it – a bit of networking magic!

The story started with a “Locals’n’Nomads” meetup. One edition of that meetup was attended by a group of young, enthusiastic high school students. During the meetup, we tipped them off about this excellent opportunity for young people that, at the time, was new to our city – Jedna Mladost.

They went, they liked it, and they stayed! 😀

Fast forward a bit of time and there is another “Locals’n’Nomads”. Attended by some of the young students again, but also by a digital nomad named Piero.

Piero

The kids and Piero hit it off at the meetup chatting about various topics. However, those same kids also happened to spend quite a bit of time at The Works Coworking where Piero is also a regular:

“Jedna Mladost used the coworking space where I work until they found a more permanent home at Dom Mladih. So, I interacted with Jedna Mladost‘s founders, Michael and Sanja, a fair amount.

Michael in particular is a funny and interesting guy. Some of the students who were part of Jedna Mladost also would come to or volunteer at local tech events run by Split Tech City and I was really impressed with them.

I wanted to help the kids, the tech community in Split, and see first-hand how the next generation of engineers and designers are going to turn out.”

Naturally, we wanted to know what exactly Piero is working on with this impressive group of kids, so we asked him to tell us more about it: “We are building a WordPress website for a client, and maybe more clients if it goes well.

The program they are a part of is an apprenticeship/internship style course running for 2 hours every Saturday over 3 months. We might also have to do some extra homework to hit our deadlines.

The course itself includes design iterations, engineering iterations, and basic product management all in relevant industry standard tools – Figma, Trello, WYSIWYG editors in WordPress, and a modern code editor of their choice.

The goal is to teach the kids the best practices in design, tech, product management, and client interaction with hands-on experience.”

Jedna Mladost

An impressive program for impressive kids! And very useful no matter what the young attendees choose to do in the future as it also teaches some valuable life skills. We wanted to know how this particular program aligns with the goals of what Jedna Mladost is all about.

The best person to offer that insight was Michael: “One of the goals at Jedna Mladost is to provide our members with the opportunity to produce various things through the skills they learn.

This could be video, design, websites, local campaigns, or products to sell. The key to it all is that it will be out there, in the public domain.

This accountability can help build their intrinsic motivation, their desire to try new things, and develop their resilience as to what others might think or say.

It starts developing them into independent critical thinkers, on both a personal and professional level. Sure, not everyone that does this “Digital Agency Course” will open an agency or work for one, some might hate it and never do it again.

However, it’s the learning over the next three months, if done in the right way, that will give them confidence when it comes to project management, client relationships, and creativity.

By May, they will have a website up and running that they built for a “client“, something to show their parents, friends, future employers, and most importantly to be proud of themselves.”

You can also join!

And there you have it – a brief story about an international collaboration that blossomed out of a bit of “Locals’n’Nomads” networking and a desire to help out future generations become the best version of themselves. We’d say it’s a fine story, indeed!

If you’d like to be a part of it and offer your own expertise, reach out to Michael for all things Jedna Mladost or to Piero for this particular international collaboration.

And help the future stars of Split’s tech scene shine bright! 😀

Photos: Jedna Mladost