Ivica Dimitrijević, Founder and Director of Unistyle and Delux Style

I would like to see all businessmen in Serbia understand that they need to invest in young people, that they need to train workers who will be able to produce goods for even the world’s most demanding markets. I hope that Delux Style will receive its first pupils from the Grdelica Carpentry Secondary School as of this autumn, reveals this company’s founder and CEO Ivica Dimitrijević

You’ve lived and worked in Switzerland for 22 years, and for the last five you’ve been running your own successful company, UniStyle. What motivated you to launch your own business?

– Enthusiasm, a need for innovation, but also sophisticated taste all motivated me to establish UniStyle in June 2015, as a company that covers a wide range of services in the fields of design, furniture production and interior design. We also opened a showroom after two years and we are very proud of it because it’s a place that inspires everyone to delve into the world of top design.

Furniture based on our needs, according to our ideas and the designs of our architects and designers, was produced for us by various companies, but we were not completely satisfied with that, so in 2016 we founded Delux Style in Niš. We started with three workers and a 300-square-metre workshop, while today we have 1,500 square metres and 16 employees. We also have our own design bureau and paint shop, but also a constant need for new workers. A hiring call is always open with us.

Is there any interest? Is it easier to find a good architect or a good craftsman?

– Believe it or not, it’s easier to find an architect and a designer than a good carpenter and a good painter. Young people have been avoiding manufacturing professions for years, and older craftsmen have become rigid after 20, 30 years and generally don’t want to learn, adapt and improve their knowhow.

Having learned from my experience in Switzerland, which has one of the world’s best dual education models, I last year expressed an interest, via the Chamber of Commerce, in including Delux Style in the youth education programme. I hope that our head of production and one of our craftsmen will acquire the necessary licenses by the coming autumn and that the pupils of the Carpentry Secondary School in Grdelica will start work placement practise with us from the start of the next school year.

This would really be an opportunity for them to learn a trade, to become the kind of workers for the 21st century that are in short supply in Serbia have, securing a certain future for themselves. For us it would be an opportunity to gain access to young professionals and top workers. That is my wish and my goal – to invest in young people, to develop my company and to help in the development of Serbia.

The Swiss are diligent, meticulous and demanding. What is it like to work there? How is their model of dual education?

– It was form them that I learned to pay attention to details, to every little thing. That’s why what we do as UniStyle is recognised for its top quality and top design. We leave nothing to chance. We monitor world trends, especially in Italy, which is unrivalled, and we insist on the high-quality of our work and the furniture we provide, because that is demanded.

Thanks to their great dual education programme, the Swiss have top craftsmen. There children on three-year educational programmes spend four days a week at firms and only one day learning theory in classrooms. That’s why they’re ready to work as soon as they complete their schooling. They are motivated, which makes them good workers, and that is good for everyone. This is a model that we need to apply in Serbia and I will provide that with as much strong support as I can.