Bintern

The company faced some challenges at the start as it was established in 2020, during the first year of the pandemic. The restrictions back then in North Macedonia for preventing the spread of COVID-19 were very strict. Almost all companies had to change from office work to either working remotely, or using a hybrid model – part of the employees work from the office and the rest remote. The new situation led to fewer internships offered by the companies because it was challenging to hire an intern that would work remotely. Bintern had to face this exactly obstacle. Another reason was the economic situation and the financial loss experienced by companies from every business sector in the country.

The decrease in internship offers presented Bintern with some challenges as its work was directly affected, and they could not connect more young people with companies during that period. However, as the restrictions started to lift and the economy was getting better, companies started to increase internship positions, so work of Bintern continued as planned. 

Establishment of the organisation/initiative/enterprise

The idea for Bintern popped up in the head of the founder Dimitar Mitrevski in the first year of his college studies when he faced a challenge to find an internship. He noticed that all his fellow students were facing the same problem, that there was no central place where students could get information about practice announcements and how to apply for them. After identifying the problem, Dimitar came up with Bintern as a solution.

At that time, there was a call for an accelerator program for startups led by Preda in cooperation with the faculty where he studied, the Faculty of Informatics and Communication Technologies at the University St. Clement and Naum – Bitola. Dimitar signed up with Bintern as a solution to overcome the problems of students’ lack of opportunity to get into any internship program.

At this accelerator program, Dimitar learned from several experienced business mentors, increased his professional network, and learned to pitch (to present a business idea). Thanks to the accelerator program, Dimitar created Bintern and is currently managing it successfully.

Management structure and governance

Bintern is a for-profit company. Client companies can choose between two paid packages – a basic and a standard one. Both plans include similar services. For example, the basic package ensures sharing of the company on social media, advertisement, and a list of applications. With the standard package, the company receives more or longer services and access to the candidate database.

At the moment, Bintern has three employees and a horizontal structure of governance where everyone is involved in the decision-making processes for the company.

Principles of work, objectives and activities

Bintern’s goal and vision are to help people gain practical skills and knowledge and reach their desired workplace. The company’s primary focus, at the moment, is to continue improving and learning from different experiences it has been through and improve the work based on results. The team works in such a way that they set their main objectives and goals in the short term, a maximum of 1 month.

Currently, the main activities of Bintern are focused on increasing its growth.

In terms of ambitions and expectations, its target groups in the future are companies and young people from all over the world. That is, to be among the well-known global career platforms such as LinkedIn. Regarding tendencies in what kind of platform Bintern would like to grow into, the vision is to be the number 1 platform in the world that will help young people start their careers.

Target groups

The target groups are students, early graduates and job seekers from all over the country, as well as companies that are looking for talented people and providing internships.

Innovation

Bintern focuses on solving a big problem in North Macedonia by helping young people to gain practical skills and experience through internships in companies. Through this practice, Bintern directly impacts the workforce market by increasing the number of skilled workers and lowering unemployment. They are the first and only platform of this kind in the country. The platform also makes it easier for companies to find the best candidate for the job. This, in return, promotes the development of more internship positions.

Key partners

Bintern is collaborating with multiple partners in the public, private and academic sectors. Some examples are the St. Kliment Ohridski University – Bitola, The University of Information Science and Technology (UIST) “St. Paul the Apostle”, University American College – Skopje, some private educational centres like Seavus Educational and Development Center (SEDC) and Code Academy and business such as the online magazine Bitola.

Impact and Evaluation

Bintern’s team evaluates the results by measuring the success rate of the platform, which is the number of people that found an internship or a job through the platform. These numbers are updated and shown on the homepage of the website.

Success stories of people who used the platform are regularly shared on the website. The positive influence is increasing the employability of the people and decreasing the unemployment rate in North Macedonia.

Recommendations

The recommendation is that anyone who wants to adopt this practice should first identify if there is no central place where students or unemployed people can get information about internship announcements and how to apply. Then create a plan for the platform, find start-up funds to launch it and engage in a big promotional campaign, so more companies and people register on the platform for mutual benefit and profit. This good practice can work in any country and cultural context as long as it is developed and promoted to fit companies’ needs and those of job seekers.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned are, firstly, that if someone identifies a problem and has a solution to it in the form of business, they should be encouraged to try and find supporters in the form of acceleration programs or investors to help them open their business.

Another lesson learned is that when establishing an entrepreneurial practice, “success” will not happen overnight. It is a process of continuous learning and improvement.

References

Bintern website.

Bintern LinkedIn profile.

Bintern Instagram profile.

Bintern Facebook profile.