How businesses from Kosovo are transforming education and manufacturing

In late 2024, Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation launched a new call for proposals under the LuxAid Challenge Fund, a programme designed to support innovative, locally driven solutions to social and economic challenges. Competition was intense: more than 80 applications poured in from across Kosovo, each with bold ideas to tackle the country’s most pressing issues. Only a few would be selected – and among them were two companies united by a simple belief: meaningful change can and should start from within.

In classrooms across Kosovo, the struggle is quiet but heavy. A child stares at the blackboard, the letters blurring into unreadable shapes. A teacher juggles 30 pupils at once, but one pair of eyes is always left behind. At home, parents often struggle to secure access to education for their child, sometimes having to cut back on work or give it up entirely.

The numbers are stark. More than 4,000 children with special educational needs (SEN) are enrolled in Kosovo’s public schools, including over 3,300 in mainstream classrooms. Yet as of March 2024, only around 250 professional assistants were in place to support them – leaving far too many children without the help they need. (Source: SitAn Kosovo 2025, "Inclusive Education in Practice in Kosovo: Perspectives of Assistants for Students with Special Educational Needs.” European Journal of Educational Research). Behind every statistic is a child at risk of falling behind, and a parent forced to make impossible choices.

Elsewhere in Kosovo, the struggle takes a completely different form. Small manufacturers – from furniture makers to construction workshops – still rely on handwritten orders and scattered spreadsheets. Mistakes pile up. Production stalls. Managers drown in paperwork instead of planning for growth. Everyone sees the potential, but inefficiency keeps pulling dreams back to the factory floor.

Faced with these challenges, two Kosovan companies began asking bold, urgent questions:

• what if every child had the right support in the classroom – not just someone to care for them, but someone professional and qualified to support them and unlock their full potential?
• what if every small factory could operate with the efficiency of the world’s best, using digital tools designed for their reality?

These questions sparked something bigger. And when the LuxAid Challenge Fund opened its call for proposals, both companies seized the chance to turn frustration into meaningful action – and everyday problems into lasting solutions.

Founded in 2023 by psychologists Dr Natyra AGANI-DESTANI and Dr Ereblir KADRIU of the University of Prishtina, Qendra Profesionale për Gjithëpërfshirje (QPGJ) was created with a simple but radical mission: no child should be invisible in the classroom. They developed a professional training programme for SEN assistants.

Inside QPGJ’s training halls, young women, many from rural areas and most previously unemployed, prepare for a profession that barely existed a few years ago. The programme is rigorous: 600 hours of theory, 600 hours of practical placements, accredited by the Open College Network London, aligned with European standards and fully supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. It equips graduates not just with knowledge, but with the skills and tools to walk into a classroom and make a difference from day one.

The demand is overwhelming: more than 1,200 applications for just 120 places in the first year. Already, almost half of the first cohort have secured jobs before graduation. Families are beginning to see the impact.

“We used to feel forgotten,” says a parent. “Now my son has someone by his side who believes he can learn. And he is learning.”

With LCF support, QPGJ plans to expand over the next two years, training 80 new assistants for students with SEN and directly supporting at least 80 children in schools throughout Kosovo. Co-funding will also allow the centre to further develop its hybrid teaching, making qualifications accessible to students in rural areas or those unable to attend in person – and opening up new job opportunities for them.

For Kosovo, this is more than an education initiative. It’s about equity, dignity and giving parents the chance to work again, knowing their children are supported in school.

If classrooms show one side of Kosovo’s transformation, factory floors reveal another.

At a furniture factory, inefficiencies once ruled the day: late deliveries, rising costs, constant stress. “We felt like we were always chasing problems instead of solving them,” recalls the manager. That cycle began to change thanks to Mikasoft, a young software company founded in 2023 in Drenas by IT and manufacturing experts. Determined to help Kosovo’s SMEs embrace the digital age, they built the country’s first locally tailored Manufacturing Execution System (MES). Unlike imported solutions that are costly or too complex, Mikasoft’s platform is designed specifically for small firms: colour-coded workflows, role-based access, real-time tracking from raw materials to finished goods, and AI-powered analytics that spot inefficiencies before they escalate.

Early adopters quickly saw the benefits. Managers gained real-time oversight. Workers made fewer mistakes. Clients received their orders on time. 

Today, Mikasoft serves 15 factories, including 9 paying clients, across furniture, prefab construction and metalworking. 

With LCF support, the company is set to scale up:
•    expanding its platform with new ERP, HR, POS, and e-commerce modules to provide SMEs with a full digital backbone;
•    targeting 34 companies and 340 end-users by 2027, with projected annual revenues of EUR 205,000;
•    creating skilled jobs while extending its reach into the textile industry, and even across borders, with early interest from North Macedonia.

But the impact goes beyond productivity. Mikasoft integrates its tools into vocational training, preparing students for digital manufacturing careers. It also runs training on data protection, workplace safety and environmental standards – a quiet but steady commitment to responsible business.

“We finally know what’s happening in real time,” says one factory manager, a client of Mikasoft. “It gives us the control we never had before.”

For workers, the change means less time lost and more focus on craft. For managers, it means peace of mind. For Kosovo, it’s resilience – helping small businesses thrive in an economy where every hour, and every error, matters.

At first glance, classrooms and factory floors may seem worlds apart. But they reveal the same truth: Kosovo’s greatest challenges are also its most powerful engines for innovation.

QPGJ and Mikasoft began with hard questions, turned them into bold ideas, and with the support of the LuxAid Challenge Fund, are now reshaping lives and livelihoods in their respective sectors of operation.

Change doesn’t always arrive with noise. Sometimes, it begins quietly:
With a child learning to write a word he once thought impossible.
With a parent finally able to work again, without sacrificing their child’s needs.
With a manager ending the day feeling confident instead of exhausted.
With local innovators who believe Kosovo’s future doesn’t need to be imported. 

It can be built, day by day, by people solving real problems in classrooms and production facilities across the country.

The LuxAid Challenge Fund, a programme designed to support innovative, locally driven solutions to social and economic challenges, is financed by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and implemented by LuxDev, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency.