Stories
YEP alumnus Ylberinë Baliu (Kosovo): “Becoming a professional depends on personal growth.”
Ylberinë Baliu started with YEP in 2019 (batch 17) and is now the first YEP alumnus in Kosovo ever. She worked as a wastewater technologist for Afmitech Friesland BV, which specialized in decentralized wastewater treatment. We talked to her after she finished her two years of YEP Programmes.
“During the two years I experienced great professional growth by working in an international environment and getting input by senior experts. But most importantly, I experienced a great personal growth by YEP training and constant coaching. In my opinion, in the time we are living in, recognizing your skills and weaknesses, embracing them and working towards improving them is a key to any success. YEP helped me recognize and use my skills and strengths, embrace my weaknesses and build the basis towards this lifetime development and improvement by giving me a wide range of personal development tools. This experience made me have a clear vision of where I want to be. Programmes such as YEP are of great importance for young people, especially for those coming from developing countries, because we barely have the chance to get personal development training. My focus was always on professional development, not knowing how dependent it is on personal growth”, says Ylberine.
The aim of her project was to determine problems in wastewater treatment from municipalities and the food industry in Kosovo, and to raise awareness among stakeholders about the solutions. “Currently, there is no infrastructure for the treatment of wastewater from the food industry, and municipal wastewater treatment is still not totally constructed. Therefore pollution is a continuous burden for the environment. With this project, we could contribute to SDG6 Clean Water & Sanitation and SDG5 Gender Equality”, Ylberine says.
Ylberine continues to work as wastewater technologist for YES L.L.C., a local company in Kosovo. She also keeps cooperating with Afmitech.