Dear readers,

This week, we take a closer look at how one Serbian-born startup is rethinking the way children should prepare for an unpredictable future, putting adaptability, critical thinking and practical skills ahead of trying to guess which jobs will exist tomorrow. 

We also look across the region at fresh funding activity in AI, medtech, and legal tech, while Rumour Has It looks at one of the few bright spots in the regional hiring market: cybersecurity roles remain open, but companies are struggling to find people to fill them. 

Finally, The Investor Take explores where investors are putting their money in 2026, from AI and real traction to deeptech moonshots in robotics, energy, space and biotech.

Enjoy the read!
Bojan Stojkovski
Editor-in-Chief, IT Logs

There is a familiar problem with the way we talk about the future of education: most attempts to prepare for it begin by trying to predict what the future will look like. Which jobs will exist or which technologies will matter, and what skills will employers still want in 10 or 20 years?

Nikola Vujičić, founder and CEO of Skynex Global, believes that is the wrong starting point.

Instead, his Serbian-born ecosystem is built around a simpler question: what can children learn today that will remain useful even when the world around them changes.

Skynex Global brings together three areas that are usually treated separately: education, media and technology. Its first and most developed project is the IRIS Learning Model, a nine-month interdisciplinary program initially aimed at children aged 8 to 14.

The model covers 11 areas, ranging from cognitive and life skills, digital and media literacy, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to drones, biotechnology, Smart City concepts, culture, DIY activities and outdoor skills. 

The ambition, however, is much bigger than just becoming another extracurricular program. The long-term idea is to create an ecosystem in which children learn to understand the world, question the information they encounter, use technology responsibly and eventually create things themselves.

Three pieces of the same puzzle

Skynex Global consists of three branches: the IRIS Learning Model, Buzzy Global Media and Skynex Technologies. The organization argues that these should not be viewed as three unrelated projects sharing a brand. Instead, they are different stages of the same development path, from learning and personal development to understanding media and eventually creating technology.

IRIS is the first commercial and operational piece, while Buzzy Global Media is being developed as an editorial and production platform covering interviews, reports, podcasts and original formats. It also has a specific educational purpose: teaching young people how information is created, verified and presented, rather than simply warning them about misinformation.

Then there is Skynex Technologies, the applied innovation arm focused on drones, autonomous systems and other technology-based tools. For Vujičić, the connection is crucial because children are already growing up surrounded by all three forces.

That challenge is what Skynex is trying to address. The easiest way to misunderstand IRIS is to look at its curriculum and see 11 separate subjects. Vujičić is adamant that this is not the intention, as the program does not attempt to turn children into specialists in drones, biotechnology, entrepreneurship or media. Instead, these areas are used as different environments in which children can develop transferable capabilities.

“The 11 areas are designed to complement one another and to complement formal education, with the child - rather than any individual subject - at the centre of the model,” he emphasizes.

A drone, for example, becomes a way to teach technology, precision, spatial awareness and responsibility. Smart City activities introduce sensors and connected devices, but also systems thinking. Media literacy teaches children to distinguish facts from interpretations and information from persuasion.

The idea is that real-world problems do not arrive neatly divided into school subjects. “A real situation may require logical thinking, communication, emotional control, cooperation, practical knowledge, responsible use of technology and a decision made with incomplete information, all at the same time,” Vujičić explains, adding that this is why continuity is central to IRIS.

Children work through practical situations, projects, simulations, discussions and team challenges over nine months. They are expected to revisit the same underlying capabilities in different contexts, with increasing levels of complexity and independence.

An eight-year-old and a 12-year-old might therefore work on the same fundamental skill, but through very different tasks. The intention is for IRIS to become a progressive model rather than a one-off course. A child could complete one nine-month cycle and then continue into a more demanding one. 

The first full implementation begins in Belgrade

The theory will soon face its first real test, with the first nine-month IRIS pilot being prepared in Belgrade for the 2026/27 school year. It will operate inside a primary school as a paid extracurricular activity rather than as part of the compulsory curriculum. 

The groups will deliberately remain small, which is partly a pedagogical decision, but also an important part of the business model's validation. Skynex wants facilitators to have enough time to observe individual children, while children need enough room to participate, make decisions and experiment.

“If interest is greater, we would rather introduce additional time slots and form more small groups than increase the number of children in one group,” Vujičić says.

One of the more ambitious parts of IRIS is the IRIS Index, a hybrid developmental observation framework designed to track children's development at different points during the program. It looks at areas such as critical thinking, initiative, collaboration, decision-making, emotional stability and empathy. 

“The IRIS Index follows developmental patterns through structured observation across different practical situations and over time, without relying on traditional tests, grades or child-ranking systems.” Vujičić explains.

The challenge here is obvious. How do you measure something like initiative without simply rewarding the loudest child in the room? Or how do you measure critical thinking without turning it into another standardized test.

Skynex's answer is to focus on observable behaviour across multiple situations. For critical thinking, facilitators can observe whether a child asks relevant questions, distinguishes assumptions from facts, considers alternatives and can explain the reasoning behind a conclusion.

Initiative is instead connected to whether a child recognizes what needs to be done, proposes a next step, takes responsibility and continues looking for alternatives when the first solution fails.

The Index is designed to build a longitudinal picture of how an individual child develops over time, which also means the organization is being careful about what conclusions it draws from the pilot.

The future is not another job title

As IRIS expands beyond its first full implementation, Skynex does not intend to operate every location itself. The planned business model includes direct participation fees, licensing to schools and learning centres, facilitator training and certification, programs financed by companies and institutions, and eventually digital tools connected to the IRIS Index.

But Vujičić stresses that licensing comes later. A license would not simply give a school a collection of lesson plans. It would include facilitator standards, training, certification, safety procedures, approved materials, quality control, measurement, reporting and periodic reviews.

The reason is straightforward: scaling education creates a familiar risk. The more locations a program enters, the harder it becomes to guarantee that the original experience survives. “Growth cannot be allowed to dilute the reason the system was created,” Vujičić says.

The model is therefore designed around a standardized core, with local adaptations for language, culture, geography and regulations. That could eventually make the system portable across countries while retaining the same developmental objectives and quality standards.

For a Serbian-born company, that international ambition is important, as Skynex is not positioning IRIS simply as a program for Serbian schools or as another local after-school activity. The idea is to develop a methodology that can eventually travel, while allowing each market to adapt the delivery to its own environment.

The broader philosophy behind Skynex is perhaps most visible in what Vujičić refuses to promise. He does not want IRIS to become another program claiming to prepare children for the “jobs of the future.”

Nobody can reliably predict which technologies, professions or industries will dominate when today's eight-year-olds enter the workforce. Instead, the objective is to prepare children for uncertainty itself, he emphasizes.

That means adaptability, but also critical thinking, communication, collaboration, empathy, practical problem-solving and emotional stability. And perhaps most importantly, agency - a child should not simply wait for an institution, school or employer to decide what role they are supposed to play.

“They should be able to recognize a problem, understand their own abilities, connect with other people and create value for themselves and their community,” Vujičić concludes.

IT Logs:  Where do you think the smartest money are going this year?

IT Logs: Bigger bets on fewer startups, or smaller checks spread wider?

IT Logs: What is moving valuations more in 2026: real traction, AI buzz, or solid unit economics?