produced by Labour Office in Jablonec nad Nisou and EDUCA - vzdělávací centrum, s.r.o. Czech Republic January 2013

Transcription

1 LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME LDV PARTNERSHIP IMPROVING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET FOR MARGINALISED COMMUNITIES LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES FOR UNEMPLOYED AND QUALITY ISSUES REPORT ON KEY THEMES SPECIFIED IN THE PROJECT FROM IRELAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, TURKEY AND POLAND produced by Labour Office in Jablonec nad Nisou and EDUCA - vzdělávací centrum, s.r.o. Czech Republic January 2013 This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2 2 Contents Irish Context 5 Statistics in relation to Unemployment in Ireland 5 1. General Introduction 5 2. Economic and labour market context 6 3. Causes of unemployment Real wage (classical) unemployment Demand deficient (or cyclical) unemployment Frictional unemployment Structural unemployment Hidden unemployment 8 4. Long-term unemployment (LTU) trends 9 5. Policies to prevent and tackle structural unemployment and LTU Employment Supports Schemes available for long term unemployed people Back to Work Enterprise Allowance Short-Term Enterprise Allowance Revenue Job Assist Part-time Job Incentive Community Employment Rural Social Scheme Community Services Programme Tús JobBridge - National Internship Scheme Work Placement Programme Educational Supports provided Further Education (FE) and Training in Ireland Financial Expenditure on Adult Education Educational Supports for Jobseekers Back to College Initiative for Jobseekers) Back to Education Allowance (Second & Third Level Options) Education, Training & Development Partnership Additional Supports Family Income Supplement (FIS) Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (Self Employed) (BTWEA) Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) Back to Education Allowance Money Advice and Budgeting Services Tax Credits Revenue Job Assist Work & Your Medical Card Financial Payments Jobseeker's Benefit Jobseeker Allowance Child Benefit Budget Turkish Context Introduction Unemployment in Turkey Long-term unemployment, recent trends; Factors driving transitions into and out of LTU 24

3 3 5. Policies to prevent and tackle structural unemployment and LTU Active labour market policies Policies aimed at reducing skills shortages/anticipating skills needs/re-skilling long-term unemployed Educational Support - Examples of regional, local or EU funded initiatives Role of the formal education and training sector, including providers Role of existing information, advice and guidance networks / institutions Validation in the private sector and the role of private sector actors Unemployment benefits system Conclusions 30 Czech Context General informations on the labour market in the Czech Republic Unemployment from the perspective of long-term unemployed Perceived causes of unemployment Sudden, unexpected unemployment Fragmented work career Causes of termination of employment Explanation of continuation of unemployment The first type is structural, especially labor market conditions Economic - political reasons Individual reasons The economic situation of long-term unemployed Perception of unemployment by unemployed people and their surroundings Motivation to work Decreased motivation of the unemployed to accept a job Job Searching strategies of unemployed Long-term unemployed have next problems in mediation of employment: Long-term unemployed show low activity during the process of seeking employment. Some effect are the reasons for low activity Another solution to unemployment Additional qualification (selfeducation) Retraining Active employment policy: Active employment policy - projects and expenditures Unemployment benefits system Unemployment support System of Assistance in Material Need State Social Support Child allowance Housing allowance Parental allowance Quality Assurance in Further Education in the Czech Republic Introduction Accreditation Accreditation of retraining programs Retraining courses 44 Polish Context Introduction Economical and labour market situations Economical situation Labour Market situation Long-term unemployed in Poland definition and description Reasons for long-term unemployment. 52

4 4 5. Statistics Preventing long-term unemployment Unemployment benefits system Financial aid Permanent benefit Temporary allowance Benefits targeted Help for economic empowerment Poviat labour office Information and Career Planning Centres in Voivodeship Labour Work Club Employment agencies providing services in the following areas: Voluntary Labour Corps With reference to educational support: The Polish Qualifications Framework Summary 72

5 5 Irish Context Statistics in relation to Unemployment in Ireland 1. General Introduction During the recession, the rate of employment growth has tracked the rate of economic growth with very little lag. The economy now appears to be coming out of recession, but only at a relatively slow pace. The jobs market is likely to recover even more slowly. Employment has fallen by over a quarter of a million since the recession began with the latest figures showing employment declining 5.5% (108,000) year-on year to 1.86 million in Q As a result, the employment rate1 fell to 60% in Q1 2010, the lowest it has been since The sectors which experienced the largest increases in employment during the second wave of the employment boom that began in 2004, namely construction and wholesale & retail, have also accounted for the biggest falls in employment over the last two years. Despite the jobs downturn, part-time employment continues to rise (up 8,000 year on- year) implying that the use of reduced hours (as an alternative to fully laying off workers) has been an important element in the cost-reduction strategy of some employers during the recession. Meanwhile unemployment rose by 52,000 between Q and Q As a result the number of people out of work has tripled. The employment rate is the percentage of the population aged who are in employment,. 275,000 since the end of Of particular concern is the doubling in the numbers of long-term unemployed people between Q and Q to 112,600. There are some tentative signs that overall unemployment has begun to stabilise. The increase in the Live Register has decelerated significantly this year, rising 16,000 yearto-date to 445,000 in June compared with a rise of 113,000 for the same period in However, there has been a significant increase of 12,000 in the Live Register in the last two months. While redundancies are down 20% year-on year, they are still running well above levels seen in all years prior to Similarly, while vacancies notified to FAS ( National Employment Agency) are up 16% for the first half of 2010, they remain at a depressed level compared to the pre-recession period. Although uncertainty still remains arising from the recent debt crisis in the Eurozone, the consensus short-term economic outlook for Ireland envisages a return to GNP growth by the second half of Assuming an exported economic recovery, then a recovery in employment growth is likely to be delayed, as the export sector isless labour-intensive. That said, given the extent to which employers have shed labour, they may have to increase working hours and/or employment relatively quickly in response to any increase in output. On balance, we are forecasting employment to go on declining into next year with average employment falling by 22,000 (1.2%) from 1,842,000 in 2010 to 1,820,000 in While the rise in unemployment has decelerated appreciably, it is not certain that it is close to a turning point and recent unemployment trends need to be interpreted with caution, especially after the rapid acceleration that took place in While the range of uncertainty is wide,

6 6 on balance, we expect the unemployment rate to average 13.4% this year and to fall only modestly to 13.1% in To the extent that the unemployment rate does decline, it will be due to falling labour force participation and continued emigration. The number of long-term unemployed persons is, however, expected to continue to increase significantly. Such a rise in long-term unemployment implies an increase in structural unemployment which is much harder to reduce during an economic upswing than cyclical unemployment. Two sets of statistics were revealed lately that at a first glance may create the impression that Ireland's unemployment problem is easing. This would amount to little more than a false hope, an illusion as so many of the people emigrating from Ireland; so many of the people re-entering education; so many of the people failing to make the transition from Jobseekers Benefit to the means-tested payment Jobseekers Allowance are testament to. The redundancy figures issued by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation show that the redundancy figure for January 2011 is 25% lower than for the same month last year. However January's figure at 4,893 is higher than autumn and winter months of 2010 and equates with the monthly average for Given recent announcements of job losses and predictions of more to come, Ireland has a long way to go before any real hope of a decent job can be given to unemployed people. The other release today was the Live Register figures for January The Seasonally Adjusted figure for January is 6,900 less than that for December 2010 and so now stands at 439,200. The Standardised Unemployment Rate is 13.4% which though lower than the last Quarterly National Household Survey figure, covering the third quarter last year, of 13.6% but is higher than January 2010 by 0.4%. Looking beyond the headline figures what is far more worrying is the 55.9% rise in long-term claimants which now stands at 160,554. In January 2007, the last time we had an election, the entire Live Register, at 158,752, was lower than the current number of long-term claimants. In 2007 redundancies averaged out at 2,122 per month: 2.3 times the monthly average of 4,894 in There were 2.114m people employed in 2007 in comparison to 1.86m employed in 2010 (third quarter), a drop of 12%. The scale of the unemployment crisis facing Ireland is unprecedented and requires urgent and immediate action. Such action must be on a scale that can produce meaningful results and give real hope to unemployed people and others who will be entering the labour market over the coming period. In the meantime social protection supports for unemployed people must not be further eroded. The INOU is calling on all political parties to treat unemployment as their number 1 priority. 2. Economic and labour market context The combination of a global economic crisis and inappropriate domestic policies prior to 2008 resulted in the Irish economy suffering a severe downturn over the last few years. Real GDP began to

7 7 slow noticeably in 2007, peaked in early 2008, and declined rapidly thereafter. Over the period between Q and Q4 2009, output decreased by 11.5 %. Thereafter GDP began to stabilise, and has even shown a recent tendency to rise, albeit slowly (annual real GDP growth was 1.4 % in the year 2011). However, the numbers at work have continued to decrease throughout this period. The most recently published figures for Q show that total employment has declined by over in the period since Q (from 2.09 to 1.79 million), a relative fall of 14.5 %. In the same period, unemployment rose from to , resulting in the unemployment rate increasing from 4.5 to 14.7 %. There were substantial variations in employment change in different economic sectors for the period under discussion. The sector which really stands out is building and construction, which recorded an employment fall of , no less than 62 % over this period. There was also a substantial decrease in the manufacturing industry, nearly or 23 % in relative terms. Much of the latter decline was attributable to indigenous industries, and to the less skilled part of the high-tech multinational sector. 3. Causes of unemployment In a modern economy unemployment has a variety of causes. Some of them relate to the general level of economic activity, others are the result of a failure of the labour market in an economy to work optimally. Among the main types of unemployment we can consider: Real wage unemployment Demand deficient unemployment Frictional unemployment Structural unemployment Hidden unemployment 3.1. Real wage (classical) unemployment Real wage unemployment is a form of dis-equilibrium unemployment that occurs when real wages for jobs are forced above the market clearing level. Traditionally, trade unions and wages councils are seen as the institutions causing this type of unemployment although the importance of trade unions in the UK labour market has diminished significantly over recent years and this has not stopped unemployment reaching nearly three million twice in the last twenty years. Classical unemployment is thought to be the result of real wages being above their market clearing level leading to an excess supply of labour. Some economists believe that the introduction of the national minimum wage may create some classical unemployment in industries where average wage rates are closer to the NMW level and where international competition from low-labour cost producers is severe

8 Demand deficient (or cyclical) unemployment Cyclical unemployment is involuntary unemployment due to a lack of aggregate demand for goods and services. This is also known as Keynesian "demand deficient" unemployment and is associated with the transition of the economy through the business cycle. When there is an economic recession we expect to see a rising level of unemployment because of plant closures and worker lay-offs. This is due to a fall in demand leading to a contraction in output across many industries. Although demand deficient unemployment is usually associated with economic recessions it can also exist in the long run when the economy is constantly run below capacity. As the economy recovers from a downturn, we expect to see the problem of cyclical unemployment decline. This has certainly been the case in the Uk over recent years as the recovery of output from the early 1990s recession gathered momentum. Nine years of sustained economic growth has led to the lowest recorded unemployment levels since the end of Unemployment fell below one million (using the claimant count measure) in February Frictional unemployment Frictional unemployment is transitional unemployment due to people moving between jobs: For example, newly redundant workers or workers entering the labour market (such as university graduates) may take time to find appropriate jobs at wage rates they are prepared to accept. Many are unemployed for a short time whilst involved in job search. Imperfect information in the labour market may make frictional unemployment worse if the jobless are unaware of the available employment opportunities. Some of the frictionally unemployed may opt not to accept jobs if they believe the tax and benefit system will reduce significantly the net increase in income from taking paid work. When this happens there are dis-incentives for the unemployed to accept work Structural unemployment Structural unemployment occurs when people are made unemployed because of capital-labour substitution (which reduces the demand for labour) or when there is a long run decline in demand in their particular industry. Structural unemployment exists where there is a mismatch between their skills and the requirements of the new job opportunities. Many of the unemployed from heavy manufacturing industry (e.g. in coal, steel and heavy engineering) have found it difficult to gain re-employment without an investment in re-training. This problem is one of occupational immobility. The Labour Government's New Deal programme has focused attempts to reduce long-term unemployment by increasing the human capital of the unemployed and improving their employability in the eyes of potential employers Hidden unemployment Whatever the published figures for unemployment, there are bound to be people who are interested in taking paid work but who, for one reason or another, are not classified as unemployed.

9 9 An example of this is discouraged workers - people who have effectively given up active search for jobs perhaps because they have been out of work for a long time and have lost both the motivation to apply for jobs and also the skills required. The poverty trap can also act to increase hidden unemployment. Jobless workers may not apply for jobs because of financial disincentives created by the interaction of the income tax and state benefits system. 4. Long-term unemployment (LTU) trends The economic developments as described, involving both deep and prolonged recession, provided the classic background within which a substantial rise in long-term unemployment was inevitable. Table 1 (which contains unemployment data classified by duration categories) shows that the extent of LTU was relatively small in some out of a total unemployment figure of just under , i.e. about 27 %. The number only rose marginally in 2008, but thereafter it increased steadily each year to reach a figure of by Q This represents over 60 % of total unemployment. The most dramatic escalation occurred between 2009 and 2010 when the number increased from just below to over This was caused by the onward movement of earlier cohorts of short-time unemployed who had lost their jobs in large numbers between 2008 and In 2010 the Central Statistics Office released the Quarterly National Household Survey for Quarter Quarter 2 covers the months April to June. The figures released underline the chronic state of unemployment in Ireland said John Stewart, INOU Co-ordinator. Unemployment, as measured by the QNHS, now stands at 293,600 or 13.2%. There are 127,000 people out of work for a year or more which represents an increase of over 69,000 in the year. Long-term unemployment accounts for 43.3% of total unemployment compared to 21.7% a year ago. This is a cause for huge concern and demands an urgent response from Government. Over the past year, the numbers in full-time employment fell by 83,200. The largest decrease being in the construction sector where there were 31,300 fewer full-time jobs. Youth unemployment also continues to rise with an unemployment rate among young people aged of 40.6%. The impact of unemployment on the individual can be acute, the impact of long-term unemployment can be catastrophic. Unemployed people need hope that their situation will improve and, to date, we have simply not seen the same priority or resources being given to tackling unemployment and particularly long-term unemployment as have been given to dealing with the banking crisis. What is urgently needed is an integrated Jobs Strategy that gives unemployed people hope of the prospect of a decent job in the future, John concluded. The most recent data, i.e. for 2011 and 2012, indicates a partial stabilisation, with the increase in LTU numbers moderating noticeably and the numbers of short-time unemployed actually falling. This is consistent with the economic trends in the economy generally, which in recent years have indicated a leveling off in output and reduced job losses.

10 10 5. Policies to prevent and tackle structural unemployment and LTU In response to the emerging economic crisis, the Irish Government announced a cross departmental initiative in mid which formed the early stages of an activation programme (even though it was not described as such at the time). This initially involved extensions and/or adaptations to existing measures designed to assist unemployed persons by providing more opportunities for training and educational enhancement and work placement opportunities. Basically, the programme comprised a mix of actions at different levels, designed to accommodate the diverse needs of the growing numbers of unemployed. A major objective was, where possible, to prevent the drift into long-term unemployment. In o periods necessary to establish eligibility for labour market supports, i.e. a movement towards interventions at the point of six months unemployment duration, or even earlier in some cases. This aspect of the process has recently been augmented by the introduction of a profiling process designed to identify persons at risk of becoming long-term unemployed (described later in this section). New data published recently by the Central Statistics Office which provides a useful overview as to how the activation initiative has developed from its beginnings in This shows that in the first year (i.e. between 2009 and 2010) some additional unemployed persons were assisted by these measures. The numbers continued to rise in subsequent years and by February 2012 the total had increased to nearly , compared with just under in the same month of It is noticeable that for 2012 the largest number (over ) relates to Back to Education Programmes, which in fact encompasses all educational levels, including the third level. The Back to Work incentive schemes accounted for over unemployed persons, and FÁS provided full-time training for almost It should be noted that the period covered involved a change of government (in March 2011). In this regard, the data indicate the introduction of two new programmes, a community work placement measure (TUS), which is restricted to those unemployed for 12 months or more, and JobBridge which promotes the creation of internships for the unemployed. In aggregate these two programmes provided support to nearly persons in February 2012.in order to achieve this a number of the changes made involved a shortening of the qualification 6. Employment Supports Schemes available for long term unemployed people There is a range of employment schemes and other supports which encourage long-term unemployed people to return to work. They are aimed at people who have been on unemployment or certain other social welfare payments for a specific period of time. Some schemes fund community and voluntary organisations to provide employment opportunities which benefit the local community. Each scheme has different rules as to who is eligible so it is important to check the detailed information about each scheme. If you are returning to work through one of these schemes your social welfare payment may be affected in different ways, depending on the scheme. People on

11 11 certain disability payments may qualify for the schemes and there are a number of employment supports for people with disabilities Back to Work Enterprise Allowance The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme assists unemployed people and others getting certain social welfare payments to become self-employed. People who are setting up their own business and who qualify for the BTWEA scheme may retain a percentage of their social welfare payment for up to 2 years Short-Term Enterprise Allowance The Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) provides support to people getting Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) who want to start their own business. The Short-Term Enterprise Allowance is paid instead of your JB and there is no qualifying period, which means you do not need to be getting JB for a certain length of time Revenue Job Assist Revenue Job Assist is an additional tax allowance for people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more and who are now returning to employment. The scheme is an alternative to existing employment schemes, such as the Back to Work Allowance. In other words, you cannot avail of both options. The tax allowance can be claimed for 3 tax years and may begin with either the tax year in which the employment commences or the following tax year Part-time Job Incentive The Part-time Job Incentive (PTJI) scheme is for people who have been getting Jobseeker s Allowance for 15 months or more. It allows them to take up part-time work and get a Part-time Job Allowance instead of the Jobseeker s Allowance. Information about how to qualify for the Part-time Job Incentive Scheme can be found on the Department of Social Protection website Community Employment The Community Employment programme provides long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged people with training and work experience through part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities. There are 2 different categories of Community Employment: the Part-time Integration Option and the Part-time Job Option Rural Social Scheme The Rural Social Scheme allows low-income farmers and fishermen/women who are unable to earn an adequate living from their farm holding or from fishing earn a supplementary income. Local organisations are funded to provide participants in the scheme with part-time work that benefits rural communities.

12 Community Services Programme The Community Services Programme funds community services and community businesses to provide essential services and businesses to their communities which will provide employment to unemployed people and people with disabilities. The Community Services Programme evolved from the Social Economy Programme and provides funding over 300 groups Tús The Tús scheme is a community work placement initiative providing work opportunities which benefit the community and are provided by community and voluntary organisations in both urban and rural areas. Unemployed people who are eligible to participate in the scheme are selected and contacted by the Department of Social Protection JobBridge - National Internship Scheme JobBridge, National Internship Scheme provides internship placements for unemployed people in private, public, community and voluntary organisations. Participants must be on the Live Register for 3 months and the internships will last from 6 to 9 months. If they take up an internship they will keep their social welfare payment and will get an extra 50 per week Work Placement Programme The Work Placement Programme provides 9 months work experience for unemployed people. The Programme provides places in the private, public, community and voluntary sectors. Participants do not have to be getting a social welfare payment but participants who are getting certain social welfare payments for 3 months may keep their payment. 7. Educational Supports provided 7.1. Further Education (FE) and Training in Ireland The role of FE Section is to promote, co-ordinate, fund and monitor the development of FE programmes for young people and adults who have either left school early or who need further education and training (FET) to enhance their employment prospects and to enable them to progress their education up the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Long term unemployed adults are encouraged to avail of further education programmes in Ireland, The principal objectives of the measures and programmes funded by the Department of Education and Skills in the area of FET are: To meet the needs of young early school-leavers To provide second-chance education for people who did not complete upper second level, and To provide vocational preparation and training for labour market entrants and re-entrants.

13 13 The main providers of FE programmes are Vocational Education Committees (VECs). Programmes are usually certified by the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) and certification is a required option for all FE learners. Full-time programmes are: Youthreach : for early school leavers between years of age; Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) : for unemployed adults over 21 years of age; Senior Traveller Training Centres (STTCs) : for Travellers over 18 years of age (Funding for all Centres stopped in July 2012) Post Leaving Certificate (PLC): for learners over 16 years of age who have completed the Leaving Certificate (LC) or who are adults returning to education. Part-time programmes are provided under: The Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) : free for adults with a less than upper second level education; Adult Literacy (AL) : for adults with specific needs in basic skills areas and includes English as a Second Language (ESOL) provision; Community Education (CE) : providing informal and non-formal education for hard-to-reach adults; Self-financing education (evening classes) accessed by adults who pay a fee. Supports provided for FE learners include: The Adult Education Guidance Initiative (AEGI) which provides nationwide guidance for learners before, during and after they participate in BTEI, AL, CE or VTOS programmes; Eligibility for participants in Youthreach, VTOS, STTC or BTEI for free childcare under the Childcare in Education and Training Scheme (CETS), operated by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA) Financial Expenditure on Adult Education The below Table clearly sets out the funding provided by the Department of education ad Skills to meet the huge demand that exists for people to engage in Further and Adult Education in the Irish context.

14 14 Service TABLE 1: FINANCIAL PROVISION FURTHER EDUCATION Expenditure 2009 Expenditure 2010 Provision 2011 VTOS 77m 79m 80m Youthreach 66m 68m 67m STTCs 27m 24m 21m PLC* 8m 9m 6m Adult Literacy 30m 30m 30m Community Education 10m 10m 10m BTEI 17m 17m 17m AEGI 6.9m 6.9m 6.9m Childcare** 4.4m 4.4m 0.9m *Expenditure on enhanced capitation and LDA(Locally Devised Assessments) payments only. In 2010, overall expenditure on PLC including staff costs, student support, enhanced capitation and LDA payments was approximately 186m and in 2009, 183m. The 2011 overall PLC provision is at a similar level. ** 3.5m transferred to the OMCYA Vote for the Childcare Education and Training Scheme (CETS). TABLE 2 FE PROVISION IN 2010 AND Full-Time approved places VTOS 5,000 5,000 PLC 31,688 31,688 STTCs Youthreach 3,692 3,692 Part-Time participants* Adult Literacy 49,000 49,000 Community Education 50,000 50,000 BTEI 28,000 28,000 *Estimated, for 2010 figures not yet available

15 Educational Supports for Jobseekers One can avail of a full-time second or third level course, VTOS or an educational training and development course, and still receive a jobseekers payment. If you are not eligible for any of these options or if you don't wish to do a full-time course, you can attend a part-time course Back to College Initiative for Jobseekers) On June 1st 2010, The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan T.D. announced that 6,589 training places will be made available to the unemployed under the Labour Market Activation Fund, A further 5,00 places were announced on August 5th, Back to Education Allowance (Second & Third Level Options) If you would like to return to education, and wish to pursue a second level course of education at any community, comprehensive, secondary or vocational school or a third level course at any university, third level college or institution or you may qualify for Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) Education, Training & Development If you are getting a jobseeker's payment and your choice of course is not covered under the Back to Education Allowance Scheme, you may keep your jobseeker's payment while doing a course of education, training or development. It must be clear that the course will enhance your employment prospects Partnership Your local partnership company offers a range of supports, including information, training and assistance about finding welfare. 8. Additional Supports One can avail of the following schemes and/or supplements if one has jobseeker's claim. recently closed your 8.1. Family Income Supplement (FIS) Family Income Supplement (FIS) is a weekly payment for families, including one parent families, at work on low pay. It is not subject to income tax and does not affect your entitlement to a medical card. In order to qualify for Family Income Supplement, either you or your spouse must be engaged in insurable employment.

16 Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (Self Employed) (BTWEA) This is a weekly payment for unemployed people who set up their own business. It allows you to keep a portion of your social welfare payment for 2 years and is not subject to tax or Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) Short-Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) If you have been made redundant and qualify for Jobseeker s Benefit then you may be able to keep your jobseeker s payment while you are setting up your own business Back to Education Allowance If you would like to return to education there is a range of supports available. You may be able to do a full-time second-level or third-level course and still keep your jobseeker s payment Money Advice and Budgeting Services The Money Advice and Budgeting Service is an independent voluntary service for individuals or families, primarily those on low incomes who need guidance in managing their finances in order to avoid getting into difficulties with creditors and moneylenders. On 13th July 2009 responsibility for the provision of the MABS service was transferred from the Department of Social and Family Affairs to the Citizens Information Board Tax Credits If one have been in receipt of Jobseeker s Benefit while out of work, on should contact your local Revenue office when you resume employment. Your new employer will be notified of your earnings and tax up to the date you resume employment. The taxable amount of the Jobseeker s Benefit will be included in the earnings figure Revenue Job Assist If you are getting a jobseeker s payment for 12 months or more and take up a job offer for at least 30 hours per week, you may qualify for additional tax credits for 3 years. Contact your local tax office for information. (The job must be expected to last for at least a year.) 8.8. Work & Your Medical Card If you are unemployed for 12 months or more and get work, or take part in any of the schemes outlined above, you may be able to keep your medical card for 3 years.

17 17 9. Financial Payments 9.1. Jobseeker's Benefit Jobseeker's Benefit is not paid for the first 3 days you are unemployed (the first 3 days are any 3 days, not necessarily consecutive, in a period of six consecutive days). If you are unemployed for a second time within 26 weeks of your last JB payment your application for Jobseeker's Benefit is not treated as a new claim and you do not have another 3 days of nonpayment. Weekly Jobseeker's Benefit payment in 2012: Average weekly earnings Personal rate Qualified adult rate Less than or more

18 Jobseeker Allowance Jobseeker Allowance rates from January 2012 Maximum rate for people aged 25 or over New and existing Personal Increase for a qualified Increase for a qualified claimants rate adult child Maximum rate Maximum rate for people under 25 Age Personal rate Increase for a qualified adult Exceptions to age-related Jobseeker's Allowance payments for people under 25 The reduced age-related personal and qualified adult rates of Jobseeker s Allowance for claimants under 25 years of age do not apply to: Claimants with dependent children People transferring to Jobseeker s Allowance immediately after finishing their entitlement to Jobseeker s Benefit People transferring from Disability Allowance to Jobseeker s Allowance Existing Jobseeker s Allowance claimants who are assessed at the higher rate of allowance, get work but lose that job and are back on Jobseeker s Allowance within 12 months People under 25 participating in a course of education, training or Community Employment. (However, when the course ends you will return to an age-related JA payment, if you were getting one before you started the course.) People who were at least 20 years of age on 30 December 2009 and became unemployed on or before 30 December 2009 People who were 18 or 19 on 30 December 2009 and became unemployed on or before 29 April 2009 People aged 22 to 24 who are taking part in the Work Placement Programme

19 19 Certain children in the care of the HSE during the 12 months before reaching 18 years of age are also be assessed using the JA rate for people aged 25 or over Child Benefit Child Benefit (previously known as Children's Allowance) is payable to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age, or under 18 years of age if the child is in full-time education, FÁS Youthreach training or has a disability. Child Benefit is not paid on behalf of 18-year olds. Child Benefit is paid at one and a half times the appropriate monthly rate for twins, and at double the appropriate monthly rate for triplets and other multiple births Budget 2013 Child Benefit rates will be reduced to 130 per month for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd child. Child Benefit rates will be reduced to 140 per month for the 4th and subsequent children (announced in Budget 2012). (January 2013) From 2014, the monthly rate for the 4th and subsequent children will be 130. (January 2014) Child Benefit Number of children 2012 monthly rate 2013 monthly rate 2013 Annual rate 1 child , children , children , children , children , children , children 1, , children 1, , , This measure is not yet in effect and legislation is required to bring it into effect.

20 20 Turkish Context 1. Introduction Turkey had experienced enormous inflation and unemployment rates in at least a couple of previous decades. These days were the times of regular cartoons of inflation beast and Association of Unemployed Agriculture Engineers even in a hardly socially organized society. People were accustomed to live with very high rate of inflation and unemployment; simply with poverty. Living in such a harsh economic climate while almost the rest of Europe enjoying milder conditions, I think, equipped Turkish citizens with miraculous adaptive survival strategies like family collaboration, unrecorded jobs, invading land for housing and others. In the last decade, Turkey has achieved some record growth rates and inflation can be described as severely lost a digit. The unemployment may not disappear completely (see Unemployment Figures) but the recent ones were much less painful for Turkish citizens, practical economists as economists say. Correct orientation of the resources, to a certain extent, started to make out real potential of Turkish economy, which diversified and deepen employment opportunities so as to catch up with the rapidly increasing population figures. Perhaps defined circumstances and again vaccinated citizens, who share the trouble directly with taxes and indirectly by burning the most expensive petrol in the world etc. were the reasons why the recession had relatively narrow escaped Turkey. It is argued and actually it seems that the numbers of university graduates are a little excessive nowadays for the current launching universities trend and may be political circumstances. There are lots of unemployed university graduates particularly in some areas. However dynamics in Turkey changes quickly and the country may instantly reach a stage where all or some of these people are hired and the more is demanded. Turkey quickly steps away from this fragile balance for intermediate rage. There is precise and disciplined planning, need analysis and data processing for secondary level and non-formal education. The authentic demand of the sectors are determined and directed with central and distal meetings with profit/non-profit, state-owned/private and decision maker stakeholders. The demand is determined and satisfied interactively based on update feedback and the need of education/training is shared to the organizations to provide education/training.

21 21 2. Unemployment in Turkey Here we refer long-term unemployment as the number of people with continuous periods of unemployment extending for a year or longer, expressed as a percentage of the total unemployed. It can be said that fast emerging universities create unemployment graduate 3. Long-term unemployment, recent trends; Table 1. Duration of unemployment, Turkey (thousand persons, 15+ years of age). Year LF Unemployed LTU b/w 1&2 b/w 2&3 3+ total months months months months total years years years ,114 2, ,805 2, ,748 3, ,641 3, ,725 2, Year Unemployed LTU b/w 1&2 b/w 2&3 3+ total months months months months share years years years % 28.8% 24.9% 11.8% 4.2% 30.3% 17.2% 7.3% 5.9% % 30.7% 26.7% 12.0% 3.8% 26.8% 15.8% 6.4% 4.5% % 28.0% 27.0% 14.6% 5.1% 25.3% 15.6% 5.8% 3.9% % 30.3% 24.0% 12.4% 4.7% 28.6% 17.6% 6.9% 4.1% % 33.6% 23.6% 12.2% 4.2% 26.5% 16.5% 6.5% 3.5% Year GDP Unemployment LTU Unemployed b/w 1&2 2+ growth rate rate total months months years years % 10.3% 3.1% 100.0% 57.6% 12.1% 17.2% 13.1% % 11.0% 2.9% 100.0% 61.4% 11.8% 15.8% 11.0% % 14.0% 3.5% 100.0% 59.9% 14.8% 15.6% 9.7% % 11.9% 3.4% 100.0% 58.4% 13.0% 17.6% 11.0% % 9.8% 2.6% 100.0% 61.2% 12.3% 16.5% 10.0% The Turkish labour force consisted of people in 2007 and reached people in There were unemployed people in The number peaked at people in 2009 and went down to people in These numbers, rates, and breakdown of data are reported in Table 1. The number of short-term unemployed (STU) people (who were unemployed for less than a year) followed the same pattern as that of the total unemployment level: the numbers increased up to 2009 and then started to decline. The long-term unemployment level (LTU) followed a different

22 22 pattern. It was on a declining trend in 2007 and 2008, peaked sharply in 2009, lingered at that level in 2010, and declined sharply in In 2007, LTU constituted 30 % of the unemployed people. The proportion fell to 27 % in 2008 because of a sharp increase in the number of unemployed people, and in 2009 fell further to 25 % despite the increase in the numbers of LTU. The rise in the number of STU was much larger. This proportion rose to 29 % in 2010, although the number of LTU remained more or less level; the fall in the number of unemployed people came from the ranks of the STU. In 2011, the LTU constituted 27 % of unemployed people. LTU between 1and 2 years constituted 17 % of unemployed people; LTU for more than 2 years constituted 10 % of the unemployed in These statistics suggest that it was the STU who got back into employment during the recovery period first. The LTU level fell only in 2011, in the second year of the economic recovery (Turkey grew by 9.2 % and 8.5 %, in 2010 and 2011 respectively, in sharp contrast to the Eurozone crisis countries.) Graph 1. The Recent Changes in Percent Short Term Unemployment (STU) & Long Term Unemployment (LTU) STU LTU 1.1. Incidence of long-term unemployment across men and women Unemployed men exhibit the same general unemployment temporal pattern in all duration categories (or rather, the general unemployment pattern is dominated by men, as shown in Table 2). In all unemployment duration categories, the same pattern is repeated; therefore only proportions are shown in Table 2 for men. The unemployment level rose until 2009 and fell sharply in 2010 and Men constituted 72 % of unemployed people in 2007, but 66 % in In addition, 27 % of unemployed men were LTU in 2007, but the proportion fell to 22 % in Women are different. They did not exhibit the sharp decline in their unemployment level as men did in 2010 and Their share of unemployed people rose from 28 % to 34 % between 2007 and Men s unemployment levels in 2007 and 2011 are almost the same. Women s unemployment level rose by between 2007 and This is observed in all unemployment duration categories. Moreover, the LTU level did not fall in 2010 for women: it actually rose.

23 23 These statistics reveal that, women s unemployment level rose during the crisis just as men s unemployment level did, in more or less the same proportion. However, the number of unemployed women only gradually declined from its peak in 2009 and still did not regress to its level in Women may be having a more difficult time getting back into employment relative to men (as suggested by the increase in the number of LTU women), or female new entrants may have more difficulty in getting a job than their male counterparts do, or both. It is important to note that in Turkey, women in general are less skilled than men. Better-educated women did not suffer employment losses during the crisis as most of them are in public employment, and many as teachers. Table 2. Duration of unemployment by gender, Turkey (thousand persons, 15+ years of age). Year Unemployment Share in Unemployed MEN total MEN months months years years , % 100.0% 61.2% 11.8% 15.0% 12.0% b/w 1& , % 100.0% 64.2% 11.8% 14.0% 10.0% , % 100.0% 62.5% 14.9% 14.0% 8.6% , % 100.0% 62.2% 13.0% 15.0% 9.8% , % 100.0% 65.3% 12.1% 13.6% 8.8% Year Unemployment Share in Unemployed WOMEN total WOMEN months months years years % 100.0% 48.3% 12.9% 22.6% 16.1% b/w 1& % 100.0% 54.0% 11.9% 20.6% 13.6% % 100.0% 53.3% 14.6% 19.8% 12.4% % 100.0% 50.2% 12.9% 23.3% 13.6% % 100.0% 53.2% 12.5% 22.0% 12.2% Year Unemployment WOMEN months months years years b/w 1& Note: Recent years only. Historical perspective is in Section 3. These statistics reveal that, women s unemployment level rose during the crisis just as men s unemployment level did, in more or less the same proportion. However, the number of unemployed

24 24 women only gradually declined from its peak in 2009 and still did not regress to its level in Women may be having a more difficult time getting back into employment relative to men (as suggested by the increase in the number of LTU women), or female new entrants may have more difficulty in getting a job than their male counterparts do, or both. It is important to note that in Turkey, women in general are less skilled than men. Better-educated women did not suffer employment losses during the crisis as most of them are in public employment, and many as teachers. 4. Factors driving transitions into and out of LTU A quantitative analysis concerning factors driving transitions into and out of LTU in Turkey is difficult because of inadequate micro-data that will allow forming transition matrices. A recently started Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) by Turkstat has some panel components, but it only had 4 years of data (3 transitions) available to researchers from 2006 to 2009 until recently, and the results for 2010 only came out a short while ago. As of now, it may not be meaningful to study LTU and other labour market state transition matrices because available data ended right in the middle of the crisis. However, a recently completed Ph.D. thesis (Kan, 2012) partly supervised by this author, presented promising results in calculating transitions from various labour market states into and out of unemployment in general. Further research will involve adding 2010 and 2011 data. Identifying the rotation group and looking at individuals in the LFS survey of Turkstat proved to be a fruitlessendeavour by the applied labour economists in Turkey, so SILC data may eventually come to the rescue. It will be some years before one can plot a Beveridge curve for Turkey with LFS data and reliable vacancy rates. A plot by the author using LFS data for unemployment and vacancy rates from the Turkish Public Employment Service (ISKUR) failed to produce a downward sloping curve. The reason is that the Turkish Public Employment Service (ISKUR) is quite far from having a representative coverage of (even the non-agricultural) the labour market. ISKUR registrants still form a fraction of the number of unemployed indicated by the monthly LFS. During the peak of the crisis in 2009, less than 10 % of the unemployed people qualified for unemployment insurance. There is not much point in registering with ISKUR yet, although there is a drive to change this state of events. There were vacancies listed by ISKUR in 2009 when the number of unemployed people was These difficulties apparently did not stop Saglam and Günalp (2012) from empirically obtaining a Beveridge curve for Turkey that spans five decades. They investigated the dynamics of unemployment and vacancy rates in Turkey during the period 1951 to They claim that their results suggest inefficiency in the Turkish labour market because they found a stable long-run relationship between the unemployment rate and vacancy rate in Turkey, i.e. a negatively sloped Beveridge curve. They interpreted the result to be reflecting structural problems and a lack of flexibility in the Turkish labour market. They then modified their Beveridge curve calculation to consider the effect of real wages and labour productivity on the unemployment rate. Labour productivity did not have an effect on unemployment. Wages had a positive effect on the same variable (the data did not include 2009 and 2010).

25 25 A critical assessment of the Saglam and Günalp article may be utilised to expose long-term relevant issues in the Turkish labour market regarding LTU. There is a single paragraph in the Saglam and Günalp study about their data: the data on variables we use (the unemployment rate, the vacancy rate, the real labour productivity and real wages) were obtained from two sources. The official vacancy rates are available from the Turkish Employment Organisation. The rest of the data comes from the Turkish Statistical Institution. Technically speaking, none of these data are available from these sources the way we understand them to be available in recent years. ISKUR was simply an agency that registered and handled the paperwork for migrant workers on their way to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. It did not exist as a more or less modern public employment service (PES) until the late 1990s. Even then, the low skill blue-collar migrant worker perception of the agency was ingrained in the public s perception. Until the legislation on unemployment insurance with which ISKUR was mandated to administer the UI fund and benefits in the last decade, the agency had negligible registrations (and those only for the construction workers that Turkish firms employed abroad, which was a legal requirement). Whatever vacancy rate was reported by ISKUR for those four decades definitely was not a rate that one could use in an academic or policy document. As to the documentation of unemployment in Turkey, the only data on unemployment came from the population censuses until 1988, when LFS started. The unemployment rate in the years between the census data points (every five years) was obtained by smooth exponential trend fitting. That is how the authors obtained 37 of their 58 data points on the unemployment rate. It is important to also note that a great deal of Turkish employment was in agriculture until the 1990s (from 90 % in the 1950s to 50+ % in the 1980s to 30 % in the 2000s). In those decades, unemployment simply did not exist (the authors report rates of 2.6 % for the 1950s and 3.9 % in the 1960s). All rural agricultural family members had jobs in the family plots as unpaid family workers. Women did not participate in the labour force in urban areas, with the exception of the tiny percentage of college-educated female teachers in public employment. Turkey was introduced to an unemployment level of 8 % during the 1970s and it remained there during the 1980s and 1990s. Only then, with increased urbanisation and declining agricultural employment, did the unemployment rate start to show some variation in response to the crises after the labour market statistics lost half of their agricultural employment buffer. How then, can one find a Beveridge curve in Turkey? Along the y-axis (vacancy rate) of such a graph, points are parallel to the axis at a 2 to 3 % unemployment rate in the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s, the Turkish economy provided a 4 to 10 % unemployment rate range (as it suffers along with the rest of the world from the oil crises) against a fixed vacancy rate around 2.5 %. This provides a long horizontal line on the graph and one has an L-shaped curve, with a short stem and a longer tail. There is a cluster of points for 1988 to 2003 during the first phase of the LFS below the L-shaped curve in the 6 to 9 % unemployment rate range (with a positive slope!). There is a smaller cluster of points when the LFS definitions changed after 2003 (five data points, also with a positive slope), in the 9 to 11 % unemployment rate range (with a vacancy rate at around 1 %). The shape looks like an L with a period. Ignoring all the statistical regime changes and totally ignoring the data generation

26 26 processes, one can indeed fit a downward sloping line to this shape, which is definitely not a Beveridge curve. On another note, it is known that the education to employment transition is problematic in Turkey. The issue was discussed by the author in Ercan (2010). The LTU rate among young people was 19 % for 15 to 19 year-olds, 24 % for 20 to 24 year-olds, and 26 % for 25 to 34 year-olds in The proportion of LTU among the young unemployed converges to the overall proportion in the 25 to 34 year-old group. Depending on the age group, one fifth to one quarter of the young unemployed are LTU. This proportion is gradually rising and is becoming a structural labour market problem. This difficult education-job transition phenomenon is the closest argument that an expert can state as a structural cause that is likely to obstruct a job match, given the scant quantitative national evidence. The reason for this is that the young age-education level patterns in unemployment are not remedied by economic recovery and increased GDP activity, but tend to persist. 5. Policies to prevent and tackle structural unemployment and LTU Turkey is still in the phase of its unemployment debate that exclusively prioritises young people, STU or LTU. LTU has never entered the policy debate per se Active labour market policies ISKUR used active labour market policy (ALMP) measures during the crisis as social welfare transfers. Unemployed persons received daily stipends for attending training courses. Late in 2009 and 2010, the Government instituted an unemployed youth training program that would train young people in 5 years. Local chambers of industry and commerce would suggest open positions for which there would be ALMP measures and subsequent employment. This initiative flopped spectacularly. Turkish provincial employers found out forthemselves that they could not list any meaningful skills for ISKUR to train applicants (75 % of Turkish employment is unskilled, close to 30 % in agricultural employment and close to 50 % in low-level personal services and retail trade jobs). ISKUR officials found out that on those few blue-collar technical training programs instituted in larger industrial cities, half of the allocated class spaces went empty despite the 20 TL (EUR 8.8 at 2.27 TL/EUR) daily stipend for attending three-month training courses. Young unemployed, it seems, want clean white-collar desk jobs in their own cities. Hardly anybody wants grease on their hands. Not surprisingly, follow up statistics on course completion, subsequent employment, and job retention are not available Policies aimed at reducing skills shortages/anticipating skills needs/re-skilling long-term unemployed It is important to note that in the public debate, there are no links between LTU and skill shortages. The skill shortage debate has a youth unemployment flavour to it that lacks the LTU component. There are also no official particular efforts in the country to forecast labour demand by sector, except one study conducted by this author for the ILO (Ercan, 2011). There is discussion on the issue in a manpower-planning context of yesteryear. Turks like their solutions deterministic, not stochastic: e.g.

27 27 three geography teachers will be needed in the Çarsamba town of Samsun province in Any academic who would argue against such nonsense will be out of a consultancy job. The EU attitude on the re-skilling issue seems to be schizophrenic. Given the current polarisation of the labour market because of ongoing skill-biased technical change (increasing skill requirements in many occupations across industries), at which end of the wage inequality spectrum do/will the older workers lie? Re-skilling the LTU is quite likely an either/or phenomenon regarding young and old workers. If because of a lack of contemporary ( e.g., IT) in demand job skills, older workers end up in low quality (e.g. low paying menial) jobs, will the society then apportion its education-training resources for occupational mobility for the older generation (55+) or for the younger generation? The author has not seen this question tackled head on in an official discussion yet. It is important to note, that the segmentation argument will favour the younger generation lest they become trapped in a low-productivity low-wage path, which could decrease output and increase social expenditures in the end. Young people will also have cumulatively larger returns to education and training as they have more years to work. These are powerful arguments for giving priority to the young. Supporting the young would mean that the society would allow a gradual de-skilling of the older workers and make it difficult to prolong their working lives. Through attrition, present retirement trends would continue and enormous increases in the productivity of younger workers will be required for the society to maintain its social benefit levels, which is unlikely on both counts. Neither the productivity will increase that much, nor the present social welfare state practices will remain intact. The on-going crisis has already made certain adjustments. Therefore, the preference between the old and young up-skilling through education and training is a public choice issue in an either-or context. The choice will have long and short-term consequences. Inducing the older generation to work more years (if possible) will keep production from falling sharply as labour supply shrinks and will ease the financing of the social security deficit. These two benefits will be realised both in the long and short-term. Thecost may be borne by the younger generation. To the extent that older and younger workers are substitutes, having the older workers work longer would not help the structural youth unemployment problem. Moreover, if the education and training system imparts insufficient contemporary job skills to the young generation, long-term productivity will suffer. 6. Educational Support - Examples of regional, local or EU funded initiatives There are various EU related initiatives being implemented. One is the Project on informal learning - to establish a collective understanding and raising awareness on informal learning in Turkey through multi-stakeholder consultation processes. This is an EU initiative to develop awareness at the regional and local level as well as national level. The outputs of the Project contributed to the system of validation of informal learning. Another EU funded initiative is The Lifelong Learning Project which is funded via EU preaccession funding. Its aim is to reach out to all age groups with a Lifelong Learning (LLL) strategy, specifically targeted towards women, to facilitate their access to informal and non-formal learning, in response to the demands of the labour market. This project is currently at the initial planning stages. Some of its objectives are: to support the legislation for LLL, to support the

28 28 development of the NQF, to support the development of modular programmes, to establish LLL centres, capacity building and awareness-raising for LLL. It is coordinated by the Project Coordination centre at MoNE. Another significant project is within the Instrument for Pre-accession (IPA) 2007 programme The project on the development of a national qualifications system and the strengthening of VQA. This project contributes to the present nationwide efforts considerably. The Project aims to strengthen the capacity of VQA and develop a Vocational Qualifications System. It is made up of three elements: supply, service and grant. The supply element of the Project provides the technological and other equipments required for VQA. The service side provides the necessary technical support to organise the national qualifications system. The grants part supports subprojects for developing standards, qualifications and establishing test centres. International and national conferences and workshops have been conducted on the validation of informal and nonformal learning and the essential elements of learning outcome-based NQF in the context of LLL. These conferences also contributed to the policy development and implementation strategies in relation to informal and non-formal learning in Turkey. 7. Role of the formal education and training sector, including providers In Turkey, all formal education falls under the responsibility of MoNE. The Ministry has an established assessment system in place, which will be modified once the new validation system is established. MoNE will not carry out assessment in the VQA system but its facilities could be used in the assessment process. Formal education institutions, excluding those mentioned in the paragraph below, work cooperatively with the authorised certification organisations for examinations. It is not currently envisaged that they will have a role in the assessment process when the validation system is implemented but their facilities may be used for this purpose. Furthermore, it is possible that this may be possible in the future. Furthermore, throughout the country, there are 969 Public Education Centres (PEC) and 319 Vocational Education Centres under MoNE, which provide non-formal learning. Apart from this there are a certain number of institutions in the ministry and public authorities responsible for or providers of non-formal education and also private organizations, incorporated in the total figures given in the table below. These centres carry out activities and modular courses relating to the areas in demand on the labour market. The Vocational Education Centres issued certificates in The PECs have courses on offer and participants have been awarded certificates. All public and private institutions, organisations and non-governmental organisations work jointly under the coordination of the MoNE General Directorate of Apprenticeship and Nonformal Education for the provision of course modules that are in demand. MoNE contributes to the validation process both in the development of programmes and the delivery of assessment. The MoNE General Directorate of Apprenticeship and Non-Formal Education is an umbrella organisation in the Ministry of National Education in Turkey which is officially responsible for adult education in the Ministry and has a responsibility as secretary of the lifelong learning strategy. It has also been working on legislation of informal learning to support the VQA.

29 29 Number of organisations Number of learners Public Private Total Source: MoNE 8. Role of existing information, advice and guidance networks / institutions There is a well-established guidance system in formal education face-to-face services are in place and recently a web-based career information system has been established to serve all age groups and for formal, non-formal and informal education opportunities. As part of the LLL project cited above, more specific guidance services for non-formal and informal learning settings will be developed. 9. Validation in the private sector and the role of private sector actors Both sectoral and company-specific initiatives organise various lifelong learning activities in Turkey. Private sector companies organise training and career management skills programmes for their workers. There are many private education institutions addressing both young people and adults, with the aim of teaching skills and professions in certain areas. Private vocational and technical courses provide programmes in hundreds ofdifferent areas based on the demand of the labour market. With the establishment of the VQA, the private sector plays an important role in the development of validation initiatives by being represented in the sub-committees for the development of standards and the validation approach. The leading sectoral stakeholders are employers associations and the workers union confederations. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) has the authority by Law No.5174 to open vocational LLL training courses in the areas of its competence and to issue training certificates for the training provided to its members on the areas that are not within the scope of the Vocational Training Law, No The Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK) and the Turkish Confederation of Trades and Craftsmen (TESK) represent employers. The workers and civil servants associations also carry out training activities. TOBB, TİSK and TESK are in the sectoral committees to develop occupational standards. TİSK member associations have a significant role in the process of developing the occupational standards, specifically for the leading sectors of the Turkish economy: metal, automotive, textile, construction, cement, chemical industries and health. TİSK had a supportive role in the establishment of the VQA and the development of the infrastructure for validation. TİSK s member employer associations have signed protocols with the VQA to develop occupational standards. In addition to these protocols, TİSK s member employer associations have collaborated with the VQA in developing the procedures for testing and certification and the strategy document. Furthermore, the first national occupational standards developed by TİSK s member employer associations have been issued in the Official Gazette.

30 Unemployment benefits system In the woefully inadequate unemployment benefits (UB) system of Turkey, where only 8-9 % of all unemployed qualify for UB, those primary segment workers who became unemployed received their benefits fully for six to eight months for the duration of the legal maximum entitlement, during the crisis. There were no benefit traps as the replacement rate was half the minimum wage. 11. Conclusions Turkish unemployment patterns are consistent with the notion of LTU people being relatively less skilled. The LTU rate was 2.6 % in The numbers and proportions that were reported in Section 1 suggest that Turkey does not have a LTU problem on the same scale as Italy or Spain. One should note, however, that Turkish labour force participation rates (LFPR) fall sharply in older age groups (late fifties and early sixties). Many people simply may be falling out of the labour force after a long spell of unemployment, as they grow relatively older. The vulnerable groups in Turkey appear to be the young and women. Young people have a hard time getting into a job after graduation. This difficulty transcends crisis periods and is persistent. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they increasingly shun blue-collar occupations. This makes suggestions involving technical ALMP measures awkward to implement. Women tend to suffer longer periods of unemployment in comparison to men. As stated in Section 2, they may be having a more difficult time getting back to employment relative to men (as suggested by the increase in the number of LTU women), or female new entrants may have more difficulty in getting a job than male counterparts do, or both. Most importantly in the policy sphere, the EU must decide between long-term optimisation and short-term optimisation that will require a cost-benefit analysis (in terms of production and social expenditures) regarding the substitutability of older workers and young workers. This is a tough call when Spain has a 50 % youth unemployment rate. LTU of older workers is then a side issue, but not the LTU of young workers. This yet non-existent policy debate desperately needs a research input: To what extent are (will be) older and younger workers substitutes in present (future) occupations? REFERENCES Ercan H., 2012, European Employment Observatory Review: Long-term unemployment, Middle East Technical University 3. bereket.jimdo.com/ilgin%c3%a7-haberler/i%c5%9fsiz-m%c3%bchendisler-derne%c4%9fi 4. International Labour Organization, Key Indicators of the Labour Market database.

31 31 Czech Context 1. General informations on the labour market in the Czech Republic Unemployment The general unemployment rate in the Czech Republic in Q was among the lowest in the whole European Union. The share of the unemployed to the labour force, that means to the sum of the employed and the unemployed attained 6.8%, which is the sixth lowest value thereof in the EU27. Unemployment in males reached 5.9% (the fourth lowest); unemployment in females was 8.0% (the twelfth lowest value thereof). The Czech Republic position was favourably affected by the fact that unemployment dropped more year-on-year than on average of the EU Member States. Table 1: The unemployment rate in the aged years in the EU Member States in % Difference in p.p. Q Country Q Q Total Males Females Total Males Females EU27 9,4 9,4 9,5-0,2-0,3 0,0 Belgium 6,6 6,5 6,7-1,6-1,6-1,5 Bulgaria 11,3 12,4 10,0 1,2 1,8 0,6 Czech Republic 6,8 5,9 8,0-0,4-0,4-0,4 Denmark 7,4 7,7 7,1 0,0-1,1 1,2 Germany 6,0 6,3 5,5-1,1-1,3-1,0 Estonia 13,6 14,3 12,9-5,6-8,8-2,5 Ireland 14,5 17,8 10,3 0,7 0,8 0,6 Greece 16,6 13,9 20,2 4,6 4,4 4,8 Spain 21,0 20,7 21,4 0,8 0,9 0,7 France 8,8 8,4 9,2-0,2-0,4 0,0 Italy 7,9 7,0 9,1-0,6-0,7-0,4 Cyprus 7,3 7,5 7,1 0,7 1,2 0,2 Latvia 16,5 19,3 13,6-3,3-3,6-3,1 Lithuania 15,9 18,8 13,0-2,7-3,8-1,6 Luxembourg 5,3 4,4 6,5 1,1 0,2 2,4 Hungary 10,9 10,8 10,9-0,3-1,0 0,4 Malta 6,8 6,6 7,1 0,0 0,5-1,1 Netherlands 4,2 4,3 4,1-0,3-0,2-0,4 Austria 4,1 4,1 4,1-0,4-0,5-0,2 Poland 9,6 9,1 10,2 0,0-0,3 0,3 Portugal 12,8 12,6 12,9 1,6 2,3 0,8 Romania 7,5 7,7 7,2 0,3 0,1 0,6 Slovenia 7,8 8,1 7,5 0,5 0,5 0,7 Slovakia 13,2 13,5 12,8-1,2-0,7-1,9 Finland 9,0 9,6 8,3-0,7-0,9-0,6 Sweden 8,4 8,4 8,4-1,1-1,3-0,9 United Kingdom 7,9 8,6 7,2 0,1-0,1 0,4 Source: Analysis of the unemployment rates in the Czech Republic and in other Member States of the European Union according to results of the Labour Force Sample Survey in Q In the second quarter, the total number of long-term unemployed was 138,400, which is the lowest since the first quarter of More than half of them have only secondary education without a highschool leaving exam certificate. The second largest part of the long-term unemployed are people with primary education. Only 5,700 people with a university degree have been out of work for more than a year.

32 32 Compared to 2010 unemployment was reduced most in the Baltic States, where it has been still at high values. A low unemployment rate was in the Netherlands and the absolutely lowest was in our southward neighbouring country of Austria. Its value was lower than that in our country also in Germany, but in Slovakia as well as in Poland it was substantially higher. Ireland and, especially, Greece where unemployment grew year-on-year by 4.6 p.p have serious troubles. There is a critical situation in Spain where the unemployment rate has already attained 21%. Thus every tenth inhabitant aged years is unemployed in this country. Table 2: The share of persons unemployed for over one year in the total number of the unemployed aged years Percentage Difference in p.p. Q Country Q Q Total Males Females Total Males Females EU27 43,0 43,4 42,4 3,2 2,7 3,8 Belgium 48,2 47,7 48,8-2,2-3,2-1,1 Bulgaria 56,6 56,9 56,3 13,2 13,3 13,2 Czech Republic 39,1 38,5 39,7-2,6-1,7-3,4 Denmark 27,0 30,6 22,7 8,9 12,0 5,3 Germany 48,7 50,7 45,9 0,2-0,2 0,6 Estonia 55,3 61,0 49,1 9,7 8,7 13,6 Ireland 57,6 62,7 47,1 11,0 11,1 11,1 Greece 49,1 44,5 53,4 3,8 5,9 2,3 Spain 40,9 39,4 42,7 5,0 4,1 5,9 France 41,6 42,0 41,3 0,9-0,3 2,2 Italy 53,6 52,9 54,2 4,9 4,7 4,9 Cyprus 17,0 13,4 21,4-1,1-3,3 1,8 Latvia 54,2 57,5 49,5 12,6 13,8 10,7 Lithuania 51,6 52,5 50,2 11,2 10,0 12,9 Luxembourg 36,1 44,4 28,9 4,8 16,3-6,9 Hungary 49,6 49,1 50,3 0,1-0,9 1,5 Malta 43,8 52,9 : 1,8 2,4 : Netherlands 34,8 36,8 32,4 7,7 9,2 5,9 Austria 27,0 27,8 26,0 0,7-1,2 3,1 Poland 37,2 35,4 39,2 6,8 5,8 8,0 Portugal 50,7 48,6 53,0-2,1-3,6-0,4 Romania 41,7 41,9 41,5 6,8 2,7 12,9 Slovenia 45,0 47,1 42,3 0,4 3,0-3,0 Slovakia 68,9 69,6 68,0 5,4 7,5 2,8 Finland 18,8 21,5 15,4-0,9-2,0 0,5 Sweden 17,1 19,0 15,0 0,5 0,4 0,7 United Kingdom 33,9 38,7 27,2 0,8 0,9 1,1 Source: Analysis of the unemployment rates in the Czech Republic and in other Member States of the European Union according to results of the Labour Force Sample Survey in Q Almost one third of the long-term unemployed are looking for work in the processing industry. Women are more affected by the long-term unemployment. From the total number of , almost were women. The regions most affected by the long-term unemployment are the Moravian-Silesian, Ústí nad Labem, and South Moravian regions. On the contrary, the Prague and Pardubice regions suffer the least from the problem. Essential changes occurred in many countries yet their economic conditions differ markedly. The share of the long-term unemployed has grown in the Netherlands and Denmark where the unemployment rate as well as the current share of the long-term unemployed are, however, relatively good. The share of the long-term unemployed has grown in numerous countries in the

33 33 European South as Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, and Italy. The unemployment rate and simultaneously the share of the unemployed for over one year significantly increased, first of all, in Ireland. The development in the three Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is serious. The general unemployment rate in these countries fell year-on-year yet at the same time a substantial portion of the unemployed for a shorter period got transformed into those of the long-term unemployed. Long-term unemployment statistical development in the Labour Office CZ register Graph 1: Job seekers registered in Czech Republic by age and length of registration The length of stay in the Labour Office register extended in 2011 due to the persistence of the low number of jobs. The number of job seekers registered to 31 st December 2011 for more than 12 months increased by 5.6 thousands to thousands and share in total unemployment rose from 31.8% to 36.2% (by 4.4 %). The increase in this category was recorded due to the increase of the number of registered 24 months by 22.5 thousands to thousands (28.4%), the number of registered from 12 to 24 months decreased by 16.9 thousands to 82.3 thousands (by 17.0%). As a result of the arrival of a small number of new job seekers at the end of 2011 (compared to December 2010) was by 38.1 thousands (20%) lower number of applicants registered within 3 months thousands. The number of unemployed persons registered with employment office for more than 5 months was also lower. These unemployed belong among people with extra care in the mediation of employment. At the end of 2011 there were thousands registered, which means an annual decline by 9.5 thousands applicants. Their share in the total number of the unemployed increased from 51.9% to 55.5%.

34 34 Graph 2: Job seekers registered in Czech Republic by education and length of registration By increasing the number of job long-term registered unemployed job seekers, the average length of continuous registration (ie unemployed job seekers who were registered with a certain date at LO CR) was extended. While at the end of 2010 was 446 days, at the end of 2011, was extended to508 days, ie by 62 days. The average length of completed records (ie the length of registration of jobseekers who left during the last quarter of the records) at the end of the year2010 was 239 days, is extended by 21 days, at the end of 2011 was 260 days. 2. Unemployment from the perspective of long-term unemployed 2.1. Perceived causes of unemployment The term causes of unemployment can be understood as circumstances which in the past led to the fact that people became unemployed, and as the circumstances at the time of unemployment prevents further employment. We can recognize important factors like the time spent in the labor market, the number and length of previous employment and previous experience with unemployment. Previous work career is devided into two basic types Sudden, unexpected unemployment This is the most common type of finishing previous careers when most of people finished their job involuntarily. This type is common for older workers, they were working for many years in the same job. Unexpected unemployment in the Czech Republic has been caused by the restructuring of the industry such as shoemaking, glass, mining, textile industry. Additional factor that worsens further employment of unemployed is their advanced age and impaired health status.

35 Fragmented work career A specific group are unemployed with the fragmented working career. These unemployed people have more experience with unemployment, they have at the same time more previous jobs, sometimes very short. They are mostly with a low educational level and workers in manual occupations. 3. Causes of termination of employment The common causes include that unemployed have promised or believe they can get a better job. They could not handle work that is often associated with negative perceptions of job quality and poor working conditions. Unemployed did not manage their work. Their situation is often influenced by redundancy, they are sometimes after parental leave. They are often dissatisfied with low wages. Specific groups are graduates without any work experience a also women who have been on parental leave. 4. Explanation of continuation of unemployment There are several type of reasons why uneployed remain in unemployment The first type is structural, especially labor market conditions. Very often situations are when there is no work in the region and little or no jobs in individiual fields or in their field are many candidates This situation is caused for example by decline of industry, offices and building industry. Next reasons are connected by decreasing number of firms, decreasing number of vacancies. This situation very often occurs in region with high unemployment and with many job seekers Economic - political reasons People blames the government or unethical behavior of some economic groups from unemployment due to problematic privatization, sometimes deliberate decline of certain sectors, little effort and interest in the company to address the situation of unemployed. They also express overall dissatisfaction with the functioning of a market society Individual reasons Some unemployed people perceive the causes of unemployment in their low education, lack of individual skills (computing), ignorance of languages, lack of experiences, lack of informations, lack of knowledges and social contacts, impaired health status and care for children or parents.

36 36 5. The economic situation of long-term unemployed In terms of individual sources of income or resources household can watch three basic groups of jobless households: 1) unemployed and their families, who are "addicted" to social benefits, mainly subsistence benefits (poverty), invalidity and old age pension or parental contribution 2) unemployed who are "hooked" on the income of other household members 3) categories of unemployed, which complements the previous two sources through the use of other sources of income Long-term unemployed have to deal with their difficult financial situation. They have to use saving strategy and careful management of funds. These strategies consists in cost-saving strategies in housing (common life members families from different generations in one household, staying at home parents), minimizing costs for individual commodities (food and dining, clothing), resignation to certain activities and reduction of consumption, replacement costs of their own work or production (vegetables, animal breeding, production of clothing). Long-term unemployed often lend a certain amount of money, however they have frequent debts. 6. Perception of unemployment by unemployed people and their surroundings Unemployment is a completely new experience or an unexpected life situation for unemployed. Initial relief associated with the possibility to relax is replaced by negative feelings in the later period, especially if some unemployed fail to find a job. Negative impact of unemployment is related to Loss of social contacts, feelings stereotype, boredom and emptiness, negative experiences in job seeking and intolerant contact with the authorities. 7. Motivation to work Working motive is for many unemployed obviously crucial. Work has primarily substantive importance as a financial contribution to family income or means to meet their living needs or achieve other objectives. Work is first of all as a source of funds, it is necessary and obligatory to work for most of unemployed people. Moral point of view is important to ensure proper living conditions and to support family. Feeling prevails that it is not good to be in the working age at home, you need to work, etc. Some unemployed need some economic independence, especially women at partner institutions of the welfare state. We can mention the importance of non-economic benefits. Working persons want to be in contact with another people, they want to do something useful and to gain various experiences.

37 37 8. Decreased motivation of the unemployed to accept a job The reasons that deter mainly women from taking a job are the number and age of children. Women want to be alone at home with children, especially if the children are still small. Close person (eg partner) is not able or willing to care for the child. Women are afraid or unwilling to entrust children to foreign persons. They can not find adequate employment in terms of working hours and they can not get adequate public childcare. Relatively frequent is deliberate persistence in labor offices. State has to pay social security and health insurance, which resolves these people just registering at labor offices. Long-term unemployed temporarily or permanently resign of finding employment and use so called "exit strategy" - particularly early retirement or disability pension, in some cases, the care of a child or a close person. Unemployed often refuse unskilled labor in flow production, heavy manual labor and sale in the hypermarket. They also refuse company with a bad reputation, work in poor working conditions, unstable work, demands on staff time flexibility, physically very demanding and exhausting job, inadequate capability requirements and commitment, unsuitable behavior of superiors or unpaid wages. The problem of unemployment trap affect long-term unemployed. They are faced with low wages offered by the minimum wage or even lower than the subsistence minimum, low motivation to work, high financial and time costs of commuting. It is not advantageous to work for them, they accommodate outside the residence, they have meal separately from the family. Long-term unemployed do not want to be unemployed for longer time therefore they accept lower quality jobs. They do not want to stay on welfare, they gain some assurance in employment, they expect future improvements, they appreciate the importance of work and non-economic benefits of employment they are unable to get another job due to their individual capabilities and finally they are affraid of long-term unemployment. 9. Job Searching strategies of unemployed Job searching has often one to three of the following phases: to obtain information about the existence of the job, the first contact with the employer in order to obtain information about the possibility of work (personal meetings, telephone) and next stage of applying for a job (job interviews, auditions). Such processes can be both formal (authorities, work agencies) and informal (search through family, friends and acquaintances). 10. Long-term unemployed have next problems in mediation of employment: Labour offices do not have suitable jobs for many unemployed due to structural unemployment. Unemployed with better possibilities of application learn more often information about the vacancy. Labour offices do not have enough time and resources to adequately address the possibility of the unemployed, so they often focus on the fulfillment of formal contact conditions, but they have no potential to improve the situation of marginalized unemployed. Labour office feels some unemployed

38 38 do not want to find a job, officials do not pay attention these unemployed, because it will be unnecessary work. Labor office in some cases abandons ability to find employment to unemployed. 11. Long-term unemployed show low activity during the process of seeking employment. Some effect are the reasons for low activity. Holiday effect" - unemployed delay registration at the labor office, Health effect" - unemployed with serious health problems temporarily give up on finding a job, Nurturing effect" - unemployed prefer their care obligations involved by situations of serious health or death of a family member, Income effect" unemployed in the pre-retirement age focus on leisure activities. Unemployed abuse deliberately the system for economic reasons. Work is not advantageous for them because generous social welfare system. 12. Another solution to unemployment Practices that lead to employability are selfeducation and retraining. These activities do not lead directly to the job search in the formal labour market. Generally these procedures are used in the case of conventional job search methods fail. The disadvantage of such processes is, however, they usually do not lead immediately to get a job, just a chance to improve unemployed for a job or looking for an alternative in situations where employment is not available Additional qualification (selfeducation) Unemployed people are often interested in improving their skills. It is the way they can spend some useful activity and to reduce the negative psychological impact of unemployment. They have much more time for these activities and motivation to improve your chances or to do something with their life. Also lack of necessary financial resources motivates them to access selfeducation Retraining Retraining is the most frequently used measure of active employment policy in the Czech Republic. However, the share of the unemployed who are in these programs, is relatively low. At the present time the meaning and scope retraining with the support of the EU is growing. Retraining increase the level of education and the chances of finding a job. Unemployed have greater motivation for learning than if they tried themselves. In social impacts they have nothing to do and they come to know other ideas and new people. 13. Active employment policy: Currently, the Labour Office Czech Republic is providing the standard set of services targeted to help the long-term unemployed, young people, job applicants over 55+ and other vulnerable groups. Aim of Active employment policy is also supporting jobs that enable acquiring new vocational skills and

39 39 competences, influencing pupils, students and their parents in the choice of occupation, deepening and developing cooperation between elementary and secondary schools and employers and supporting access of women to employment and reconciliation of work. Pursuant to the Act on Employment measures of active employment policy by the Czech Labor Office include, in addition to job counseling: retraining according to a retraining agreement concluded between the Labor Office and the jobseeker and paid by the responsible Labor Office. Retraining can help the job-seeker acquire new skills or deepen existing skills with the aim of enhancing his/her employability. Legislation does not specify limitation for the duration or cost of retraining courses. According to the Act on Employment the retraining agreement commits the job-seeker to repay retraining costs should he/she refuse, without serious reasons to conclude the retraining Retraining developing skills useful in a wider range of job (computers, languages) are particularly important for older unemployed, in which these findings were not part of the normal education or since obsolete and who are not in the field or basic skills. Specific group, for which retraining seem to be crucial, as the respondents with primary education, which would re associated with practice and obtaining a vocational certificate could significantly contribute to increasing the employability of these candidates. Some unemployed people attended a series of subsequent retraining, in these cases it is important that these new findings could also make use of the new job, for example, mediated by LO or created within the AEPM (APZ). investment incentives for employers to create new jobs and/or retrain new employees in a geographical are where the unemployment rate in the previous 30 months has been 50 percent above the average rate in the Czech Republic; community service - a public works program providing part-time work in maintaining public areas and infrastructure, for a maximum of 12 months and on a renewable basis. The LO may provide a contribution up to the amount of the minimum wage plus social security contributions, very useful measure for long-term unemplyed and people with basic education socially beneficial jobs established by employers for job-seekers who cannot otherwise find employment whose cost are contributed to by the Labor Office for a period of up to six months (12 months for job-seekers under the age of 25 and over 50, persons with a disability and university graduates over two years after graduation and up to the age of 30). The level of contribution depends on the level of unemployment in the geographical catchment area relative to the average Czech unemployment rate bridging contribution for self employed up to a period of three months in a monthly amount equal to 0.12 times the national average wage.

40 40 contribution towards training costs to employers of disadvantaged job-seekers up to a period of three months and up to half the minimum wage per employee contribution for a transition to a new business program for employers who go through a restructuring or transition to a new business and who can, for a limited time, not guarantee a full work program for their employees, up to half the minimum wage and up to a period of six months. 14. Active employment policy - projects and expenditures Above measures as a part of various types of programmes and activities are mostly financed by by the European Social Fund as National individual projects (Educate for growth, Practice in companies, Educate yourself for growth - retraining, public work etc.), Regional individual projects, Grant projects, National system of occupation and sector councils, Community work etc. Expenditures of the active employment policy from the state budget and the European Social Fund in 2011 were thousands CZK (approx. 152,6 mil EUR) (an additional 550 thousands CZK (22 mil EUR) was drawn from extrabudgetary resources from abroad LEONARDO Programme). In comparison with 2010, the volume of expenditures of active employment policy decreased by 2,355,607 thousands CZK, ie 38% mainly by the projects financed by the European Social Fund. 15. Unemployment benefits system Registered job applicants are supported for a limited period of time specified by the Employment Act. Only % of unemployed are entitled UB in the Czech Republic due to long-term unemployment, school leaving, the type and length of the previous contract and its ending, ongoing small contracts or severance pays. Paid amount is for the first two months 65% of previous net wage, for further 2 months 50% and for the rest period 45% of previous net wage. Maximum value of Unemployment benefit is CZK (573 EUR) and average value CZK. Length of payment of unemployment benefit is 5 months generally, for job applicants of age is 8 months, for job applicants of age over 55 is 11 months. 16. Unemployment support Unemployed person is not entitled to unemployment support from the Labour Office because he has not worked yet. A job seeker can apply for unemployment support. He must meet the basic condition, i.e. over the previous three years he must for at least twelve months has been employed or performed other gainful activity constituting the basic obligation to pay insurance for old age pension and contribution to the state employment policy. Support cannot be provided to beneficiaries of old age pension. For the first three months the amount of the support is 50 % of the previous income, falling to 45 % for the next three months. If the job seeker retrains the amount of the support will be 60 % of the previous income throughout the period of retraining.

41 41 People from 50 to 55 can draw unemployment support for 9 months, while for people over 55 the support period has been extended to 12 months. The maximum amount of unemployment support is 2.5 times the minimum subsistence amount valid for one person over the age of 26 as of the application date for unemployment support. The maximum amount of unemployment support during retraining is 2.8 times the minimum subsistence amount valid for one person over the age of 26 as of the date he begins re-training. 17. System of Assistance in Material Need A person in material need is a person or family that does not have enough income and their overall social and property relations prevent them from enjoying what the society accepts to be basic living requirements. At the same time, these persons are objectively unable to increase their income (through the due application of entitlement and claims or through the sale or other disposal of one s own assets), thereby improving their situation through their own actions. Benefits of assistance in material need are: Allowance for Living Supplement for Housing Extraordinary Immediate Assistance Regional branches of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic are responsible for granting and disbursing benefits in material need. 18. State Social Support The following benefits are available: Child allowance Housing allowance Parental allowance Birth grant Funeral grant Child allowance Child allowance is a basic long-term benefit provided to families with dependent children. A dependent child up to the age of 26 years, living in a family with an income of less than 2.4 times the family s living minimum is entitled to this allowance. The allowance is provided on three levels, depending on the age of the child Housing allowance Property owners or tenants registered as permanently resident in that property are entitled to a housing allowance if 30% (in Prague 35%) of family income is insufficient to cover housing costs and at the same time this 30% (in Prague 35%) of family income is lower than the relevant prescriptive costs set by law.

42 Parental allowance A parent who personally and duly cares for a child who is the youngest in the family is entitled to parental allowance. Parental allowance is provided until the total amount of 220,000 CZK is drawn, maximum up to 4 years of child s age. A parent may elect the amount of parental allowance and thus the period of its drawing under the condition that at least one parent in a family is a person participating in sickness insurance. The monthly amount of parental allowance is calculated based on daily assessment base for determination maternity benefit or sickness benefit related to child s confinement or adoption according to the act on sickness insurance. If 70 % of 30 multiple of daily assessment base is under or equal 7,600 CZK, the amount of parental allowance can get to 7,600 CZK at the most; if 70 % of 30 multiple of daily assessment base is higher than 7,600 CZK, the maximum amount of parental allowance is limited by this figure, but parental allowance totals no more than 11,500 CZK. When the daily assessment base can be determined for both parents, the higher one is used for calculation. Choice of the amount of parental allowance can be changed once in 3 month. In the case that the daily assessment base cannot be set for any parent, parental allowance is paid at fixed monthly amounts of 7,600 CZK until the child reaches 10 months and after it at the amount of 3,800 CZK until the child is 48 months old. 19. Quality Assurance in Further Education in the Czech Republic Introduction Regarding Lifelong Learning and Further Education in the Czech Republic the situation appears to be different than in Ireland, however it appears to be similar to Poland. Both terms are relatively new, lifelong learning and further education only came into importance after the Czech Republic entered European Union in The following are the key documents that deals with this area : - Act No. 179/2006 on Verification and Recognition of Further Education - Lifelong Learning Strategy of the Czech Republic - approved The Aim of the Ministry of Education was not building a state system (like the school one) and investing hundreds of millions into it but cultivating space for the further education and the creation of tools to promote personal responsibility and motivation to learn. In 2009, in Further Education in the Czech Republic involved 7.8% of the inhabitants compared to the EU average of 9.6 %. One of the possible reasons for lower numbers could be a strong tradition of secondary education in CR - 92% of people aged between 20-24% and also very low support (including financial ) from the state. In 2011, the numbers attending Further education was raised from 7.8% to 10 or 11%.

43 43 Further Education has taking on a new priority in the Czech Republic as a result of the following developments; Act No. 179/2006 on Verification and Recognition of Further Education The development of a National Qualifications Framework publicly accessible register of all complete and partial qualifications in the Czech Republic - essential in the further education system, built from about 2005 / Accreditation In the Czech Republic presently there is not one overarching system of accreditation and there isn t a single institution that would be responsible for granting accreditation and for ensuring quality of provision. However, the following are following ministerial accreditation schemes: Accreditation of retraining programs (Ministry of Education) Accreditation of further education of teachers (Ministry of Education) Accreditation of officials of the state administration (Ministry of the Interior) Accreditation of further education of workers in social services (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) Accreditation of education in Sport (Ministry of Education) It should be noted that different systems have different different requirements, with different data and documents required for accreditation. This also results in minor inconsistencies in defining the requirements of quality standards and practises and does add to making the control measures more complicated. Currently there is greater effort to communicate between the different departments to create a one quality system that can be used for further professional training Accreditation of retraining programs The following process is used in the accreditation of retraining programs. 1/ Under the NQF (National Qualification Framework), the retraining program on completion can lead to a partial / full qualification The process for this is: - Very standardized, - Program and time allocation is given, - The exam is done by an authorized person / institution 2/ Where it isn t part of the NQF -The completion of the program does not lead to a partial / full qualification (e.g. accounting, computer programs,...) -The program is not given and exams are made at the education centre which provides the specific programme. The following is the role of the Ministry:

44 44 Determinates standards for ensuring quality Determinates kind and name of the program Determinates minimum time allocation for the program and target group Validate programmes Audit providers The specific role of the Education centre is as follows: Create programmes Ensure appropriate methods Provide appropriate space, facilities, training material Provide teaching staff Advertise program Communicate with Job agency Deliver program Evaluate Prepare exam and certify Retraining courses The retraining courses are organized by the individual education centres, schools with accredited programmes and can be organized as: Open courses - chosen retraining an unemployed person can choose a programme and organisation which will provide the training, The Job Centre has to approve It and can support the person up to 50 thousand CZK over 3 years. - problems: course fee is paid only if course is successfully completed Courses for the Job Agency are tendered, the lowest price is often chosen, often consisting of low quality and unsatisfied clients with insufficient feedback. REFERENCES 1. Analysis of the unemployment rates in the Czech Republic and in other Member States of the European Union according to results of the Labour Force Sample Survey in Q Implementation of Flexicurity Measures at Regional and Local Level, Innovative Interventions Long-term Unemployed Project Learning from Experience of Public Employment Services Practitioners in EU, Synthesis Report and Presentations of the International Seminar 3. Strategie dlouhodobě nezaměstnaných, Synthesis Report, VÚPSV, v.v.i. Praha, 2008

45 45 Polish Context 1. Introduction. The issue of long-term unemployment is the subject of interest to various institutions, including the regional labour office, whose task by the force of law is to define and coordinate regional labour market and human resources development policy, as well as to prevent adverse conditions on the labour market. As part of activities aimed at the diagnosis and improvement of the situation, DWUP carries out research on selected elements of the labour market. Such analysis also focus on the long-term unemployed. The material presented here is based primarily on the report entitled The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged people on the labour market. A report summarising research carried out by Pentor Research International Wrocław for the Lower Silesian Regional Labour Office (DWUP) as part of a project entitled Barriers and opportunities for support and services offered to the so-called difficult clients in a labour market institution in Lower Silesia 1. Other sources used have been indicated in the footnotes and they include the National Employment Action Plan for , prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, as well as the Regional Employment Action Plan for 2012 prepared by DWUP. 2. Economical and labour market situations The source of the information on economical and labour market situations in this section are reports of Central Statistical Office (GUS) Economical situation In the period of January-September of 2012, Polish economy has been developing more slowly than the year before. In subsequent quarters a gradual slowdown in economic growth was recorded, which was due to strengthening of factors negatively influencing the dynamics of households consumption as well as constantly high level of insecurity related to overall economic situation, determining enterprises' pro-growth decisions (including investment decisions). In the period of July- September of 2012, a deterioration in results achieved in many areas of business activity was recorded. Sold production of industry developed slightly below the level reached the year before. A decline in construction and assembly production was also recorded. Retail sales increased only to a small extent. However, high growth rate of sales of transport services, similar to the one observed in the 1st half of 2012, maintained. Economic dynamics slowdown was accompanied by stagnation on the labour market. An average employment in the enterprise sector in the three quarters of 2012 was only slightly higher than the 1 The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged people on the labour market. A report summarising research carried out by Pentor Research International Wrocław for the Lower Silesian Regional Labour Office (DWUP) as part of a project entitled Barriers and opportunities for support and service offered to a so-called difficult client in a labour market institution in Lower Silesia, Wałbrzych 2010, accessed online :

46 46 year before, and in the period of July-September of 2012 it remained at the last year's level. The registered unemployment increased: the unemployment rate as of the end of September of this year amounted to12.4% (by 0.6 pp more than a year earlier). An average nominal monthly gross wages and salaries in the enterprise sector were increasing more slowly than in the period of January- September of 2011, and their dynamics weakened in subsequent quarters. As a result, with still significant level of inflation, the purchasing power of wages and salaries was lower than in three quarters of However, real social benefits both in the employee system and in the farmers system and were higher than the year before. Sold production of industry in three quarters of 2012 was higher than the year before by 2.5% (after an increase of 3.8% in the 1st half of the year, a slight decline was recorded in the 3rd quarter - of 0.1%). Growth was recorded in all sections of industry, except for mining and quarrying. The fastest growth was recorded in enterprises manufacturing non-durable consumer goods. With a slight decline in the average employment, labour productivity in industry was by 3.3% higher than in the period of January-September of Construction and assembly production within nine months of 2012 developed above the last year's level (an increase of 1.4%) but since June of 2012 its drop has been recorded. Retail sales in the period of January-September of 2012 reached the level by 4.1% higher than in the corresponding period of 2011, and in the 3rd quarter the growth rate slowed down to 1.9% in annual terms. According to surveys conducted in October of 2012, the general business tendency climate with respect to manufacturing, construction, retail trade and several service sections is assessed negatively, worse than in previous months. Construction entities as well as enterprises operating in manufacturing indicate further restrictions on present and future order-books and production. The intensity of difficulties in settlement of financial liabilities in manufacturing is predicted. Construction entities indicate deterioration in current and future financial situation. Forecasts of retail trade entities for orders with suppliers and demand for goods as well as current assessments and forecasts regarding sales are more unfavourable than in September of Planned reductions of employment in this section might be similar to those expected in September of 2012, with more considerable expected reductions compared to the previous month in manufacturing and construction. Prices of consumer goods and services increased in annual terms slightly less than in the three quarters of 2011 (growth of 4.0% compared to 4.2%) but their dynamics was still considerable. In September of 2012, prices growth rate in annual terms was similar to that noted the month ago (3.8%). High prices growth rate in transport, foods, non-alcoholic beverages as well as in housing maintained. In the period of January-September of 2012 in industry a distinct slowdown in prices growth rate was recorded in comparison to the corresponding period of In September of 2012 the prices of sold production of industry were increasing visibly slower than in previous months, whereas the prices of construction and assembly production declined in annual terms once more. The situation on agricultural market was developing under the influence of relatively favourable main agricultural and horticultural crops as well as deepening decline in livestock of pigs for slaughter. The procurement prices of basic agricultural products, except for prices of potatoes and milk, in the three quarters of 2012 exceeded last year's level. The dynamics of prices of cereal was much slower than

47 47 the year before. With limitation of supply of pigs and cattle for slaughter for procurement, their average prices were much higher than in the three quarters of 2011, both in procurement and marketplace. An increased supply of milk was accompanied by a slowdown tendency in the dynamics of this product price and since April of 2012 a decline in average price of milk was recorded. In the period of January-August of 2012, foreign trade turnover calculated in zlotys increased, but their dynamics was slower than the year before. Exports grew faster than imports, which influenced the improvement of total negative turnover balance. Similarly to previous periods, turnover with countries of Central and Eastern Europe was developing in the fastest pace, which increased the importance of these countries' group in geographical structures of turnover. Whereas, the participation of developed countries, including the EU countries, decreased. In imports structure, the participation of intermediate goods was higher than the year before, with decreased share of capital goods as well as consumption goods. In the period of January-September of 2012, expenditure of the state budget amounted to PLN billion, whereas revenue amounted to PLN billion. The state deficit amounted to PLN 21.1 billion, which constituted 60.4% of the plan Labour Market situation In the period of nine months of 2012, the average paid employment in the national economy (excluding economic entities employing up to 9 persons, and private farms in agriculture as well as budgetary entities, conducting activity in the scope of national defence and public safety) amounted to thous. persons and was by 0.1% higher than the year before. In the enterprise sector (in economic entities employing more than 9 persons) the average paid employment was slightly higher than the year before, but the growth rate gradually weakened in consecutive months and in the 3rd quarter of 2012 it reached the last year's level. In the period of January September 2012 less unemployed persons registered in labour offices than in the corresponding period of the previous year. The number of removals from the rolls was also lower. As a result, as of the end of September 2012, the number of unemployed persons and the registered unemployment rate were higher than the year before. Average paid employment in the enterprise sector in the period of January September 2012 amounted to thous. persons, i.e. it increased by 0.3% compared to that noted the year before (against an increase of 3.6% in the corresponding period of the previous year). The growth was recorded, among others, in professional, scientific and technical activities (of 4.8%), information and communication (of 3.6%), construction (of 3.5%), transportation and storage (of 2.7%) as well as mining and quarrying (of 2.1%). A decrease in employment was noted in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (of 5.3%) and in accommodation and catering (of 4.5%). Among the divisions with the significant share in employment, the highest increase in average paid employment in comparison with the period of January September 2011 was observed in entities dealing with civil engineering (of 5.1%) and specialised construction activities (of 4.5%), whereas in 2 Central Statistical Office (GUS), accessed online : p. 1-2.

48 48 the 3rd quarter of 2012 a slowdown in employment growth rate in these sections was recorded. The paid employment in entities dealing with land and pipeline transport (by 4.2%) and manufacture of metal products (by 4.0%) also increased. A decrease in employment in manufacture of wearing apparel (8.5%) recorded since several years, has remained unchanged. The paid employment, lower than the year before, was also recorded in manufacture of furniture (by 4.6%), manufacture of products of wood, cork, straw and wicker (by 4.4%), wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (by 3.8%), as well as in manufacture of food products (by 3.4%). The number of registered unemployed persons in labour offices as of the end of September 2012 amounted to thous. and increased in annual terms by 6.3% (by thous.). The registered unemployment rate amounted to 12.4% and was by 0.6 percentage point higher than the year before. The unemployment rate in voivodships was shaped within the range from 9.1% in Wielkopolskie to 19.5% in Warmińsko-Mazurskie. In comparison with September of 2011, the unemployment rate increased in all voivodships, the most in Łódzkie voivodship (by 1.1 percentage point). As of the end of September 2012, the share of women in the structure of registered unemployed persons amounted to 53.4% and was by 1.6 percentage point lower than the year before. The percentage of graduates and persons without benefit rights also decreased (by 0.3 percentage point to 5.4% and by 0.2 percentage point to 84.3%, respectively). The share of persons previously working increased (by 1.4 percentage point to 80.4%), including persons terminated for company reasons (by 0.5 percentage point to 4.3%). Among the unemployed persons with a specific situation on the labour market, the percentage of long-term unemployed persons increased in annual terms (by 0.5 percentage point to 50.9%). The share of unemployed persons over 50 years of age (by 0.6 percentage point to 22.5%) as well as persons bringing up single-handed at least one child below 18 years of age (by 0.2 percentage point to 8.9%) also increased. However, the share of unemployed persons below 25 years of age as well as persons without occupational qualifications decreased (by 1.2 percentage point to 20.4% and by 0.6 percentage point to 29.7%, respectively). The share of disabled persons remained at the similar level to that noted the year before (5.3%). The number of unemployed persons increased in all of the above-mentioned categories, in the biggest extent of persons bringing up single-handed at least one child below 18 years of age (by 9.6%) as well as persons over 50 years of age (by 9.2%). In the period of nine months of 2012, the number of newly registered unemployed persons amounted to thous. and decreased by 0.2% in annual terms (against a decline of 13.7% in the corresponding period of the previous year). Persons registering for another time still constituted the most numerous group, although their share in the newly registered unemployed persons in total fell in annual terms (by 1.0 percentage point to 77.3%). A share of unemployed persons who hadn t been previously employed (by 2.1 percentage points to 20.4%) and graduates (by 0.7 percentage point to 12.0%) also decreased. However, the share of persons terminated for company reasons increased (by 0.8 percentage point and amounted to 3.3%). The percentage of persons living in the rural areas remained at similar level to that noted the year before (40.2%).

49 49 In the period of January September 2012, thous. persons, i.e. by 4.7% less than the year before (against a decrease of 12.6% in the corresponding period of the previous year) were removed from the unemployment rolls. The main reason for deregistering was still taking up a job, as a result of which thous. persons were removed from the unemployment rolls (against thous. the year before). The share of this category in the total number of persons removed from unemployment rolls decreased in annual terms (by 0.6 percentage point to 43.2%). Table 1. The employed persons and the average paid employment in the national economy. 3 Specification Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Employed persons: in the national economy (end of period): in thousands corresponding period of the previous year= Average paid employment: in thousands corresponding period of the previous year= Table 2. Registered unemployment. 4 Specification a - corresponding period of the previous year=100 Registered unemployed persons in Total (end of period) in thous Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q Newly registered unemployed persons in thous. Persons removed from unemployment rolls in thous. a a a Unemployment flow (inflow - outflow) Within nine months of 2012, thous. of job offers (it concerns the vacant places of employment and places of occupational activation) were declared to labour offices, i.e. by 4.4% more than the year before. Offers from the public sector accounted for 23.7% of total offers (against 21.0% in the corresponding period of the previous year). The number of offers increased in both sectors: in the public sector by 17.9%, while in the private sector by 0.8%. 5 3 ibidem, p ibidem, p Poland Quarterly Statistics No. 3/2012, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2013, accessed online : p

50 50 3. Long-term unemployed in Poland definition and description. The Act on the promotion of employment and labour market institutions introduces a legal definition of a long-term unemployed. This is an unemployed person, who has remained on the register of the district labour office for 12 months in total over the period of the last 2 years, excluding internships and adult vocational training. At the same time the legislator indicates that long-term unemployed are perceived as a disadvantaged group, which will be discussed in detail in section 4 of this report. Long-term unemployment occurs when an unemployed person seeks employment for at least 12 months. There are two major forms of long-term unemployment: continuous unemployment, i.e. remaining jobless and seeking employment for at least 12 months, multiple unemployment that lasts longer than 12 months in total over the period of several years. 6 At present there are 1.9 million unemployed in Poland and half of them are long-term unemployed. 7 In this category, a significant increase has been reported in comparison with the corresponding period in 2010 (10.0%). In comparison to the end of 2008 this rise was even higher, i.e. 32.2%, which was related to the long average period of seeking work, which according to the Survey on the Economic Activity of the Population amounted to 11.1 months in the 4 th quarter of Also in Lower Silesia, the number of long-term unemployed rose by 2324 people (in 2010 the number increased by people). The proportion of long-term unemployed among the overall number of registered unemployed rose in our region from 44.6% to 48.3%. According to the estimates by a research company Deloitte, the costs of long-term unemployment for Poland amount to 10.5 billion a year, i.e. 10,500 PLN for one unemployed person within this group. 9 This is 0.6 % of GDP in The number does not include costs of internships, trainings etc. 10 It has to be remembered that the level of long-term unemployment is an indicator of a slowdown in the labour market. A large number of registered long-term unemployed creates the risk of losing the human capital, the danger of those people becoming discouraged from job seeking and falling into poverty. 11 Long-term unemployed are the largest and the most diverse group of disadvantaged people on the labour market. The reasons for such a status quo can be explained by means of the analysis of the group s structure. 12 The description of different categories of the long-term unemployed will be based on the report mentioned in the introduction. According to the report: 6 Kabaj M. (ed.), Badanie bezrobocia długotrwałego [Study of long-term unemployment], IPiSS [Institute of Labour and Social Studies], Warsaw 2001, p. 9 7 Raport: Długotrwałe bezrobocie w Polsce jak z nim walczyć? [Report: Long-term unemployment in Poland how to fight it?], accessed online : 8 National Employment Action Plan for , Warsaw, 2012, accessed online : 9 Raport: Długotrwałe bezrobocie w Polsce jak z nim walczyć?, 10 ibidem. 11 National Employment Action Plan for , p Specyfika modelowej współpracy publicznych i niepublicznych irp i ips w procesie aktywizacji zawodowej osób długotrwale bezrobotnych [The specific natur of model cooperation of public and non public labour market institutions and social welfare institutions in the proces of the activation of long-term unemployed], Warsaw 2011, accessed online : p. 5.

51 51 Long-term unemployed is a special category. It includes people who, for various reasons, remain jobless for a longer period of time and therefore it embraces all other categories of the disadvantaged. This is the least homogenous group. It includes people experiencing difficulties on the labour market due to disability, pre-retirement age or people who have been released from prison. This group is characterised by a very low activity in the labour market. While in case of all other categories, one major cause of employment difficulties can be determined, for instance lack of availability in case of lone mothers, long-term unemployed experience the widest range of problems that disadvantaged persons battle against. 13 Employers observe that employing long-term unemployed involves certain benefits and dangers. As far as the benefits related to this particular group of the disadvantaged are concerned, the following are highlighted: the possibility of obtaining a subsidy; gaining an involved and loyal employee 14 ; the possibility of offering a lower salary; respect for work and diligence in performing their tasks. Among the dangers employers list: aversion to intensive work; costs related to the necessity of providing trainings, uncertainty connected with the permanence of such employment; risk of an employee resigning quickly; claiming attitude of the employee; expectations incompatible with their skills. People returning to the labour market after a period of long-term unemployment are usually employed for a fixed term, because they are not easy to cooperate with (e.g. often leave work or abuse alcohol). They also find it hard to remain in one place of work for a longer period of time. Another risk that is involved is that the employee experiences problems with adapting to the conditions and pace of work, which is naturally related to the difficulty with learning new things. 15 To complement the information on the perception of long-term unemployed by the employers, the following should be pointed out (quoted after the report): Many employers think that the major cause of long-term unemployment is lack of necessary qualifications. The respondents note that such people experience difficulties with retraining and adapting their skills to the needs of the employers. Long-term unemployed also find it hard to find their place in the present market situation. Long-term unemployment is a notion that carries negative connotations. It is associated with laziness, scheming and lack of regularity. Many respondents associate this group mainly with people who do not want to work and do not make efforts to find a job. The respondents claim that people who have been jobless for a long time, do not care for work because they became used to state support (benefits) and have no motivation to change their situation. 13 The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged, p The employers tend to disagree on this issue and claim that long-term unemployed display no desire to work and show no initiative. (p. 139, The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged ) 15 The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged, p

52 52 They often have other sources of income. In such cases, taking up employment doesn t pay financially and therefore they do not take advantage of the job offers they receive. 16 To sum up this part briefly, the most problematic aspects of long-term unemployment should be pointed out. According to the report quoted above, these include: Employers fear that people who remained unemployed for a long period are not able to handle their responsibilities and adapt to the company rules, Lack of financial motivation, getting accustomed to state support, Lack of relevant qualifications, Lack of initiative and determination on the part of the unemployed. 17 In their description of long-term unemployed the authors state that it is very difficult to recommend particular actions that could contribute to the improvement of the situation of this group on the labour market. What is extremely important in case of long-term unemployed is diagnosing the major cause of employment difficulties and this requires an individual approach Reasons for long-term unemployment. According to the report, the reasons that contribute to the rise of long-term unemployment include: Poor health as with no money they cannot afford to buy all the necessary medications. Poor health makes it impossible for the jobseekers to take up employment and makes a bad impression on potential employers (e.g. due to the predictions that the cost of employing such a person will be higher). Low level of education, lack of qualifications, experience, current knowledge and skills. This makes it impossible for the unemployed to quickly adapt to new conditions and limits employment opportunities. Lack of knowledge on different ways of searching for a job resulting in almost exclusive dependence on offers from district labour offices (a small proportion of jobseekers makes use of other recruitment agents or Internet) Age and personal appearance. The respondents commonly believe that during the recruitment process, employers are largely influenced by appearance. This negatively affects the job applicants self-esteem, behaviour and self-confidence. 19 Financial difficulties related to long periods out of employment. Concerns raised in relation to long-term unemployed. According to long-term unemployed the employers have concerns related to the effectiveness of the work performed by a hired unemployed 16 Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p Ibidem, p. 64.

53 53 person. They are connected with health problems, lack of qualifications and experience of job applicants and may become a barrier to employment. Employers perceive their future employees through the prism of their stereotypical roles (e.g. an older person is not fluent with computers, an ill person will drive away clients), which results in diminishing the usefulness of a new employee at work and lower quality of tasks he or she performs. 20 Low salary offered by the employers can have negative effect on future attempts to find a job. 21 People remain unemployed, which significantly affects their morale and social attitude in the process of job seeking Statistics The first tables present data on long-term unemployed in the country by sex in the years and long-term unemployment rate in the same period in comparison with the Eurostat data concerning the European Union. The source of the data is the Main Statistical Office (GUS). The data that follows refers to the region of Lower Silesia. It is based on the statistical information prepared cyclically by DWUP. Long-term unemployment rate is calculated by the CSO 23 on the basis of the LFS as the percentage share of unemployed persons looking for a job longer than 12 months (13 months or longer) in the total number of economically active population. The share of the long-term unemployed in the total number of the unemployed is the ratio for a job longer than 12 months (13 months or longer) in the total number of the unemployed. 24 Long-term unemployment rate is calculated by Eurostat on the basis of the results of the labour force survey as the percentage share of unemployed persons (12 months and more) in the total number of economically active population Ibidem, p Ibidem, p National Strategy for Employment and Human Resource Development for the years , Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, 2000, p Such method of this indicator calculation was approved in 1992; therefore it allows comparing time series and also LFS data with other surveys, e.g. registered unemployment. 24 Source: Labour Force Survey in Poland in the 1 st quarter of 2012, Statistical Information and Elaborations, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2012, p ibidem, p. 30.

54 54 Table 1. LONGTERM UNEMPLOYMENT BY SEX (TOTAL) IN THE YEARS TOTAL SPECIFICATION Long-term unemployment rate (13 months an more) Percentage of the long-term unemployed person in the whole population of the unemployed in % 2003 I quarter 10,4 50,5 II quarter 9,4 48,7 III quarter 9,5 49,2 IV quarter 9,7 50,3 annual averages 9,8 49, I quarter 9,3 45,0 II quarter 9,0 47,4 III quarter 9,2 50,8 IV quarter 8,8 48,9 annual averages 9,1 47, I quarter 9,5 50,6 II quarter 9,6 53,2 III quarter 9,1 52,5 IV quarter 8,8 52,4 annual averages 9,3 52, I quarter 8,0 50,0 II quarter 7,2 51,1 III quarter 6,7 51,2 IV quarter 6,0 49,4 annual averages 7,0 50, I quarter 5,4 47,6 II quarter 4,5 47,1 III quarter 4,1 45,0 IV quarter 3,7 43,0 annual averages 4,4 45, I quarter 3,0 37,6 I quarter 27 2,4 29,5 II quarter 2,2 31,1 III quarter 1,9 28,8 IV quarter 1,8 26,5 annual averages 2,1 29, I quarter 2,1 24,9 II quarter 1,9 24,4 III quarter 2,1 26,4 IV quarter 2,1 25,2 annual averages 2,1 25, I quarter 2,2 21,2 II quarter 2,4 25,0 III quarter 2,5 26,9 IV quarter 2,7 29,4 annual averages 2,5 25, I quarter 3,0 29,4 II quarter 3,0 31,8 III quarter 3,0 31,6 IV quarter 3,2 33,1 annual averages 3,0 31, I quarter 3,5 33,3 26 Source: Labour Force Survey in Poland in the 1 st quarter of 2012, Statistical Information and Elaborations, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2012, p Since the P quarter of 2008, the duration of job search has been calculated since the moment of ending the break in a job search providing that it happened and lasted at least 4 weeks. Therefore these data are not comparable with the results of the previous years.

55 55 Table 2. LONGTERM UNEMPLOYMENT BY SEX (MALES) IN THE YEARS MALES SPECIFICATION Long-term unemployment rate (13 months and more) Percentage of the long-term unemployed person in the whole population of the unemployed in % 2003 I quarter 9,7 48,0 II quarter 8,8 46,4 III quarter 9,1 49,6 IV quarter 9,3 50,6 annual averages 9,2 48, I quarter 8,7 43,0 II quarter 8,4 45,4 III quarter 8,9 50,9 IV quarter 8,2 49,2 annual averages 8,5 47, I quarter 8,9 50,0 II quarter 8,9 52,1 III quarter 8,3 52,2 IV quarter 7,8 51,0 annual averages 8,5 51, I quarter 7,5 48,4 II quarter 6,6 49,4 III quarter 5,9 49,2 IV quarter 5,4 49,2 annual averages 6,3 49, I quarter 5,0 46,9 II quarter 4,3 47,5 III quarter 3,8 45,2 IV quarter 3,3 42,8 annual averages 4,1 45, I quarter 2,7 35,7 I quarter 2,1 27,4 II quarter 2,0 30,4 III quarter 1,6 27,9 IV quarter 1,4 23,1 annual averages 1,7 27, I quarter 1,8 23,3 II quarter 1,7 23,0 III quarter 1,9 24,9 IV quarter 1,8 22,1 annual averages 1,8 23, I quarter 2,1 20,2 II quarter 2,2 24,1 III quarter 2,4 27,3 IV quarter 2,7 30,1 annual averages 2,4 25, I quarter 2,8 28,1 II quarter 2,7 30,6 III quarter 2,6 31,6 IV quarter 2,9 32,5 annual averages 2,8 30, I quarter 3,2 32,0 28 Source: Labour Force Survey in Poland in the 1 st quarter of 2012, Statistical Information and Elaborations, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2012, p. 72.

56 56 Table 3. LONGTERM UNEMPLOYMENT BY SEX (FEMALES) IN THE YEARS SPECIFICATION Long-term unemployment rate (13 months and more) Percentage of the long-term unemployed person in the whole population of the unemployed in % FEMALES 2003 I quarter 11,1 53,3 II quarter 10,2 51,2 III quarter 10,0 48,7 IV quarter 10,2 50,1 annual averages 10,4 50, I quarter 10,0 47,2 II quarter 9,8 49,7 III quarter 9,7 50,7 IV quarter 9,5 48,6 annual averages 9,8 49, I quarter 10,3 51,4 II quarter 10,4 54,3 III quarter 10,1 52,9 IV quarter 9,9 53,8 annual averages 10,2 53, I quarter 8,7 51,6 II quarter 7,9 53,1 III quarter 7,6 53,3 IV quarter 6,8 49,7 annual averages 7,8 51, I quarter 5,8 48,3 II quarter 4,7 46,8 III quarter 4,4 44,9 IV quarter 4,1 43,4 annual averages 4,7 45, I quarter 3,5 39,8 I quarter 2,7 31,7 II quarter 2,5 31,9 III quarter 2,3 29,5 IV quarter 2,3 29,8 annual averages 2,4 30, I quarter 2,4 26,5 II quarter 2,2 25,8 III quarter 2,4 28,0 IV quarter 2,5 28,8 annual averages 2,4 27, I quarter 2,4 22,2 II quarter 2,5 25,8 III quarter 2,6 26,4 IV quarter 2,8 28,8 annual averages 2,6 25, I quarter 3,1 31,0 II quarter 3,3 33,1 III quarter 3,4 31,5 IV quarter 3,7 33,9 annual averages 3,4 32, I quarter 3,8 34,8 29 Source: Labour Force Survey in Poland in the 1 st quarter of 2012, Statistical Information and Elaborations, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2012, p. 73.

57 57 Table 4. LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT RATE. Annual averages 30 Long-term unemployment rate (12 months and more) SPECIFICATION Poland EU 15 EU 25 EU 27 in % TOTAL ,0 3,4 4,1 4, ,3 3,5 4,2 4, ,3 3,4 4,1 4, ,8 3,3 3,7 3, ,9 2,9 3,1 3, ,4 2,6 2,6 2, ,5 3,0 3,0 3, ,0 3,8 3,9 3, ,6 4,1 4,2 4,1 MALE ,4 3,0 3,7 3, ,6 3,2 3,8 3, ,3 3,1 3,7 3, ,1 3,0 3,4 3, ,6 2,6 2,8 2, ,0 2,4 2,4 2, ,2 2,9 2,9 2, ,9 3,9 4,0 3, ,3 4,1 4,2 4,2 FEMALE ,8 3,8 4,6 4, ,1 4,0 4,7 4, ,4 3,8 4,6 4, ,6 3,6 4,1 4, ,4 3,2 3,4 3, ,8 2,8 2,9 2, ,9 3,2 3,2 3, ,2 3,8 3,8 3, ,0 4,1 4,2 4,1 The number of long-term unemployed, i.e. those who remain on the register of labour offices for a period of over 12 months in total during the period of the last two years, reached the level of 1,006,600 people at the end of September this year, and their share in the overall number of unemployed was 50.9% (in August this year the level was 1,001,800 people, i.e. 51.0%). 36,800 people in this category of the unemployed, i.e. 40.2% of all deregistered, took up employment. Among those, as a result of activities undertaken by labour offices, 8,500 people undertook a subsidized work scheme (9.3% of all deregistered), 14,800 people (16.1%) started internships and trainings, and 2,500 people (2.7%) undertook community employment. In comparison to the previous month the number of long-term unemployed rose by 4,800 people, i.e. by 0.5%. 31 With reference to Lower Silesia: in the period of 12 months in 2011 the number of long-term unemployed has increased. The population of long-term unemployed who remain jobless increased over 12 months in 2011 by 2324 people (in a corresponding period in 2010 the number increased by people). The proportion of this group of the unemployed in the overall number of those 30 Source: Labour Force Survey in Poland in the 1 st quarter of 2012, Statistical Information and Elaborations, Central Statistical Office (GUS), Warsaw 2012, p Informacja o bezrobotnych i poszukujących pracy we wrześniu 2012 roku [Information on the unemployed and jobseekers in September 2012], Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Labour Market Department, Warszawa 2012, p. 9.

58 58 registered increased over 12 months in 2011 from 44.6% at the end of December 2010 to 48.3% at the end of December After 12 months in 2011 the percentage share of those included in a category of the disadvantaged on the labour market was at the same level as at the end of December 2010 (90.7% at the end of December 2010, 90.7% at the end of December) 33, and in this group the number of long-term unemployed among the overall number of jobseekers registered in district labour offices in Lower Silesia increased in comparison with December 2010 by 2324 people, i.e. 3.5% 34 Table 5. Registered unemployed remaining jobless for more than 1 year in the period in Poland, in Lower Silesia and its subregions. 35 Area unit total person person person person person person POLAND LOWER SILESIA Subregion 1 - jeleniogórski Subregion 2 - legnicko-głogowski Subregion 3 - wałbrzyski Subregion 4 - wrocławski Subregion 5 city of Wrocław Preventing long-term unemployment. Categorising long-term unemployed as a disadvantaged group on the labour market means that they are eligible for a specific package of labour market services as well as for specific forms of support. As part of labour market services offered, a long-term unemployed person can take advantage of: employment exchange services, career guidance and information, trainings, support in active job seeking. Different forms of available support include: internships, vocational training for adults, intervention works, public works, socially beneficial jobs, one-off grants for starting business, loans for trainings, financing the costs of examinations or licences, 32 Informacja o sytuacji na rynku pracy w województwie dolnośląskim w grudniu 2011 roku [Information on the labour market situation in Lower Silesia in December 2011]. Dolnośląski Wojewódzki Urząd Pracy [Lower Silesian Regional Labour Office], 2012, p ibidem, p ibidem, p Source: Local Data Bank, Main Statistical Office (GUS).

59 59 reimbursement of the costs of transport and accommodation, reimbursement of the costs of childcare (up to seven years old) or care of dependants, scholarship for the continuation of education, partial funding for postgraduate courses, employment in equipped or partly equipped workplaces. 36 According to the aforementioned report 37 (and in particular the answers provided by long-term unemployed respondents), other activities aimed at removing barriers for the long-term unemployed include: Participation in trainings and courses tailored to the needs of this group, adapted individually to customers. The fact that these solutions are free is to help the unemployed find their place in the labour market. Career guidance characterised by deeper involvement in getting to know the unemployed and deeper interest in their situation and their attempts to find employment. Financial support in the form of partial funding for small expenses (transport, clothes, etc.) related to job seeking. Individual approach. Support in seeking employment should be tailored individually to each customer, which has psychological significance because the unemployed person feels that someone is showing interest, which positively affects his or her self-esteem. Psychological support. The unemployed are at risk of significant stress related to lack of means of support. Prolonged stress may lead to more serious disorders, such as depression. The unemployed often lose faith that they can do something and find employment. Support groups moderated by experienced psychologists may help them regain, at least partly, their motivation for job seeking and to reduce the impact of stress. Trainings for the unemployed also enable them to work on their selfpresentation, which is extremely important during interviews, and help them restore confidence in their abilities. Educating employers. Employers, often due to the lack of knowledge, avoid hiring people with health problems and people who have been unemployed for a longer period of time. Educating employers on the problems of the unemployed and their contact with career advisor can make them better understand jobseekers. Legal facilitation both for employers and jobseekers. According to many respondents such solutions could streamline the entire process of employment. The unemployed, who often are loweducated, have immense difficulties in filling out documents, which makes it impossible for them to take up employment. Employers wishing to employ an unemployed person who experiences problems (lack of education, health problems etc. ) should see it as an benefit for their company Zielona Linia [Green Line], accessed online: : 37 The diagnosis of the situation of disadvantaged, p Ibidem, p

60 60 It is also worth mentioning the expectations of long-term unemployed related to the possible solutions to their problems: Long-term unemployed rely on the active support of institutions, such as district labour office, local social welfare centre and social integration centre in their individual attempts at job seeking. These institutions, apart from job offers, provide them with means of support, enable them to gain experience during trainings and courses, as well as offer psychological support. 39 According to them courses and trainings should be free and tailored to the needs of employers. The role of the career advisor shouldn t be limited to carrying out tests. The advisor should cooperate with an unemployed person for a longer period of time and follow his or her job seeking activities. The advisors should modify their proposed actions according to the progress of the unemployed in search for employment. They expect a more individual approach to their problems because only in this way can they increase their chances of getting a job. 40 Long-term unemployed should be supported and motivated in seeking employment through various activities which should include psychological help and guidance. Both on the national and local level, Poland implements actions aimed at reducing and preventing the problem of long-term unemployment. Quoted below are examples of solutions proposed at the national level as part of the National Employment Action Plan for (KPDZ/ ). What should be understood as a mission of KPDZ/ is the initiation and implementation of actions aimed at increasing employment and reducing unemployment. Actions implemented as part of KPDZ/ are to prevent impoverishment and exclusion that arise, among other things, from lack of employment and disability. Therefore state activities should focus on the activation of the social groups that have not been sufficiently present on the labour market. They should be addressed particularly to long-term unemployed and include the prevention of the issue of poor workers. It is recommended to create an efficient system of social benefits, coherent with the tax system, that would limit the risk of long-term unemployment on one hand and at the same time stimulate economic independency by return to employment. Entrepreneurial attitudes, conducive to selfemployment, should be promoted in order to stimulate the increase of employment, especially in face of the risk of economic slowdown, when finding a job and maintaining stable employment is very difficult. 41 From among the extensive list of tasks addressed among other groups to long-term unemployed and included in KPDZ/ , we shall present the following three tasks: 1. Support for the unemployed on the regional labour market. Aim: To increase the level of economic activity and employability of the unemployed and those who are professionally passive, 39 Ibidem, p Ibidem. 41 National Employment Action Plan for , p. 18, 20, 23

61 61 especially people at the age of 50+, people who want to reconcile their career with family responsibilities, young people at the start of their profession career, those residing in remote areas, excluded persons, persons at risk of social exclusion, as well as the disabled. Planned tasks: identifying the needs of the unemployed through wider application of Individual Action Plans, diagnosing training needs and opportunities for professional development in the region; organising workshops and trainings on active job search techniques and acquiring key competencies; psychological and guidance support; implementation of employment development programmes that include one or more forms of support: employment exchange and/or career guidance, internships/apprenticeships, trainings leading to the improvement, complementation or change of professional qualifications, subsidized employment; providing accompanying support (childcare and care of dependent persons), addressed particularly to people who wish to return to the labour market following a break related to childbirth and bringing up children; supporting voluntary service as a stage that prepares for taking up employment by organising and partially funding workplaces for volunteers and providing support in the form of trainings and/or guidance; supporting initiatives for the promotion of geographic mobility (regional and interregional) of people who remain without employment (especially residing in rural areas), for example through subsidising commuting costs and reimbursing accommodation costs; preparing and distributing information on job offers, training and internship opportunities, as well as other services and employment activation instruments, for example through modern and multichannel information and communication technologies; popularisation and promotion of alternative and flexible forms of employment as well as work organisation methods (telework, part-time employment); organising promotional campaigns and information events to encourage employers to hire people from disadvantaged groups. Expected results: 400,000 people will participate in the projects, including: 100,000 people between 15 and 24 years old; 12,600 disabled persons; 4,200 long-term unemployed; 6,700 residents of rural areas; 63,000 people between 50 and 64 years old; 110,000 people will be provided with IAPs. Task proposed by: Ministry of Regional Development Development of social entrepreneurship addressed do people at risk of social exclusion Aim: To increase the mobility of long-term unemployed who receive social benefits in terms of their return to professional and social activity. 42 National Employment Action Plan for , p. 33 i 34.

62 62 Planned actions: Supporting the activities of local government and non-governmental organisations through competition initiatives of the relevant social security minister and through the implementation of governmental programmes: Active Forms of the Prevention of Social Exclusion for Community Centre-Children-Work for the support of children and families in the commune in the period As part of programmes described above competition project will be realised, whose aim is to activate long-term unemployed, enable their social and professional reintegration and support them in returning to the labour market. Activities planned for 2012 are included in the programme realisation schedule of the relevant social security minister. Expected results: increasing the number of local governments using local programmes of community employment and public works; increasing the number of employed persons; reducing the number of social welfare beneficiaries. Task proposed by: Ministry of Labour and Social Policy/Care Homes The analysis of factors affecting the risk of the increase of long-term unemployment. Aim: To identify factors affecting long-term unemployment in Poland and draw up a methodology for the creation of a system of profiling the unemployed on local labour markets as an instrument supporting the decisions of Public Employment Services on the methods of preventing long-term unemployment. Planned actions: carrying out analyses of instruments and methods used to determine the risk of long-term unemployment applied in the countries of the EU and OECD; carrying out the analysis of factors affecting the increase of the risk of long-term unemployment on selected local labour markets; preparing databases including detailed information and descriptions of the unemployed (including long-term unemployed) in the surveyed local labour markets; preparing reports on the research carried out, including detailed recommendations for Public Employment Service; developing a methodology which would make it possible to determine factors affecting the increase of the risk of long-term unemployment on local labour markets, to be used by Public Employment Service; - organization of 16 regional conferences for Labour Market Institutions to promote and disseminate the methodology which was developed to determine long-term unemployment risk factors in local labour markets; - organization of a Poland-wide conference to disseminate research results and the methodology of creating a system for long-term unemployment risk factors analysis; - development of a handbook providing a description of long-term unemployment risk determination methodology. Expected results: - Internet publishing of a desk-research report providing an overview and analysis of instruments and methods for the determination of long-term unemployment risks used in the EU and OECD; 43 Ibidem, s

63 63 - printed publication of the final research report containing the overall conception and identified factors conducive to long-term unemployment with the use of econometric model, and providing detailed recommendations for Public Employment Services; - printed publication of a handbook providing a methodology of long-term unemployment risk determination system in local labour markets; - broadening the knowledge of labour market institutions personnel about activities taken in the markets of EU and OECD countries in the area of early identification of people threatened by longterm unemployment; - increasing the knowledge of Ministry of Labour and Social Policy employees on Public Employment Services operation opportunities in the area of determining long-term unemployment risks to be used in further work on the methodology of early identification of people particularly threatened by long-term unemployment; - strengthening the specialistic competences of Labour Market Institutions personnel, employees of Public Employment Services in particular, through increasing the knowledge on early identification of people threatened by long-term unemployment; - employees of County Labour Offices and Regional Labour Offices will obtain easy access to functional methodology of determining long-term unemployment risks through making this methodology available in the form of a printed publication and on the website. This project is funded through the ESF under the Human Capital Operational Programme. The project was submitted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy Department of Economic Analyses. 44 Solutions applied in Lower Silesia region. According to the Lower Silesian Regional Action Plan for Employment 2012, long-term unemployed people are seen as a priority group that require special supports. One needs to remember that, similarly to activities at the national level, examples provided in this report in respect of Lower Silesia represent only part of other tasks focused on disadvantaged groups in the labour market. The following two activities are chosen from among these tasks. 1. Activity objective: Support measures aimed at improving vocational and educational activity of the unemployed and jobseekers. Activity name: Provide work experience placements/internships with employers in order to enable unemployed people to gain experience and practical skills. Activity addressees: People in particular situation in the labour market, i.e. unemployed people up to the age of 25 or 27 years, long-term unemployed people, unemployed people after the termination of a social welfare contract, unemployed women who did not seek employment opportunities after the birth of a child, unemployed people over 50 years of age, without vocational skills, without work experience, without secondary education, single parents bringing up at least one child in the age of up to 18 years, ex-prisoners who did not find a job, the disabled without work. Activity description: It is a big problem to encourage the above mentioned unemployed people to seek employment opportunities and return to work. Employers may have specific requirements as to jobseekers. The work experience placement scheme will provide employers with the opportunity to 44 Ibidem, p

64 64 prepare a jobseeker to perform a regular job. The work experience scheme will provide the unemployed people with opportunities to get acquainted with specific work requirements in a selected occupation. Project provider (partners): Zgorzelec County Labour Office. Expected results: 140 unemployed people will have an opportunity to undertake work experience placements with employers and gain practical skills and trust in their abilities. The work experience scheme will help the participants to get back to work Activity objective: Reducing the unemployment effects. Improving the services provided by the personnel of the County Labour Office Centre for Vocational Activation: job search mediators, career counsellors, career development facilitators. Activity name: Improving mediation, career counselling and active job search services provided by the CLO. Increasing accessibility to basic labour market services. More efficient actions aimed at people in particular situation in the labour market. Improvement of the standards and monitoring of labour market services. Rational and effective public resources management. Improving qualifications of the CLO personnel. Activity addressees: People in particular situation in the labour market: unemployed people up to the age of 25 years, long-term unemployed people or unemployed people after the termination of a social welfare contract referred to in Art. 50 section 2 point 2, unemployed women who did not seek employment opportunities after the birth of a child, unemployed people over 50 years of age, the unemployed without vocational skills, without work experience or without secondary education, single parents bringing up at least one child in the age of up to 18 years, ex-prisoners who did not find a job, the disabled without work, and jobseekers. According to Minister of Labour and Social Policy letter DRP-I MG/12 dated 23 January 2012, activities will be addressed especially to young people up to 30 years of age and to people over 50 years of age as the social groups whose presence in the labour market has been insufficient and who require special supports. Activity description: The activities indicated above are aimed to support the unemployed through a more efficient activation of the individual groups of beneficiaries. The goals will be achieved through a successive improvement of accessibility to basic labour market services by unemployed people as well as by employers in a county. Improvement of standards and conditions for the provision of labour market services will be achieved trough raising personnel qualifications. They plan to apply in 2012 for national and EU funding in order to accomplish the priorities and activities effectively. In addition, they plan to organize in 2012 conferences and meetings on: social economy, disability, tasks of EURES public employment services meetings with labour offices from Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden. Project provider (partners): County Labour Office, local authorities, institutions, entrepreneurs, employers, social welfare centres, the Voluntary Labour Corps (OHP), training institutions, the County Employment Council, project partners, foundations. 45 Lower Silesian Regional Action Plan for Employment Appendix no. 1 p. 25.

65 65 Expected results: increasing the effectiveness of employing unemployed people after finished programs (among others work experience placements/internships, emergency works), increasing the effectiveness of employing unemployed people after completed training and raising vocational qualifications of training participants, undertaking jobs that have been offered, raising job seeking skills of unemployed people through job search training provided by job clubs, increasing the amount of individual advice for unemployed people and jobseekers, increasing the availability of labour market services for unemployed people and employers Unemployment benefits system The Act on the promotion of employment and labour market institutions, Act of the education system and Social welfare Act presents a variety of forms and areas of the support for unemployed in the three main areas: financial, job seeking and educational With regard to the financial support The right to unemployment benefit have any person who is registered in the employment office (POVIAT LABOUR OFFICE/POWIATOWY URZĄD PRACY) and there is no proposal for the job, apprenticeship, adult vocational training, training, intervention works or public works. Another condition is the requirement for an unemployed person in the 18 months prior to the registration of at least 365 days: a contract of employment with the minimum wage, to-work agreement or under an agency agreement, on a contract job, running your own business, work during the pre-trial detention, here the condition is that the contribution basis was equal to at least half of the minimum wage, was released after serving compulsory military service, if it was serving a period of 240 days, Unemployed contribution to the fund paid work in connection with employment or the performance of other paid work for a foreign employer, worked abroad and arrived in Polish as a repatriate, worked in the European Union. The allowance is calculated according to the seniority of an unemployed person: the length of service up to 5 years - will be paid an allowance of 80% of the basic benefit, the length of service is between 5 and 20 years - will be paid an allowance equal to 100% of the basic benefit, the work experience of at least 20 years - the benefit will be paid in the amount of 120% of the basic benefit. 46 Ibidem, p. 85.

66 66 On social assistance paid by Social Welfare/OŚRODEK POMOCY SPOŁECZNEJ may count individuals and families, in particular because of: - Poverty, - Homelessness, - Disability - Long-term or serious illness, - Domestic violence. The aid may also request people not coping with the running of the household, struggling with alcoholism, or have difficulty in adjusting to normal life after being released from prison. Also, random events, natural disasters or environmental can be the basis to apply for social assistance benefits Financial aid The right to financial benefits from social assistance granted to: - Person household, whose income does not exceed 477 zł; - A person in a family where income per person does not exceed 351 zł, but as a family considered to be related or unrelated persons remaining in the actual relationship, living under a household Permanent benefit If your income is not sufficient to maintain, and you are completely unable to work because of age or disability, you can get a social welfare benefit permanent. Its amount depends on whether you live alone or with your family. If you are a person individually household, you are entitled to a monthly allowance equal to the difference between the amount of 477 zł and your income, the amount of benefit that cannot be higher than 418 zł per month. When swiom manage your household with your family, you are entitled to an allowance equal to the difference between the amount of 351 zł and the income per person in the family. In this case the amount of the allowance may not be less than 30 zł per month, but may reach up to 444 zł Temporary allowance If you occasionally find themselves in a particularly difficult situation, you can apply for temporary benefits. You are entitled to when you have no income or your income is very low and not sufficient to meet the necessities of life, especially because of the long-term illness or disability, or if you have trouble getting the rights to benefits from other social security systems. The minimum amount of temporary benefit is: For a single person household - 35 percent. the difference between the amount of 477 zł and the income of that person, except that the amount of the allowance cannot be higher than 418 zł per month;

67 67 In the case of family 25 percent. the difference between the amount of 351 zł and the income of the family. The amount of temporary benefit cannot be lower than 20 zł. The period for which a payment is granted shall resort social assistance, depending on the person's circumstances Benefits targeted You can also get a targeted benefits to finance certain expenses. This is money you can spend on food, medicine, fuel, clothing, necessary household items, small renovations and repairs in the apartment or the cost of treatment. It may be: - Allowance targeted to cover resulting from accident. It is a provision by which a person can seek or family who has suffered a loss as a result of random events (eg. serious accident). In this situation, assistance may be granted regardless of income and do not need to pay back. - Allowance targeted to cover expenses related to a natural disaster or environmental This is a benefit which would accrue to a person or family who has suffered loss as a result of natural disasters or environmental (eg flooding). - Special benefits targeted. It is the provision of social assistance that may be granted in special cases a person or a family with an income in excess of the statutory criterion in the amount not exceeding the income criterion, respectively a single person or family. - Benefits targeted on the basis of return. This benefit may be granted in special cases a person or a family with income exceeding the income criteria, but only if the return part or all of the amount of the allowance Help for economic empowerment May be granted: - In cash - in the form of one-time benefit intentional or interest-free loan. The loan may be redeemed in whole or in part, if it is found that the aid was effective; - In kind - is to provide the equipment and tools that create opportunities to organize own work and equipment to help disabled people work. These items and facilities are made available under the lending agreement. According to the Law on the Education System students of all types of schools, both public and private, have the right to two basic forms: social (school grant and school allowance) and motivational (scholarship for academic or sporting achievements). Student may receive a scholarship, whose family monthly income per person is less than 351 zł, calculated according to the rules contained in the Act on social assistance. According to it, the income shall be the sum of all the monthly revenue of the month preceding the submission of the application, or in the case of loss of income from the month in which the application was

68 68 made, regardless of the title and the source of their recovery, after deducting the cost of obtaining and pension contributions, disability and sickness. Payment of social security contributions paid by FAMILY SUPPORT CENTRE/CENTRA POMOCY RODZINIE)for those not taking a job or giving up work to bring up a child that requires constant care, as per capita income of the family does not exceed a certain income criteria on the person and for those who have lost their right to unemployment benefits charged pursuant to the provisions of employment and unemployment, due to the expiry of the period of its collection, and family income does not exceed the income criterion In relation to job seeking support Poviat labour office lead placement to registered persons. Moreover in the absence of suitable employment opportunities Poviat Labour office: 1) provide counselling services 2) allow you to participate in club activities work 3) initiate, organize and finance the training of the unemployed and other eligible persons and shall grant and pay training allowances or stipends 4) initiate and subsidize the creation of additional jobs 5) initiate and finance to the extent specified in the Act other labor market instruments 6) initiate and implement local projects 7) confirms and pay allowances and other benefits for unemployment Information and Career Planning Centres in Voivodeship Labour Office can help: - unemployed - jobseekers - employed at risk of losing their jobs, in obtaining suitable employment or training. Centres offer: - individual and group counselling, - professional aptitude test, - professional information, - distance counselling - In cooperation with employers, centres assist in the evaluation and selection of appropriate candidates for employment Work Club is a form of assistance in active job search for the unemployed, job seekers and any other interested. Assistance in active job search is done by organizing and conducting training in job

69 69 search skills. This course is intended primarily for people who do not have the experience to find work or did not reach the positive effects of their activities in this area and for those who return to work after a long period of inactivity Employment agencies providing services in the following areas: employment in the Polish Republic and the agency to work abroad with foreign employers. assist job seekers in obtaining suitable employment and for employers to find workers with appropriate qualifications. personal counselling agencies - provide services for a fee to employers. counselling agencies - provide assistance in choosing an occupation and place of employment, vocational information and assistance in the selection of candidates for jobs which require special mental and physical abilities. temporary work agencies - guided by their own employees to the employer's purpose of temporary work Voluntary Labour Corps is a state budget unit supervised by the minister responsible for labor issues. OHP carry out the tasks of the state in terms of employment and the fight against marginalization and social exclusion of young people, as well as tasks in the field of the education and upbringing. Voluntary Labour Corps, as a labour market institution provides free services in the following forms: job placement, vocational guidance and career information, workshops, active job search, training, labor market programs. These tasks are carried out through a coordinated system of advising, counselling, and job placement and training. The offer of this system is a response to local environmental needs of young people for specific services in the labor market. Important role in the task placement and exchange act job fair organized every year in the country With reference to educational support: Continuing Education Centre Practical Training Center, Further Training and Professional Development Center/CENTRUM KSZTAŁCENIA USTAWICZNEGO, CENTRUM KSZTAŁCENIA PRAKTYCZNEGO, OŚRODEK DOKSZTAŁCENIA I DOSKONALENIA ZAWODOWEGO In addition to school-based education are: 1. courses run based on basic program of education in the professions: 1) professional qualification course, 2) course of professional skills, 3) turnus theoretical training of young workers; 2. courses in occupations included in the classification of professions and labor market needs, including those held in co-operation with labor offices; 3. general competence courses, conducted by the curriculum takes into account the desired part

70 70 of the core curriculum of general education. Types of providers that form of education: continuing education centre, practical training center, further training and professional development center. New types of non-school forms will be carried out from 1 September Each unemployed adult person registered in Poviat Labor Office may benefit from non-school training that is provided to obtain, complete or improve the skills and professional or general qualifications, required to perform the work, including the ability to seek employment. Training takes place in the form of the course a teaching plan implemented by including the average but not less than 25 clock hours per week, except that the provisions below provide separate training dimension. Training can take up to 6 months, and in cases of legitimate training program in a particular profession no longer than 12 months, in the case of people with no professional qualifications training can take up to 12 months, and in cases of legitimate training program in the profession for no longer than 24 months Staroste initiates, organizes and finances the training for the unemployed, in order to improve their professional skills and other qualifications, increasing the chance of taking or maintaining employment, other paid work or business, especially in the case of: - lack of professional qualifications, - the need to amend or supplement the qualifications, - loss of ability to work in the profession, - lack of active job seeking skills. 8. The Polish Qualifications Framework 47 The Polish economy needs a specialised, creative workforce which is willing to constantly improve its skills and competences. However, despite high unemployment, many employers presently have difficulty in finding such people. On the other hand, Polish jobseekers often have problems finding work corresponding to their qualifications. There is no single, cohesive model for gaining and confirming competences. Qualifications are awarded on the basis of diverse legal regulations by various institutions: schools, regional examination boards, higher education institutions, professional organisations and trade bodies. The principles and procedures for issuing certificates and diplomas vary it is difficult to juxtapose and compare them against uniform criteria. They count rather as confirmation that the holder has studied for as long as required by the curriculum of a school or university. For employers, a diploma in engineering, nursing or IT is not proof of whata given person is capable of or whether they have the skills to make use of their knowledge. In turn, there are many employees active in the labour market who do in fact have vocational skills, but cannot effectively document them because they were gained through various types of courses or training, through e-learning or simply through work experience. There are no institutions or procedures capable of verifying and 47

71 71 confirming knowledge and skills gained in these ways, which in practice creates a range of barriers to finding a good job, while also hindering unemployed persons from entering the workforce. This situation makes it difficult for employers to recruit the specialists they really need. The fact that in Poland vocational training is not well adapted to the changing needs of the labour market does not encourage investment in employees. The effectiveness and factual level of training is practically unverified. Employers who today find it difficult to assess employee competences and skills are uncertain about what type of training to provide and what benefits it will bring. It is necessary to create a new qualifications system which enables competences to be compared, ensures quality and credibility and adapts them to the needs of the labour market. The fundamental core of this system is the Polish Qualifications Framework. The changes currently being made in various fields of education in Poland from primary school to higher education are consistent with the qualifications system being developed. Like the European Framework, the Polish Qualifications Framework (PQF) has eight qualification levels. The learning outcome requirements for each level are described in three categories: knowledge, skills and social competence. Since qualifications will be awarded by a wide range of entities operating in different spheres of public life: schools, regional examination boards, crafts chambers, higher education institutions, employers, industry associations, training institutions, NGOs, etc., it will be necessary to ensure an