The representatives of the National Employment Service and 85 Local self-governments have signed the agreements regarding the establishment of 40 new job clubs, 10 CGCCs and 80 self-service centres, which will be financially supported by the European Union.

According to the agreements, the National Employment Service will secure the equipment and trained staff for the operation of job clubs, CGCCs and self-service centres, for the period of 12 months, while the LSG will provide adequate premises and, after the expiry of a 12-month period, take over the responsibility for maintaining these units. This act will broaden the support network for the unemployed in their job search, through vocational guidance and carrier counselling. Furthermore, in order to reduce the unemployment rate, LSG should be more actively involved in providing assistance to the unemployed.

The establishment of new units for the unemployed is funded by the EU project „Assistance to hard-to-employ groups”, which has been officially presented at the event. The project, funded by EU with 6.5 million euro, and co-financed by the National Employment Service with 3.6 million euro, is focused on the unemployed with low or no qualifications, long-term unemployed, unemployed in rural areas and Roma people.

As a part of the project, a public call has been recently launched for the realisation of the internship program that offers a chance for 450 unemployed persons from rural areas registered at NES to enter the internship program and acquire professional knowledge to work and successfully pass a trainee or state exam. They will be employed by the employers from rural areas, and they will be granted all employment-related rights (length of service, insurance, pension and health insurance).

Employment caravans is a new service designed for the undeveloped municipalities, where NES mobile teams travel to remote, inaccessible locations and inform the unemployed people who aren’t registered at NES about the provision of NES services. In cooperation with the local schools and local community centres, meetings for the unemployed, primarily for the persons with disability, Roma persons and other disadvantaged groups will be held.

Taking into account that the unemployed are highly interested in the trainings in response to labour market needs, conducted regularly by NES, EU project „Assistance to hard-to-employ groups” will train at least 5400 people in the next two years.

Mr Aleksandar Vulin, the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs and Mr Steffen Hudolin, the representative of the EU Delegation, attended the project presentation and the signing of agreements between NES and Local self-governments.

All measures implemented by the project aim to help the unemployed become more active in the labour market and improve their skills and knowledge for active job search. The decentralisation in the field of employment policy and the inclusion of local self-governments in the implementation of assistance measures for the unemployed, will contribute to the increase of employment, which is the main objective of the project.