From EURES Assistant to migrant worker: catching the travelling bug

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1 EDITORIAL With spring in the air, a welcome burst of figures 1 recently showed that the EU labour market is flourishing. The February 2008 EU unemployment rate was down to 6.7%, from 7.7% a year earlier. The demand for new workers is rising, with the EU job vacancy rate (the number of vacant posts per 100 vacant and occupied posts) at 2.2% in autumn 2007, a rise of 0.2% since autumn For 25 years, youth unemployment has been a serious challenge for all of us, though current figures are encouraging: from 16.5% in winter 2006 down to 14.9% in winter In this context, in April we focused on youth employment opportunities at a successful Public Employment Services (PES) & Youth seminar (and launched our Your First Job Abroad initiative, which clearly established that mobility will be a major future contributor to youth employment see eures.europa.eu). Remember that mobility opportunities cover all kinds of experiences: see page 4 for an overview of the European Voluntary Service (EVS), which funds young people to volunteer in Europe or further afield enhancing their employability while supporting local communities. I was very glad to meet PES experts and EURES Advisers together with young workers at our April seminar, and to attend a training session for new EURES Advisers in Valencia. Both events confirmed my view that the continuing unique work of EURES within PES is vital for the support of mobile workers within Europe, who provide the key to a healthy labour market. Wallis Goelen Head of the Employment Services and Mobility Unit of the European Commission 1 Source: European Commission, DG EMPL: Winter 2008 Quarterly EU Labour Market Review From EURES Assistant to migrant worker: catching the travelling bug Ania Dobek, 35, had been working for EURES in Łódź, Poland, for a year when her language skills brought about an unexpected job offer from Wales. Nearly three years later, she s come full circle, and works for an outreach project connected to Jobcentre Plus, the UK public employment service, in Cardiff over a thousand miles away from the Polish textile city where she helped jobseekers to find work throughout Europe, little realising that she would be a migrant worker herself so soon. Ania came to EURES as an assistant in 2004, having worked at the Polish Labour Office (also in Łódź) for six years. One of her major projects involved finding Polish workers for a meat processing plant, Dawn Pac Ltd., in Carmarthenshire, Wales, in collaboration with Naomi Sinharay, Wales EURES Adviser. Ania acted as both organiser and interpreter, and several successful job appointments were made after video interviews organised by EURES. Pleased with her growing role, Ania had just embarked on the training to become a fully-fledged EURES Adviser when she was again approached by Dawn Pac Ltd., this time with a very different proposition. Dawn Pac Ltd. had been very impressed with Ania s skills, and wanted to interview her for the role of translator, due to their large numbers of Polish employees. They offered her a trip to the factory at Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, to see things in action, during which she was interviewed. She got the job, moving to Wales in July Although the move wasn t planned, I had always thought that I would like to live elsewhere in Europe at some point so, when the opportunity came up, I grabbed it, says Ania. Ania settled in to the extent of meeting a Welsh partner, and, after two years, decided to move nearer to Cardiff to be with him. Her first thought was to get back in contact with Naomi Sinharay, the Welsh EURES Adviser, for help job-seeking. Before long she was offered a post with a project called Want2Work, a joint initiative between the Welsh Assembly Government and Jobcentre Plus, where she specialises in helping people on benefits find jobs and training opportunities. Ania is in a good position to discuss the benefits and challenges of moving abroad. It s a great opportunity to live in a completely different environment. For example, Britain is much more multi-cultural than Poland, which I ve found very interesting. However, you do have to plan properly in order to cope with the number of changes you ll be faced with being well prepared can make all the difference. My advice to jobseekers would be to get as much information they can before they move, and to remind them that EURES is a very good tool to use in this regard. Future plans? I would certainly consider moving around Europe again, and would head straight to EURES for help the scheme was a real godsend for me and for lots of people. Armin Grewe, The Newsletter «EURES & You» is intended to provide users of the EURES portal with information on current topics and trends and to stimulate discussion and debate. The contents do not necessarily reflect the view of the European Commission. 1

2 EURES BRIEFS > Limosa scheme provokes mobility debate Limosa is a year-old scheme that requires foreigners to register with the Belgian social security system before heading to Belgium for temporary work of more than five days duration, but has caused concerns as an apparent obstacle to mobility. It seeks to address the problem of those who evade the social security system altogether and requires temporary employees, self-employed persons and trainees coming to Belgium to fill in an online social security declaration. However, there are multiple exceptions depending on individual circumstances. Sarah Scaillet, a lawyer with the Belgian Federal Public Service and one of the advisors working on the Limosa scheme, asserted in an interview with EurActiv that the scheme was merely designed to enable the Belgian authorities to find out about the nature of the labour market in Belgium and what its future prospects are. When asked if the scheme would act as a brake to EU mobility into Belgium, Scaillet denied this, pointing to the simple, multi-lingual registration process, designed to encourage all types of people to register. Awareness about Limosa is due to be spread in Europe via a new information campaign "in the course of the year", Scaillet said. To find out more, see socialsecurity.be/foreign/en/employer_ limosa/home.html; to read the interview with Sarah Scaillet, visit Ján Figeľ > Mobility of learners soon to be made easier Learners of manual or practical activities are set to benefit from their own EU-wide system of qualification recognition. On 10 April 2008, the Commission proposed a new European Credit system for Vocational Education and Learning (ECVET), seen as European Commission the equivalent of the higher education ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) introduced in The ECVET s goal will be to improve learner mobility across Europe by ensuring that training completed in one Member State is recognised in another. Education Commissioner Ján Figel explains: The system will make it much easier for individual trainees to complete their training courses in different training establishments and in different countries, thereby boosting mobility of learners throughout Europe. If adopted, the initiative would be implemented by Member States on a voluntary basis. Read more about the ECVET at do?reference=ip/08/558&format=html &aged=0&language=en&guilanguage=en > Integrating migrants dialogue on services opened up At a conference in Brussels on 7 April 2008, CLIP the European Network of Cities for Local Integration Policies for Migrants opened up debate on the best way to help migrants to integrate. European cities integrating migrants - From Amsterdam to Zagreb: Fostering a dialogue about successful policies focused on local governance for integration and access to housing, as well as on personnel policy of local authorities and services for migrants. Participants such as EU policy makers, experts, national and regional representatives and social partners debated innovative local level policies designed to help integrate migrants and how to implement them. To see more details about the conference, visit: events/2008/confclip070408/index.htm > Pension portability plans to transform crossborder pension rights The European Commission is working to ensure that problems with pensions will no longer be an obstacle to job mobility within Europe. Two new studies have prompted the urgency: a study of common EU pension practices by Hewitt Associates has highlighted the need for lower vesting (i.e. the length of time an employee has been with one employer) and waiting periods. Another study, from the Higher Institute for Labour Studies in Leuven, Belgium, has shown that 41% of workers in the EU foresee switching employer within the next five years, making flexible pension schemes all the more necessary. At present, not all pension schemes are transferable across different Member States. "These new studies clearly demonstrate the need...to reduce obstacles to mobility without placing undue burdens on pension providers," said EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimír Špidla. "Tackling obstacles to worker mobility in Europe forms a key plank of the EU s strategy for growth and jobs and is an example of flexicurity balancing flexibility on the labour market with employment security in action." Read the reports at employment_social/spsi/portability_en.htm > Upcoming events > May 2008, Job Days in Prague, Czech Republic > June 2008, Employment Week 2008 (Brussels) > 14 June 2008, Nordic Working 2008 information on working in Scandinavian countries, Paterswolde, Netherlands. Contact els.hollander@cwinet.nl for more information. 2

3 BEST PRACTICE > Carpooling A new form of cross-border commuting Labour mobility takes different forms one of them being cross-border commuting. Whilst in the past this mainly only concerned jobseekers in areas immediately next to a border, commuters nowadays may travel substantial distances to their workplace in a neighbouring country. To give an example, some of our German workers commute these days from as far as Bamberg in Bavaria to work in Frederikshavn in Northern Denmark, says Poul Hansen Frank. He is the coordinator of the Crossborder Partnership EURES-KOMPAS, a cooperation of the Southern Danish region Sønderjylland and the Northern German region Schleswig. Frank continues: Travelling back and forth between home and the workplace is quite a financial and organisational effort. We therefore had the idea of supporting commuters by setting up an online service for carpooling According to Frank, the EURES services are mostly contacted by German employees, asking for advice on how they can best get to their new workplace. Many of them can t afford a car on their own, and depended on public transport before they discovered the carpooling alternative. It is of course also in our interest to promote more sustainable, environmentally-friendly means of transportation, says Poul Hansen Frank, but one has to understand that not every destination can be reached as easily and flexibly by public transport. Furthermore, a car shared by three or four passengers is usually cheaper than a train ticket. Many commuters work four 10-hour days a week in Denmark, but are in return able to drive back home for long weekends. Such arrangements make commuting attractive, even for workers from further away and carpooling has become their preferred means of transport, says Frank. The carpooling website of EURES-KOMPAS has been up and running since March Our online tool works automatically, without the need of further support from EURES staff, explains Poul Hansen Frank. Users can easily search for or post possibilities of joint commuting. They are provided with each others contact details and organise the trip autonomously. There are on average about 50 offers online at any time. However, many more mobile workers already commute together on a regular basis and thus don t need the online service anymore. The website helps to establish a first contact, says EURES coordinator Frank, but once a crew has been established, they usually continue travelling together in the same setup. Carpooling not only reduces travelling costs for commuters, it also contributes to a more sustainable treatment of our environment and helps to reduce traffic congestion. Other cross-border partnerships have already expressed a keen interest in introducing similar services for their own region. Some carpooling tips Determine route and schedule. Establish the morning pick-up point(s) and designate a place(s) to meet for the trip home. Be punctual. Decide as a group how long the pool will wait for a passenger. Establish how costs will be shared and agree on payment dates. Establish some ground rules (i.e. about smoking, music, food, drinks etc.). Drive carefully and keep the car clean, in good repair and filled with enough petrol for each trip. Set up a line of communication. If a driver is ill, or will not be going to work, an alternate driver should be notified to ensure that other members or the carpool will have a ride. Avoid side trips. If the agreement is to commute to and from work, save your grocery shopping trips for the weekend. Make sure all passengers and drivers are covered by your insurance company. Some policies may offer reductions for carpooling. Give your carpool time to work. It usually takes a few weeks to arrange everyone s routine into a harmonious pattern. LINKS

4 NOTEBOOK > Calling all young people: the European Voluntary Service An alternative path for young people: apply for a fully-funded place to acquire valuable skills and experience volunteering in the EU or in certain countries around the world. Gaining experiences abroad and employerfriendly skills can seem like enough of a challenge without trying to support local communities as well. But help is at hand young people aged (16 30 in exceptional circumstances) can carry out voluntary service in the EU or worldwide for up to 12 months, all fully funded, monitored and evaluated by the EU s European Voluntary Service (EVS) initiative, part of the EU s Youth in Action programme. The EVS initiative not only broadens volunteers minds and equips them with skills which will give them a huge advantage in the job market, it promotes active citizenship and enormously benefits local communities around the world. Volunteers can participate in a whole range of programmes, ranging from culture, sports and social care to environmental projects, development cooperation initiatives and civil protection. The European Voluntary Service, which has been running for over 10 years, matches up volunteers with an organisation in their home country. This organisation acts as a sending organisation and offers advice and hands-on help to the volunteer in the preparation for the experience abroad. Together, the volunteer and the sending organisation find a suitable volunteering opportunity amongst the wide range of EVS host placements. All projects must involve at least one EU Member State. Thousands of host organisations are active worldwide 53 countries closer to home (including countries from the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus (EEC)) are involved, and the majority of Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and Asia is also eligible. Information is provided via the Youth Helpdesk, and projects are monitored throughout (and followed up afterwards) to ensure that all participants are gaining the best experience possible. The volunteering opportunities are not designed to replace jobs, though volunteers can expect to gain a wide range of training; the emphasis is instead on mutually beneficial projects that offer non-formal education and forge a sense of international community. Cecilia Liljegren, EVS Project Officer, stresses the range of types of volunteers: "Some have just finished school and are looking for an indication of what they want to do next; others may be at a crossroads after having studied or worked already." The emphasis is on inclusion, regardless of background or existing skills and experience. We especially encourage volunteers who come from backgrounds with fewer opportunities, whether due to financial strain, a physical or mental disability, or because they are ex-offenders, for example, says Liljegren. Everything is accounted for, including exceptional costs, such as unforeseen medical expenses. The scheme is blossoming twenty more project applications were received this year under the first deadline than last year. Bearing in mind that each project can offer places for between one and 100 volunteers, every new project can mean a huge direct effect on local communities around the world. EVS is a wonderful way for young people to gain valuable skills and an international experience while helping to contribute to others quality of life. For more information, see the EVS website at and an overview of the Youth in Action programme at The European Youth Portal lists hosting organisations who have already been accredited and who are actively seeking volunteers; it also provides general information on working and studying elsewhere in the EU. See STATISTICS Citizens who consider unemployment to be one of the two most important issues currently facing their country EURES & You is published six times a year by DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities of the European Commission. DG EMPL D.3 - EURES European Commission BE-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel empl-eures@ec.europa.eu Estonia Lithuania United Kingdom Ireland Denmark Netherlands Czech Republic Latvia Malta Romania Cyprus Finland Sweden Spain Slovenia Bulgaria Austria EU27 Belgium Italy Slovakia Source: Eurobarometer 68 Luxembourg Poland France Hungary Greece Germany Portugal EURES News and Information Bureau c/o Gellis Communications Rue des Echevins 80 BE-1050 Bruxelles/Brussel euresnews@gellis.com 4

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