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1. Youth employment measures

2. Flexicurity measures focusing on young people

3. Reconciliation of private and working life for young people

4. Funding of existing schemes/initiatives

5. Quality assurance

Youth employment measures

Employment measures focused on young people are directly linked with the implementation of the Youth Guarantee.

Youth Guarantee

Programme specification:

• Name: Youth Guarantee (Záruka pro mladé)
• Timeframe: 2023-2027
• Based in: Employment Policy Strategy 2020

Designed for clients of the Czech Employment Agency under 30 years of age (i.e. aged 15-29 years inclusive):

• jobseekers - persons included by the Office of the Czech Republic in the UoS register;
• jobseekers - persons included by the ÚP ČR in the ZoZ register;
• young people with no work experience who are not employed or not participating in education or training, persons leaving education early, persons leaving institutions for institutional or protective education;
• pupils and students in the final year of school - persons continuously preparing for the exercise of a future profession who are studying in the final year of secondary school or the final year of higher education;
• graduates - persons entering employment in a job corresponding to their qualifications if the total period of their professional experience has not reached 2 years after the proper (successful) completion of their studies (training), not including periods of maternity or parental leave.

The programme offers:

• Counselling
  • Individual counselling - a service of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic targeted at a specific client, which takes place in a counsellor-client relationship. Clients are continuously provided with individual counselling for job placement throughout their participation in the project.
  • Group Counselling/Counselling Activities/Motivational Activities - a service of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic provided to a group of clients with specific needs identified during the counselling process, to provide counselling and information activities within the framework of job placement and career counselling.
• Retraining, professional qualifications
• Return to education
• Job placement

The programme follows on from the previous project (2014-2023) Youth Guarantee (Záruka pro mládež).

Quality assurance

Annual updates are based on regular activity and efficiency evaluation (not publicly available) and evaluation is be based on data and indicators from the information system, CZ Employment Offices, Operational Programme Employment indicators, Operational Programme Research, Science and Education indicators, etc. Evaluation outcome: Activity Report by the Employment Office to the CZ Government

Measures of the Active Labour Market Policy are equally accessible for all citizens including young people (non-discriminatory principle). The main providers are regional and local Employment Offices and their contact centres. The Offices of the Czech Republic also provide all social benefits of a non-insurance nature, which allows them to impact the target group in the case of their inactivity.

Youth employment is monitored with the same standards and categories as in the EU and according to international standards.

EU recommendations regarding youth employment are taken seriously and are integrated into the relevant Czech policies and support schemes. 

At the national level, the measures were also realised by the Fund for Further Education (FFE), an organisation established by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which remained open until 2019 and closed since then. All projects were co-funded by the ESF. 

Other employment measures are linked with the status of student up to 26 years of age (up to 28 years in case of doctoral students) which brings the following benefits:

• Self-employment is a secondary activity and thus for the first year there is no need to pay deposits for obligatory health insurance.
• In the next years, health security benefits are paid only if a profit has been generated above the general limit and minimum deposits are not in force.
• The parallel model also works for obligatory public social security insurance.

Flexicurity measures focusing on young people

In the Czech Republic, flexicurity is demanded more by older parts of society or with the link to family issues rather than youth issues. Special attention is given, for example, to mothers with children up to 15 years of age, and the possibility to take care of sick children up to 10 years of age. There are thus no specific flexicurity measures focused on youth on a national level. 

During the years 2016 and 2017 governmental proposals prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs put a focus on the flexicurity measures in general; none of them was directly linked to young people, but rather to general employment conditions and rights, however with impact on young people as on general society. 

One of the proposals passed, in effect from 1 February 2018, is the possibility of one week off for new fathers. 

Reconciliation of private and working life for young people

There are no specific national-level measures or initiatives on the reconciliation of private and working life of young people. Most such initiatives aim at young families and the systematic care of small children. Others are part of general social services or legal protection of minors.

Funding of existing schemes/initiatives

One of the main tools on a national level is the programming of the European Social Fund and allocation of resources for relevant stakeholders on regional and local level (especially Regional and local Employment offices) who are responsible for the implementation and direct actions. There is Operational Programme Employment Plus (OPZ+) - a key instrument for the use of financial resources from the European Social Fund Plus in the field of employment and social inclusion in the programming period 2021-2027, building on the Operational Programme Employment implemented in the 2014-2020 programming period.

Within the Financial Framework 2014-2020, €27.2 million was allocated in the Czech Republic within the European Social Fund for the Youth Employment Initiative. This was allocated within the first priority of the Operational Programme Employment for the NUTS II Region Severozápad which is the only one in the Czech Republic above the European Youth Guarantee limits for special action on youth unemployment. 

The European Social Fund and Operational Programme Employment allocated 60.23%, €1.3 billion, for the employment measures in 2014-2020. Investment Axes 1 and the second specific objective is to increase employment of supported young people through the Youth Guarantees schemes. Thus also other regions can apply and realise their own projects according to regional and local needs of young people in that place. The State Budget is usually used to co-finance successful projects.

In reality, all regional Employment Offices applied with their own Regional Individual Project scheme. The activities and scopes differ regionally, e.g. in the South Moravia Region (Jihomoravský kraj) the Youth Guarantee project supported in 2017-2019 young people up to 29 years of age. The Plzeň Region (Plzeňský kraj) Youth Guarantee project targeted in 2016-2023 young people up to 29 years of age including those who lack work experience, or who have work experience, but only up to three years without the limitation of education. The projects are similar in other regions. Financing is usually at 85 per cent from the EU, 10 per cent from the State budget and 5 per cent from the Regional Authority.  

Quality assurance

There are no specific quality assurance measures on a national level for young people's integration into the labour market, apart from the Youth Guarantee scheme and those in internships and apprenticeships described in Chapter 3.5.