The project titled “Support and integration of Vietnamese immigrants into the labour market through vocational training” which offered an intensive individual support to young Vietnamese was successfully completed. What results have we achieved?
The project provided support to 91 enrolled Vietnamese immigrants under the age of 25. Within the project, they were offered courses of Czech language helping them to pass the A1 level exam necessary to obtain a permanent residence in the Czech Republic as well as a follow-up course of technical terminology and conversation in Czech for entrepreneurs or potential employees in the Czech industrial and service sectors. The 336 hours long course was concluded by a final test and an oral interview which was completed by 45 successful graduates who received a certificate.
Simultaneously with the Czech language course, a česko-vietnamský slovník has been created, the individual parts of which are based on the interest of clients in individual vocational training. Within the dictionary, you will find basic technical dictionaries that have been created either in accordance with the training materials of relevant retraining courses successfully completed by the project participants or based on the experience of collaborating interpreters who know given topic. In addition to purely craft related or specialized dictionaries, it includes also technical terms from the field of business and employment as well as vocabulary related to the basics of integration which was part of the qualification training of the project and which is necessary to every foreigner performing a gainful activity in the Czech Republic.
During the implementation of the project, participants of the program received a total of 18 retraining certificates in sewing, programming, cosmetics, eyelashes extensions, manicure, pedicure, make-up artist, hairdresser and barber, accounting and taxes, web design and management.
Participants also made use of the individual professional consultations and professional counselling offered (personal, legal, economic, tax, etc.) including an internal counselling provided by the project team in which the clients were advised on the utilization of external counselling services, the connection of the client's needs to the project activities and offered services, the opportunities at the labour market, and the possibility of further cooperation with Klub Hanoi. The consultations also covered the entire family situation of the client in the Czech Republic as well as in the SRV.
On the other hand, interest in professional lectures leading to increasing their qualifications was not as big as we expected, still, we have successful graduates (13) who have thanks to many useful seminars broadened their horizons in the given issue. As a bonus feature resulting from this activity or activities, we can offer 2 collections of lectures for foreigners – potential employees in the Czech industrial or service sector and for foreigners - entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic.
The chapters of the collection of lectures for potential employees deal with employment issues and at the same time with the specifics of employment of foreigners in the Czech Republic, the legal framework of employment, the procedures of the competent authorities, the rights and obligations of the employee, the methods of job searching, writing of a motivation letter and communication with the employer, clarification of agency employment, the labour safety principles and also with specific areas such as quality certification, packaging management, management systems, internal logistics of manufacturing plants, etc.
The content of the lectures for entrepreneurs was focused on the development, restoration, or commencement of business; the chapters of this collection therefore contain the legislative framework of business in the Czech Republic, the possibilities of financing the business, the tax system and record keeping, the principles of dealing with customers, the laws on prices, the protection of consumers and intellectual property, the safety of products as well as special regulations for food business operators, storage of goods, handling of packaging and waste, warranty periods, etc.
Both collections of lectures are available in the Czech-Vietnamese version and they are available to all those interested in the Download section of our website.
Unfortunately, the job placement in the Czech industrial sector and the restoration or commencement of business activity for the participants of the project proved to be very problematic. Due to the economic crisis and its impact on the Vietnamese group, there was a significant drop in employment which from their point of view entails only increased health and social insurance costs and taxes. For the same reasons, participants were not very interested in obtaining new trade licences. In general, the motivation for employment and obtaining trade licences was very low, especially due to economic reasons and low motivation for lifelong growth and learning. Nevertheless, the project team succeeded in facilitating a job for 14 job-seekers and 4 participants successfully started a business aktivity.
Sustainability of the project
The level of knowledge of the Czech language has increased among participants despite many obstacles. Likewise, the participants showed a great interest in vocational training. Some of the participants are currently using their newly acquired knowledge as they have expanded their business activity within their trade license or have commenced a gainful activity in the given domain. The above-mentioned collections of lectures and the dictionary constitute other sustainable outputs of the project. The instructional materials are presented in a simple and easy to understand form and we can keep using them without any problems to provide training to migrants from Vietnam or to provide them other organizations working with the target group.
Continuous intensive external and internal consultations were helping throughout the project to find suitable solutions to integrating the target group into the labour market. It should be noted that the target group is under a significant pressure of family relatives and members of older generations who generally do not want to be involved in the employment system for its high cost; the fact that the employers have to pay over 40% of their expenditure for wages seems like a plain nonsense to them. Despite the huge barriers that have been exacerbated by the effects of the economic crisis we eventually succeeded to fulfil the required number of people in new jobs. However, a motivation for work is strongly related to external legal conditions.
We will see how the whole situation in the Czech Republic develops in the future. In any case, Klub Hanoi will keep working on promoting the employment of Vietnamese migrants, their education in Czech language and other integration training, as it has been doing from the beginning.
The project No. CZ.1.04/3.3.05/75.00005 “Support and integration of Vietnamese immigrants into the labour market through vocational training” is funded by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme Human Resources and Employment and by the state budget of the Czech Republic.