The third public call for the program „Moja prva…

National Employment Service’s announcement of the Public call for the implementation of the youth employment promotion program „Moja prva plata“ (eng. “My First Salary”) on 22th of August, 2022 started the third cycle of the this program in Serbia.

The program will be carried out according to the established schedule published on the Moja prva plata website. The schedule includes the following deadlines and activities:

• 1. 22.08.-22.09.2022. – Registration of employers and advertising of positions;

• 2. 03.10.-31.10.2022. – Application of candidates for positions;

• 3. 01.11.-15.11.2022. – Connecting candidates with employers from the private sector;

• 4. 16.11.-30.11.2022. – Connecting candidates with employers from the public sector;

• 5. 01.12.-31.12.2022. – Publication of the list of employers with approved positions and conclusion of the contract between the National Employment Service, the employer and the selected candidate.

Internships with employers under this program can begin during December 2022, but no later than 30th of December, 2022.

In relation to the method of participation, the conditions for participation, the duration of the program and the framework of participation, there were no changes compared to the previous year. Accordingly:

• → the program includes, as earlier, unemployed persons with at least high school degree and no work experience gained in jobs within the level of education at which they will be trained, as well as persons who have work experience of less than 6 months, gained in jobs within the level of education at which they will be trained, whereby, these persons must meet the other remaining conditions prescribed in the public call, with the restriction that persons who were earlier beneficiaries of this program cannot participate in the program;

• → employers must also fulfill the conditions that are exhaustively stated in the public call, among which we particularly emphasize the condition that the employer has settled obligations based on taxes and contributions for mandatory social insurance within the legal deadlines, as well as that he has an employed mentor in charge of training;

• → the program lasts 9 months;

• → the program does not imply establishment of the employment relationship with the candidate, nor is there any obligation on the part of the employer to employ the candidate upon completion of the program;

• →  the number of unemployed persons that the employer can include in this program depends on the total number of employees at the employer. Accordingly, an employer who has up to 5 employees can include one unemployed person in program, an employer who has 6-14 employees can include 2 unemployed persons in program and an employer who has 15 and more employees can include in program the unemployed persons whose number cannot be higher than 20% of the total number of employees.

A significant and actually the only novelty in relation to the conditions of participation from the previous year is reflected in the increase of the amount of monetary compensation that is provided to the candidate during the program. Namely, at the session held on 18th of August, 2022. the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on the amendment of the Regulation on the Youth Employment Promotion Program “Moja prva plata”, on the basis of which the amount of compensation was increased:

• a) for persons participating in the program with high school degree from 22,000 RSD to 25,000 RSD,

• b) for persons participating in the program with higher education from 26,000 RSD to 30,000 RSD.

In the previous two cycles of this program, an exceptional success was achieved, whereby such success is confirmed with the statistical data that about 18,000 young people have been involved in it so far, that 42.2 percent of young people have established a working relationship after the end of the first cycle, while it is expected that after the second cycle period, that number will be higher than 50 percent. Accordingly, this program is an exceptional form of support for young people on their way of gaining work experience and, consequently, gaining economic independence. The importance and contribution of this program has been recognized internationally, since the organization Emerging Europe rated it as the best initiative in the previous year by the, and as such, it won first place in the “Prosperity” category.