Many of us associate the Job Centre with failure, the inability to find work and socially disadvantaged citizens. But that’s not all it’s about. The Jobcentre has a much wider remit than just benefits and finding a new job. It provides many more services and should help everyone, not just the unemployed. Find out how you can use the Job Centre in this article.
Despite a range of other services, the main function of the Job Centre is unemployment support. It is therefore mainly aimed at people who are currently unemployed. The Job Centre is responsible for paying unemployment benefits and helping people find new jobs.
This does not mean that you have to register here every time you find yourself unemployed.
You only need to do this if you want the unemployment office to help you find a job, and in the meantime you will receive unemployment benefits to help you get through the period of unemployment. Whether you qualify is determined, among other things, by whether you have paid at least 12 months’ pension contributions in the last two years.
Tip: You can read more about what conditions you need to meet in our next article.
On the basis of your application, the Job Centre will keep a register of jobseekers and actively search for a job that matches your experience, qualifications and health. In addition, the Job Centre will also take into account your ability to commute. You should be offered a job that corresponds to at least 80% of a normal working week. After one year, part-time work can be offered. It should also be a permanent or fixed-term contract with a minimum duration of three months. However, you must take into account that the employment that the Job Centre finds for you cannot, with few exceptions, be refused, otherwise it will lead to your removal from the register and withdrawal of support.
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In addition to unemployment benefits, the Labour Office provides other types of financial support. These include:
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As we have already announced, the Job Centre is not just about benefits and helping the unemployed. It also offers a range of other services. These services include:
The Job Centre offers free counselling services to all jobseekers and jobseekers. These take the form of individual consultations and group counselling. There is a wide range of counselling services. You can choose from career counselling, help with creating a CV and improving your self-presentation on the labour market, advice on entrepreneurship and financial literacy, or legal advice.
Tip: Legal advice is also offered by the Affordable Advocate. Looking for an answer to a specific legal question? Email us and you will have an answer from one of our attorneys within 48 hours.
In addition, the Labour Office provides counselling services targeted at special groups. These include helping primary and secondary school students to choose a career, counselling assistance to people with health insurance or people who have long-term problems finding a job.
The Labour Office also provides opportunities for retraining and the acquisition of new vocational skills. To qualify for free retraining you must be a jobseeker or jobseeker, have the appropriate qualifications to successfully complete the course and then practise the occupation, be medically fit and the retraining must be necessary and useful for you. This means that your current qualifications do not allow you to get a job and retraining should help you to do this.
The big advantage is that you are entitled to support as a jobseeker while you are on a retraining course. This is 60% of your last average monthly earnings. However, you should bear in mind that if you decide not to complete the retraining course, you will have to pay for it. The same applies if you subsequently refuse to take up a job that the Job Centre finds for you on the basis of your new qualifications.
The Job Centre also offers help with international labour mobility through the EURES advice and information network. It offers a range of services for those interested in working abroad and for employers interested in foreign workers. Specifically, these are the countries of the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
This service includes the publication of vacancies, assistance in finding vacancies and advice. Anyone can make use of these services, so they do not have to be jobseekers or jobseekers. For most jobs, however, knowledge of German or English is a prerequisite.
Tip: Do you want to terminate your employment? We will advise you on your options and which one is worth using.
The Job Centre offers a number of interesting projects in cooperation with the European Union, targeting different groups of people with different needs. Among the national projects, you can find, for example, the support for employee training, which contributes to employers for various training courses for their employees. There is also the Age is not an obstacle project, which aims to support older people in the labour market , or the Guarantees for the Young project, which aims to enable young people to gain professional experience and help them find employment in their field.
In addition to the national projects, there are also projects focused on specific regions that take into account local problems. Often these are projects aimed at disadvantaged groups, such as the young, the elderly or people with disabilities.
Tip: How could prosperity in our country be increased? Expert advisers to the Czech government have come up with a seemingly paradoxical solution. One of the partial recipes, according to them, could be limiting the rights of employees and simplifying their dismissal. This way is inspired by the Danish Flexicurity model, which seems to be functional and effective in Denmark. What does it consist of and how could it be applied to the Czech context?
The Job Centre allows you to upload your CV, which then becomes available to employers. This is therefore a passive way of looking for a job, where employers approach you. Again, anyone can upload a CV here.
Last but not least, the Job Centre serves as a portal with a wide range of vacancies. It allows you to search using the nature of the job and the location of the job with a limitation on the commuting distance. Here you will find a wide range of jobs. From highly skilled jobs, such as medical or legal positions, to jobs that require no training or experience at all, such as production workers or cleaners.
When you quit your job, we can help you defend yourself against your employer’s actions and make sure you get everything you’re entitled to from them. This includes, for example, any wages or severance pay you are owed. We provide assistance throughout the country and at a predetermined price.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 10 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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