As of 1 July 2014, the Ministry for National Economy relaunches the summer student work programme this year, within which students aged 16-25 years may obtain work at local governments or their institutions.
At a press conference in Budapest, Minister of State for Labour Market and Vocational Training Affairs Sándor Czomba said that last year 16 thousand young people obtained work experience through the two-month scheme, while the number of applicants did not decrease at student job centres.
Similarly to last year’s budget, HUF 1.5bn is earmarked for the financing of the project. Those full-time students are entitled to participate in the programme who turn 16 years old prior to the starting date of the scheme (1 July) and are not older than 25 years on the final day of it (31 August). Students, he added, can get registered as of today at relevant HR departments.
Under the programme, the Ministry subsidizes wages: a fully subsidized salary can be offered for up to two months (between 1 July and 31 August), for maximum 6-hour work per day. The subsidy is capped at HUF 88 500 for skilled employees and at HUF 76 125 for unskilled ones. As the Minister of State stressed, as the allowance provided by the Job Protection Action Plan for those below the age of 25 years also applies to these students, no contributions are to be paid for programme participants.
Sándor Czomba pointed out that although theoretically the available funding could cover the employment costs of 8500 students with two-month contracts each, as young people rather tend to do one-month jobs, the number of those in the programme may even be double this figure.
The summer student work programme is available everywhere in the country, but larger amounts are allocated and a higher number of participants are projected for disadvantaged regions.