Client - Orientated Service Tools in the Eures Network

What assistance tools does the EURES network provide clients?

The EURES network uses the latest communication and Internet tools in providing services to its clients. The philosophy of the assistance tools used depends on clients’ needs and focuses on up-to-date, practical and useful information from the field of facilitating labour mobility to all EU/EEA countries. The website www.eures.sk is a specific assistance tool in the field of information-advice and agency activity, and which is adapted largely to the needs and requirements of citizens of Slovakia. On the site we can offer our clients a wealth of useful and practical information. The page is created in 4 language versions:   German, English, French and Slovak. The language variants extend the possibilities for the site’s application beyond our clients to among users throughout the European Union. The website is divided into 4 main sections, each distinguished by colour.
 

ADVERTISING

These sections focus on the various target areas of services provided by the EURES network. The first section is designed for all applicants interested in finding employment by means of the EURES network. In this section you will find a list of all job offers entered by EURES advisers in real-time. Job offers marked with the EURES logo indicate that the job offer was entered by the direct employer from an EU/EEA country. Job offers without the EURES logo belong to a foreign employment agency. In the bottom part of the section for jobseekers we also give a web link to our EURES network partners where it is possible to search for job vacancies via the national job vacancy browsers. In the event that our clients do not find an appropriate job in our national database they have the option of connecting also to the EURES European portal, which contains all job vacancies at the level of EU/EEA member states. The second section is devoted to cooperation with employers. This section serves as a detailed source of information for tying up cooperation with all employers interested in working with the EURES network and who want to employ clients particularly from the Slovak Republic. A very practical and useful section is the third section, which is devoted to the living and working conditions in the EU/EEA countries. This section includes an integrated interactive map of the EU/EEA, in which it is possible to get general information on all matters concerning employment, study or business in the selected EU/EEA country. The last main section is devoted to cross-border partnerships and initiatives ensuring cross-border mobility in border-lying areas of Slovakia. On the home page there can also be seen an information section devoted to short message feeds; this subsection contains current information on, for example, selection interviews and assorted news.
 
The top information bar on the website contains subsections giving general information on the EURES network, contacts, links, a photogallery and site map. An important part of the bar is the keyword search box. A new item in the website is a forum for clients of the EURES network. In this section, our clients have the opportunity to share their experiences and enter into discussion topics. 

You mentioned that clients have the opportunity to connect to the EURES European portal, can you explain what the difference is between the European and Slovak EURES portal? 

The difference is primarily in the amount and extent of information that the portals provide. The European portal provides a greater amount of information and has more traffic, but an advantage of the Slovak portal is that in terms of language it is more accessible to our citizens and contains more specific information directly for the needs of citizens from Slovakia, whereas to take full advantage of the European portal itself a client must have fairly good language proficiency.

Can you tell us more about the European portal:  www.eures.europa.eu ?

The European portal is an important communication tool of the European Commission, ensuring labour mobility on a transnational basis by means of the EURES national networks and managing information from throughout the European Union. The portal successfully integrates and networks this information from national levels and thereby provides more extensive information content for EU/EEA citizens. The communication tool provides the opportunity in particular to search for jobs and information from the field of work and study opportunities in Europe. A particularly noteworthy statistic is that at the start of 2011 the portal incorporated a total of 809 797 job vacancies in a single system.  
 
A significant auxiliary tool of the European portal is the database of CVs, which can be accessed by all employers registered in the EURES network, thereby achieving more extensive access from the side of employers to the selection of potential employees, or jobseekers from EU/EEA countries. Clients can register in the CV database free of charge by means of the section “My EURES” and can create their CV, which can then be accessed both by employers and EURES advisers assisting employers in searching for suitable candidates. The European portal at the start of 2011 had available a total of 547 316 CVs to which 22 666 registered employees currently have access. Using the EURES portal clients can also get important information on worker mobility and can communicate directly with more than 800 EURES advisers throughout the EU/EEA, and who are always ready to help. Overall information is collected from the 31 European countries and is regularly updated. The portal can also help if you want to know what steps to take when moving abroad. The life and work section can help you with this. 

The life and work section allows you to select the country that you are interested in and will then provide you with information on the labour market in that country, on living and working conditions and on transitional rules governing the free movement of workers.
The EURES network facilitates job mobility with the aim of contributing to the maximum satisfaction of clients also through the above-mentioned modern assistance tools. The constant interest of citizens and employers from across the European Union in labour mobility at the European-wide level can also be seen from the mentioned data from the start of 2011. 

More info: www.eures.sk

Author: PhDr. Mária Fábianová                                           
Photo: Eures

Audio/Video

Photogallery