Hungary:Good Practice Examples in BiH interesting also to the neighbouring countries

The Western Balkan Expert Academy, chaired by the Labour and Employment Agency of BiH, was held in organization of the Hungarian National Employment Service in framework of the Project ‘Development of Employment Services as Part of Integrated Labour and Social System’. 

The Western Balkan Expert Academy, chaired by the Labour and Employment Agency of BiH, was held in organization of the Hungarian National Employment Service in framework of the Project ‘Development of Employment Services as Part of Integrated Labour and Social System’. The Academy, held on 27 – 29 February 2012 in Harkány

, was attended by representatives of the Hungarian National Employment Service, National Employment Service of Serbia, Labour and Employment Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Federal Employment Service. 

During the 3-day conference, the BiH delegation presented to their counterparts from Hungary and Serbia its experiences in implementation of active employment policies in 2010 and 2011. Representatives of the Labour and Employment Agency of BiH held six presentations on the following topics:  

1. ‘Organisation of employment services and labour market situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ presenting the functioning of the system of labour market institutions  in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the base data on current situation in the labour market of BiH.
2. ‘Strategic framework for implementation of active employment policy measures in BiH’ outlining the principal objectives and key measures of employment strategies at the state and entity levels.
3. Active Employment Policy Programmes in BiH’, presenting in detail AEP Programmes implemented in BiH in 2010 and 2011 with the outline of total funds invested, sources of funding, number of persons involved in the programmes and effects of implemented measures.
4. ‘Experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina and transition economies in implementation of active employment policies’, presenting the impact of economic trends on the labour market situation and the evaluation of AEP programmes implemented in BiH and other Southeast European countries.
5. Active Employment Policy Programmes of the Employment Service of Sarajevo Canton’,  presenting a practical example of adopting an AEP implementation plan in Sarajevo Canton, outlining public calls for certain programmes, as well as evaluation and effects of implemented AEP measures.
6. ‘Activities of the Vocational Education and Retraining Centre in Bihać’ which operates within the Employment Service of Una-Sana Canton.

Representatives of the Federal Employment Service presented AEP measures implemented by the Federal Employment Service and cantonal employment services in the Federation of BiH in 2011, as well as activities planned for 2012. 

During each presentation, the attending participants from employment services of Hungary and Serbia asked additional questions related to the functioning of the BiH labour market and implemented AEP measures and presented the experiences in implementation of AEP measures in their respective countries.   In this way, participants were introduced to both positive and negative examples in implementation of AEP measures.  It was concluded that the Academy was a good opportunity of bringing together good practices from different countries to enable their implementation in participants’ respective countries.