Advisory Supporting Actions

The Greek Public Employment Service, within the framework of the system for the provision of services to job seekers, provides a series of advisory supportive actions.

The advisory services constitute dynamic interventions and aim at mobilizing, empowering and facilitating the unemployed in the context of their effort to integrate into the labor market.

The advisory actions provided by the Service are:

• Career Guidance Orientation and Reorientation Counseling
• Job Search Counseling
• Counseling for Undertaking Business Initiatives

The Service, in order to provide these services, has a network of specialized consultants, whom it has trained and continuously trains, in order to effectively implement the above actions.

The counseling services are provided on the basis of the jobseekers' needs as reflected in their Individual Action Plan.

Evaluation Reports of Groups Counseling e-Workshops

The main purpose of Vocational Guidance Counseling is to help the beneficiary to decide the type of profession they can exercise based on their professional profile, job characteristics and labor market prospects.

To whom is it addressed

• to persons registered in the unemployment register of the Service who enter the labor market for the first time without a clear professional goal or
• to persons who are required to change their profession in the past

Number of people participating 

Inclusion of interested parties in an advisory group requires the preparation of an Digital Individual Action Plan in cooperation with the Employment Advisor. The number of members of an advisory group varies between eight (8) and twelve (12).

Duration of the counseling group 

The duration of the counseling process in a group of beneficiaries lasts five (5) days.

Methodology – Tools

• Group Counseling
• Experiential way of working
• Exercises for the investigation of Personality traits (not "tests") 
• Exercises for the investigation of Professional Interests (not "tests")

Dynamic phases in the process of Counseling Career Guidance

• Counseling in order to develop the Self-concept and the Creation of a Professional Profile
• Information – Getting to know the Work Environment
• Educational Information
• Composition – Decision Making – Preparation of a Professional Action Plan

Subsidies of participation

The subsidies of the participation of the beneficiary in a Counseling Career Guidance group are: 

• The subsidies of the participation of the beneficiary in a Counseling Career Guidance group are: 
• professional development and maturation
• information for educational opportunities, vocational training, employment
• composition of professional profile (professional interests, values, skills, abilities and personal characteristics) in relation to the characteristics of the job being sought
• λmaking a professional decision and creating a professional plan with preparation steps for the implementation of the professional decision

The purpose of Job Search Techniques Counseling is to activate and mobilize the members of a team to seek and claim a job in the shortest possible time. Its primary goal is the development of skills/abilities to search for, claim and maintain a job position.

        Who it is addressed to: 

Persons registered in the unemployment register of the Service who are in the process of seeking employment, have a clear professional aim and their qualifications are sought by the labor market.

        Number of participants

For the inclusion of stakeholders in an advisory group, a Digital Individual Action Plan must be drawn up in cooperation with the Employment Counselor. The number of members of an advisory group varies between eight (8) and twelve (12).

        Duration of the counseling group

 The duration of the complete counseling process in a group of beneficiaries lasts five (5) days.

        Methodology - Tools 

The Job Search Counseling is implemented through a series of integrated and organized job search procedures, in an experiential way, where the beneficiary follows a “full-time” structured program. This service is provided by specialized consultants in the Greek Public Employment Service Structures at a group level.

        Subsidies of participation

• knowledge of labor market rules and procedures
• identification of effective ways of job search
• creation of a network of contacts – job search acquaintances 
• writing the professional profile
•  writing an effective CV in direct relation to the professional goal 
• writing a Cover Letter 
• appropriate preparation for an Interview of Choice
• identification of targeted jobs
• effective organization of the strategic approach to the labour market

It is a structured program that aims to help in a systematic way every person who participates in it to develop skills to search for a business idea and transform it into a business plan that is a guide for the creation of a sustainable business. Through an orderly process, the individual learns to collect, process and organize information in order to turn the uncertainty of the future into controlled possibilities.

Purpose

The purpose is to raise awareness, encourage and help the beneficiaries to develop skills in order to turn their business idea into a business plan with the ultimate goal of creating a business with increased sustainability prospects.

Duration of the Business Initiative Counseling Group 

The complete consultation process takes between three (3) and five (5) days.

Dynamic phases during Business Initiative Counseling

1. Counseling in order to investigate a professional/business profile The business profile is explored by collecting and processing information related to individual characteristics, such as: skills, motivation, expectations, ability to make business decisions

2.  Exploring the business idea/making a business decision

Points from which the exploration of the business idea begins:

• exploring the resources (opportunities/possibilities) offered by the environment in which the future business activity will be based
• recording and evaluating these resources
• exploring the business idea that combines the opportunities offered by the environment with the capabilities, abilities and skills of the prospective entrepreneur

3.  Developing a marketing program and basic financial planning

The goal of the marketing program is to win over consumers. This happens when the product or service is designed to meet specific needs of specific consumers and is adequately communicated to them.

Necessary steps for the development of a marketing program: 

• identification of the buyers and the market segment (or segments) to which the product or service is addressed
• formulation of an appropriate price policy
• promotion and advertising
• identification of the place of establishment of the business

         Key information that a basic financial planning needs to provide:

• projected start-up costs of the business activity
• sources of raising the necessary resources 
• cash flow schedule, which mirrors the flow of financial resources over a specific period of time

         Subsidies of participating in a business initiative counseling group

• exploration and elaboration of the strengths and weaknesses of the business profile
• exploration of the potential of the target business in the labor market
• information on financing or subsidy possibilities
• information on business plan design

The Greek Public Eployment Service implements the Act entitled “Pilot project to support business projects of unemployed young people aged 18-29”, under the Priority Axis “Facilitating access to employment for young people up to 29 years old” of the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” 2014-2020.

The project, for Sub-project 1 (provision of coaching services) is co-funded by Greece and the European Union under the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI).

The program is aimed at unemployed people aged 18-29, who remain out of training, education and the labor market. 

With this program the following objectives are expected to be achieved: 

a) The integration/reintegration of unemployed young people aged 18-29 into the labor market, through their support in the development of business plans, in the framework of a single consulting and guidance environment

b) The qualitative upgrading of the knowledge and skills of the beneficiaries through coaching, in order to meet the modern standards of the labor market

c) The creation of viable businesses 
 

In time, the program includes the following:

• Public invitation in the DYPA website and the Application of unemployed people aged 18-29 who remain out of training, education and the labor market
• Selection of 5,000 unemployed, who will attend a five-day Counseling Programme for Business Initiatives (SAEP), which will be implemented by specialized SAEP Consultants of DYPA.
• Processing by the beneficiaries of their business ideas on an online platform
• Completion of a maturity evaluation questionnaire of business ideas by the beneficiaries
• Selection of 3000 unemployed people based on evaluation and provision of coaching services to them, with the aim of creating business plans
• Monitoring the progress of beneficiaries by SAEP consultants, six months after the completion of the coaching.
   

The information of the interested parties about the action will be made:

• from the OAED portal (http://www.oaed.gr)
• from the OAED social media (π.χ facebook)
• by the labor consultants at the OAED Services (KPA2)
• from Press Releases, which are posted on the OAED's official website on the internet (www.oaed.gr) and sent, through the OAED Press Office, to the daily press.