EURO-OKTAÉDER College

This institute has been operating in Békéscsaba for more than 10 years. Trying to meet the requirements of the local labour market, it offers post-graduate and higher level OKJ (Hungarian qualification catalogue) courses, and has the licence to organise exams, too.

These courses are usually focus on professions requiring management knowledge.

The executives of EURO-OKTAÉDER know the situation and demands of the labour market of the region, and have great experience in setting up educational programs and courses.

The main objective of the school is to improve education of economy, computer and foreign language education in Békés county, and to provide well-trained employees with high professional knowledge for the labor market of the region.

Women’s Association of Békés County

This Association of 200 members is up and doing in the county. The Association has 6 affiliated organizations in 6 different towns as follows: Békéscsaba, Csorvás, Dévaványa, Ecsegfalva, Szeghalom and Telekgerendás.

The Association was founded in 1998 as an independent social lobby organization. Among its aims are the protection of the family, non-discrimination of women in social life, advancing the level of women in public life and unification of the women living in the county. One of the highest priorities of the Association is to improve women’s family, social, public, professional and employment situation.

For reaching these goals, the Association has been monitoring the situation of women in Békés county since it was founded; therefore it is well aware of the local problems and necessities very much. Financial conditions for the aims of the Association are mainly covered from grants an tenders, like the PHARE program of “The improvement of the labor situation of women in Békés county”, in which the Associaton was a co-applier. As such, the Association cooperated in mentor activity and in developing the survey examining the situation of the women participating in the program.

The Association has contacts with different civil organizations throughout the region and the country, and the Association is the member of the Association of Civil Organizations of Békéscsaba, Civil Conciliation Forum of the Small Region of Békéscsaba and the national Hungarian Women’s Lobby Association, which is the member of the EWL, the European Women’s Lobby.

Kopernikusz Innovation Association

The Association is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002. Its goal is to help the developement of the Hungarian small and medium sized undertakings to improve their the competitiveness, and in cooperation with the local organizations to develope certain regions with organizing seminars, trainings and conferences. Moreover, the Association helps the undertakings and the local governments to get support from the Structural Funds and other European Union programs.

Despite of its young age, the reference list of the Association isvery impressive. It regularly participates in the realization and management of the programs of Italy, Hungary and the European Union (LEONARDO, PHARE, LIFE). It also organizes trainings for micro and small sized undertakings about management and financing. These projects promote the competitiveness of the Hungarian small and medium sized undertakings and also to let them attend on the international market. Members of the Association are such Italian and Hungarian organizations, which have been successfully serving the undertakings for long years.

The main activities of the Association are the following: consultation on applications, trainings, improvements of small and medium sized undertakings, supports for local organizations, improvements of small regions, lobby, organization of meetings and conferences, market surveys.

Labor Centre of Békés County

Labor Centre of Békés County is the local organization of the State Employment Service, serving its duties since 1991 by its central department and 8 affiliates. Its main task is to prevent unemployment, to decrease the unemployment rate and to fulfill the employee requirements of the employers. To fill these functions properly the Centre monitors and collects information on the labor market situation of the county, prepares forecasts about the possible future changes and helps the local educational institutes to determine the optimal structure of education.

The Centre also executes the local tasks of maintaining the resources of the Labor Market Fund.

The Centre is liable for the employment rehabilitation of the people with altered abilities living in the region. It also maintains the system serving the unemployed people looking for work and operates the support and service systems, which contains - among others - consultation for unemployed people about labor, orientation and rehabilitation.

The Centre has wide experiences, since it has executed some successful innovative projects supported by the European Union, providing guidelines for the whole country. With its project no. HU/02/EX/415 the Centre won in 2004 the national and in 2005 the European Mobility Award. The model developed in this project was the basis of the PHARE project, in which the Internet-based regional career system called www.epalya.hu was developed by a 22 member consortium leaded by this Centre. This system was extended to the whole country by the State Employment Service.