XXX A3 - 3 Young and older people

A young person is twice as likely to be unemployed as an older person. One in five long-term unemployed workers is under 25 years of age. Another big group are people over 50 years. Get up and go for it: explore what Europe has to offer in the way of education and training. On one side our young people are afraid of accession, but on the other hand they will have more opportunity to used their knowledge of foreign languages, they will have more opportunity to find new job then older people without knowledge of foreign languages. Another big group are people over 50 years. They are not as flexible as young people, they have small knowledge of foreign languages (especially English, German, French, Italian, Spanish), they are slowly moving. They have their houses and flats, and there they have their old friends, neighbors. But they have experienced enough in their profession.

XXX A3 - 3 - 1 Older people

Older people. We feel hidden discrimination of people over 50 years. Many companies have not workplaces for older people. That is with disagreement wit Slovak laws and Slovak Constitution. Many people in Slovakia are afraid of accession to EU. They think, there it will be an unequal access to employment, difference in education and income. Despite all that was announcemented about equal rights in EU, we will be second class citizens of EU only. Many educated people will leave Slovakia, seeking better work -condition, better incomes. Some of present members countries of EU prepared for Slovakia underprivileged conditions - we have not opportunity to be employed for example for first 7 years in Germany, Austria (except doctors and nurses). People are afraid, that big foreign companies will dissolve research departments at former Slovak companies and there will be final assembly lines only. This is not good for the productivity of the Slovak economy and the cohesion of our society. Job opportunities may still be out of reach for older people. There is many other issues they have open solution. One way how to more inform older people about EU is using information from Internet. We can show them for example websites:
www.eujobs.sk
www.vlada.gov.sk/eu
www.europa.sk/english/eu-sr.html
eu-sr.webpark.sk
and many others.

Slovakia will soon arrive in the very heart of Europe. Over 80 % of Slovakia's foreign trade is made with the present European Union, and more than 75 % of foreign direct investment in Slovakia is from the European Union. We should also not forget that Slovakia has her own special strengths and products, and that export play a vital role in national economy. We welcome this new big market for our products. One of the biggest challenges in few next years. Many of us hope, that it will be positive step for Slovakia and for EU too. This paper was prepared by use of the Internet websites www.vlada.gov.sk, www.emplyment.gov.sk, www.europa.sk, www.nbs.sk, www.eujobs.sk mainly.