Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Main Theme Author(s) Eddy Bruno Esien Charles University Prague 5 Czech Republic Title Contracting-out the Job Search Assistance and Counseling Service for Young Third Country Immigrant Employment-Related Transition and the Role of Public Employment Service and Private Employment Agencies in CEE Countries: A Comparison of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Eddy Bruno Esien Abstract The contracting-out of job search assistance and counseling to private sector service providers is a major trend in the reform of the public employment service (PES) in Europe. Hungary and the Czech Republic are part of the exposed models of such a privatisation (job searching) in the CEE countries, while Poland that runs the project „Pact for Employment“ since 2008 in Lubusz region is also focusing on labour market monitoring. Given the enthusiasm of government to contract-out social services in general, assuming that private agencies are better of to meet consumers need and less bureaucratic in the implementation process, this paper will explore the role of public employment service and private agencies of the three countries with a focus on job search assistance and counseling of young third country immigrants, i.e. non-EU nationals who voluntarily and legally move to these countries with visa and residence, but face several barriers. However, outsourcing job search assistance services is challenging Public Employment Service monitoring and measurement system to tracked individual`s progress in finding and retaining jobs. Analyzing the principal agent relation and contracting-out model are keys to understanding this phenomenon. Drawing on document and content analysis, I will analyse the data and prepare a presentation about the role of PES and agencies in the implementation process. After that, I will outline the similarities and differences in the selected countries as a myriad of complication in performance management, complex role to finding the right contractor, potential difficulty in contracting human service such as employment which is core function of the public sector, and difficulty to balance ethical value and accountability because of the danger of fraud, conflict of interest, and corruption leading to an uncertain contracting process.
