The SAO audited the management of the Fund of Further Education, revealing shortcomings in the reimbursement of some traineeships
Press release to audit No. 17/20 – 25. 6. 2018
The Supreme Audit Office has audited the management of the Fund of Further Education (FFE) between 2014 and 2016. Auditors mainly focused on a European-funded project "Traineeships for Young Jobseekers 2" to help pupils and students gain experience and facilitate their entry into the labour market. On a sample of 66 traineeships, the SAO did not detect serious legal infringements. However, several shortcomings were revealed in traineeship reimbursements in which trainees or traineeship providers did not comply with all the rules.
The auditors found that the FFE reimbursed approximately CZK 830 thousand for traineeships, although some traineeship providers and trainees had not fulfilled all the obligations. Trainees, for example, did not complete a compulsory e-learning course of soft skills or individual counselling; in other cases, at the time of the audit of the FFE, a mentor who was supposed to lead a trainee was missing at the place of traineeship, and so on.
In terms of numbers, traineeships looked as follows: about 75% of trainees were university students, roughly 18% were secondary school students. Number of pupils in apprenticeships was negligible. Although the unemployment rate of secondary school students has doubled in the long term compared to the unemployment rate of university students, secondary school students did not have an interest in engaging in traineeships, despite a targeted FFE campaign.
With respect to the representation of jobs, most of the contracts were entered into for positions as administrative staff, representing approximately 36% of all contracts. The marketing specialist position followed by about six percent and the architect position by about five percent. The cost of the 300-hour traineeship for an administrative worker was less than CZK 53 thousand, for the marketing specialist it was 67 thousand and in the case of the architect it was CZK 90 thousand.
The project " Traineeships for Young Jobseekers 2" supported a total of 2,922 people and the FFE paid a total of CZK 176 million for traineeships. The reward for trainees was CZK 49 million, the remaining CZK 127 million was a reward for traineeship providers.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office