Dear Sir or Madam!
I am a student with work experience through student placements with different employers. I have been looking for a regular job for a long time and have applied to job advertisements where I think I meet the requirements. In most cases, the job advertisements require employers to supplement their applications with proof of the required level of education for each student job I have held (there are many).
The amount (duration) of work experience can be proven by printouts of references issued or work experience gained from student services (e.g. e-student services have a My Experience application). However, it is NOT possible to prove the level of education required for a job if the employer does not issue the certificate.
As a reminder, employers of student workers are not legally obliged to issue any certificate of the level of education required for the work I did, because Article 78 of the Employment Relations Act stipulates that upon termination of the employment contract, the employer is obliged, at the request of the employee, to return to the employee (regular employment) all his/her documents and also issue him/her with a certificate of the type of work he/she did, but this Act does not regulate the rights of students.
Therefore, there is no legal basis for issuing such a certificate, nor is there a formal form to prove the level of education for student work. In addition, some of the companies I worked for have gone bankrupt.
The ZDR-1, which lays down the conditions of employment, regulates, among other things, work experience. However, the type and level of work experience and the way in which a job applicant proves that he or she meets these specific conditions is a matter for the discretion of the person who has set the condition.
It follows that students with student work experience are, from the starting point, in an unequal position vis-à-vis other candidates who have been in regular employment and whose employer is obliged by Article 78 of the Labour Code to issue a certificate of the type of work.
I have work experience, but I cannot prove it because this is not regulated by law.
I propose to the Government to amend or adopt legislation that would give students an equal starting position in finding a job compared to others who have already had regular work experience.