The large personnel costs are justified by intensive one‑on‑one counseling and the need to develop an entirely new service from scratch, said Kristi Melesk, head of the employment department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

"In the program, counseling participants plays a very large role, and therefore counselors' salaries make up a large part of the costs. Secondly, we are starting from a clean slate and did not have a ready‑made program, which meant that thorough preparatory work and development of the intervention itself were needed," Melesk said.

The program is intended for 40‑ to 64‑year‑old women in Ida‑Virumaa who do not speak Estonian. For the plan to succeed, 45 women should find employment.

According to the financial plan, the exact total cost of the project over three years is €799,365. Of this, 70 percent — €559,555.95 — is covered by the European Social Fund Plus, and the remaining 30 percent (€239,809.70) is Estonia's co‑financing.

The unquestionably largest cost item in the budget is direct personnel expenses, which amount to €615,845. The majority of this — €439,741 — goes to personnel costs directly related to carrying out activities, to which are added personnel costs for program preparation and 15 percent indirect costs.

According to Melesk, the program includes a project manager and a part‑time program manager, an Ida‑Virumaa coordinator, and six counselors who work full‑time.

"Counselors are the direct contact persons for participants. During program development, a proposal was made to add new roles — a training coordinator and a designer, both part‑time. This did not increase the project's financial volume, but planned costs were reallocated," Melesk said, clarifying that outsourcing design services would not have resulted in savings. The designer's role is to support outreach activities.

The counselors' monthly salary is not centrally determined, the official added.

The counselors are residents of Ida‑Viru County. "These people have now been recruited. They have completed training, and in September they will begin working with participants," Melesk said.

"The counselor keeps in contact with people and invites them to joint activities. Since participants have been away from the labor market for a very long time, they need support in job searching and preparation: finding self‑confidence, writing a CV, and searching for suitable job opportunities. A great deal of the work is personal work with each participant," Melesk explained.

The program plans for 450 women to participate. Although the program is aimed at the unemployed, Melesk does not see a risk of duplicating the work of the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

"Usually people come to the Unemployment Insurance Fund themselves. We are trying, with a new approach, to find those people who do not walk through the fund's door on their own. We need to find people who have become inactive in the labor market, no longer look for work, and therefore do not participate in labor‑market services," Melesk said.

Melesk added that the problem is not so much that they have not found jobs, but that job searching has often been abandoned or they no longer know how to see their role in the labor market.

"They also may not know what kinds of jobs are offered. An important part of the program is to bring employers and suitable job offers together with participants. We see a need to cooperate with employers and create contact opportunities for participants so they can see what job possibilities exist in the region," she added.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and X and never miss an update!