Social counseling

Social workers of the Counseling and Information Center (PIC) provide counseling service specialized in the education and job-choosing matters.

Our service is offered to all foreigners aged 16 to 39 years living in Prague.

Sice April 2008,  we offer our service and social counselling to young foreigners in the age of 6 to 16 years.

The counseling is provided to foreigners holding any kind of visa. However, the offered service is usually affected by the client’s legal status.

We provide help to the clients who have decided to attend further education (high school, college or university) with:

• choosing appropriate school
• contacting selected school
• obtaining the entrance examination information
• filling in the application form
• preparing for the entrance exam
• managing validation of the certificates and documents from previous education
• finding suitable additional and retraining programs

The clients currently attending school can be helped with:

• orientation in the new school environment, including explanation of school requirements
• resolving difficulties encountered with course content
• solving accommodation problems
• requesting scholarship or other benefits available

Also we offer our service to individuals, not currently in education and aged 18 – 30 years. They may be interested in further education but currently have problems realizing their ambitions because of social, language, financial, family commitments or other reasons.

In this situation we can help with:

• finding an appropriate solution such as alternative forms of study, retraining schemes etc.
• managing day-care while parent attends course
• supporting client to obtain work at the position corresponding with his/her level of education
• managing validation of certificates and documents from previous education

We also would like to help to the parents of young foreigners who face the problems connected with education of their children. The help consists of providing counseling, mediation and recommendation of other professional help.

Other services the clients can ask for are:

• assistance of the social worker or volunteer (depending on the situation)
• access to the up-to-date database of education and re-training possibilities
• financial or material support according to the situation
• recommendation for other professional help

Additionally, the client can ask for a social worker/volunteer to accompany him to meetings connected with his studies.

All clients have the opportunity to use the Association’s database. The database includes information about courses offered by Prague High Schools, Colleges and Universities plus details of Retraining Courses and also information about scholarships, language courses, accommodation, etc.

In justified cases, we will try to secure financial support to cover our clients’ educational expenses through our network of sponsors. Such financial support is not automatic.

The Association’s social workers will provide help, by contacting the relevant authorities, where clients need to resolve questions connected with their residential qualification.

Social counseling is provided in the Counseling Center at: Rumunská st. 29, Prague 2, two minutes form Náměstí Míru (metro/subway - green line “A”)

office hours:
 

monday                  13:00 - 19:00
tuesday                  10:00 - 17:00
wednesday             10:00 - 17:00
thursday                 10:00 - 17:00

We recommend to make an appointment (by phone or email)