In the beginning of the year, Prague Convention Bureau became a partner of the expert job portal pracezeny.cz whose purpose is to help women find employment.
The portal is operated by the company AGENDER s.r.o. who aims to improve the conditions of disadvantaged groups in the labour market, i.e. women with small children and people over 50 years.
Prague Convention Bureau has decided to actively support the project by advertising a job suitable especially for mothers with small children.
„I believe that this project makes sense, so we decided to set an example for other employers and offer a job to women interested in flexitime. We want to show them that it works. In Prague Convention Bureau, we have a good experience with this type of work arrangement. Our team consists mostly of women, half of whom are mothers with small children, so we know well their needs and try to accommodate them as much as we can. Working mothers must deal with certain limitations, but it does not mean that they are doing their work worse than other employees,” says Aleš Hozdecký, managing director of Prague Convention Bureau.
The portal pracezeny.cz has recently published the results of a questionnaire survey focused on issues of women’s employment. The survey, in which almost 3,000 women participated, among others showed that 69 per cent of respondents need flexible work arrangement, i.e. part-time job, work from home or work sharing, so that they can balance work and family responsibilities. The biggest barrier to their return to work after parental leave is unsufficient support from the family and employer. Forty per cent of women with small children who are currently on a three-year parental leave also said they are willing to work, however, they are facing the lack of flexitime offers, as well as reluctance of the employer to hire them again. Twenty-five per cent of women with children under 6 years are facing the same obstacles, including a small number of state pre-school facilities and insufficient support from the family when going back to work.
Prague Convention Bureau for the first time presented the pracezeny.cz project this spring, during one of the regular meetings with its members. The founder of the portal pracezeny.cz and President of Business Leaders Forum Mrs. Petra Janíčková discussed with the present PCB members flexitime possibilities in the field of tourism, especially in the hotel industry.
Within its cooperation with pracezeny.cz, Prague Convention Bureau will also support a nationwide educational project „INICIO For Women“ whose purpose is to help women in starting their own businesses. „We have asked this year’s winner Mrs. Michaela Horáčková to create souvenirs made of cardboard which will be used to promote Prague. We like the originality, processing, as well as ecological harmlessness of her products and we believe that they will be a great success,“ said Aleš Hozdecký from Prague Convention Bureau.
Prague Convention Bureau will also participate in the organization of the first festival „FOR ALL WOMEN“ organized by the company AGENDER s.r.o. The festival, whose mission above all is to inspire women to find their own life path, will take place in Prague in early March 2015 and it should be attended by about 500 women. One of the main speakers at the festival should be Mrs. Madeleine Albright.
