Komenda Główna Ochotniczych Hufców Pracy

The Voluntary Labour Corps (Polish: Ochotnicze Hufce Pracy, OHP) - It is a state-run organisational unit working to prevent the social exclusion of young people. The Voluntary Labour Corps exists for over 60 years. We implement state tasks directed towards teenagers over 15 years of age, and the unemployed under 25 years of age, that include employment services, counteract social marginalization and social exclusion, as well as tasks related to education and upbringing. The OHP structures consists 721 organisational units and branches operating throughout Poland. Depending on the type of activities delivered, these include: - 217 shelter and educational units, where young people can supplement their general and vocational education; - a network of 504 bodies implementing labour market initiatives, where young people may benefit from vocational counselling and guidance, job matching services, and vocational training and information. The beneficiaries of the activities delivered by the Voluntary Labour Corps include: ? young people (aged 15 to 17 years) from troubled, dysfunctional, unemployed, and poverty-stricken families who fail to continue compulsory schooling and are not in education, struggle to complete school, and need to acquire vocational qualifications; ? individuals aged 18-25, including jobseekers or those who wish to be retrained or are unemployed, school graduates, and students. The OHP mainly performs its statutory tasks to ensure that young people effectively enter the labour market by implementing large-scale projects co-financed by EU resources, and especially the European Social Fund. Just like other OHP initiatives, these are mainly addressed to young people at risk of social marginalisation for whom ESF projects provide an opportunity to benefit from innovative forms of assistance and obtain vocational qualifications vital to their employability.