Moving with a family

If your spouse accompanies you during your study or research stay in Slovakia and he/she wants to work in Slovakia, the process of employment is different for EU/EEA/Swiss nationals and nationals from third countries.

Nationals of EU/EEA Member States and Switzerland are employed under the same conditions as Slovak nationals. They must fulfil the employer's requirements, e.g. required education, language skills or required working experience in a specific professional area, etc.

Third country nationals who have been granted a temporary residence for the purpose of family reunification can be employed in Slovakia without obtaining a work permit.

Further information is available HERE

Information on job vacancies is available on the internet as well as in the national, regional and local newspapers.

When seeking a job you can also use the services of specialised entities/agencies. They can arrange a job for a certain fee upon a permit issued by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. A list of job intermediaries is available at the website of the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.

Job counselling for third country nationals is also provided by the Migration Information Centre. They also offer allowances for and educational and requalification courses. 

Other useful links:

• When looking for a job as a researcher or a university teacher, it is advisable to have a look at the EURAXESS Jobs section with research opportunities in Slovakia.
• Job offers at Slovak higher education institutions are available on the website of the Ministry of Education (in Slovak only).
• Job offers at the Slovak Academy of Sciences (in Slovak only) and the possibility to register as a job seeker
• Profesia search database of job vacancies (the web page is available also in Czech, English, German and Hungarian)
• Slovak business directory - Green pages 
• Slovak network of European Employment Service – EURES; information on the labour market, living and working conditions and freedom of movement is available at http://ec.europa.eu/eures in all official languages of the EU
• Internetový sprievodca trhom práce (in Slovak only) - is a portal providing jop positions, courses and consulting in the field of searching for a job. It is provided by Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. 
• Jooble - job search engine gathering links to job postings from different job sites that are relevant to search terms. Note: most of the positions in Slovakia are published in Slovak language.

In connection with the childbirth and care for a newborn child, women are entitled to a maternity leave lasting 34 weeks.

If a mother is a single parent, she is entitled to a maternity leave of 37 weeks.

If a woman gives birth to two or more children at the same time, she is entitled to a maternity leave of 43 weeks.

• Maternity Leave

The beginning of the maternity leave is set by the attending physician, usually 6 weeks before the expected date of the childbirth (8 weeks prior to the childbirth at the earliest). In connection with the care for a newborn child, fathers are entitled to paternity leave under the Labour Code, while the Social Insurance system provides a separate paternity benefit (“otcovské”) for up to two weeks during the six weeks following the birth of the child.

Maternity benefit is provided per days in the amount of 75% of the daily assessment basis. The entitlement of the pregnant insured woman or of the insured woman taking care of a new born child is awarded provided that the person concerned has been insured at least 270 days within the period of two years prior to the confinement.

For obtaining the maternity benefit, you must submit a completed application at the Social Insurance Agency (branch office according to the place of your residence). The application form will be provided and certified by your gynaecologist; if you are employed, it is also submitted through your employer in accordance with the applicable procedure.

Useful tips are to be found in the leaflet Not to forget when you give a birth to a child in Slovakia by IOM.

For the purposes of extended care of children, employers are obliged to grant women and men, who so request, a parental leave until the day the child turns three years old, or, in the case of a child with a long-term adverse health condition requiring special care, until the day the child turns six years old.  Such leave is granted for the duration requested by the parent, but generally for at least one month. Maternity leave granted in connection with the birth must not be shorter than 14 weeks and may not be terminated or interrupted before the lapse of 6 weeks from the date of the birth.

• Absence from work

An employer must excuse the employee’s absence from work on the grounds of temporary incapacity to work due to the illness or injury, periods of maternity and parental leave, quarantine, personal care of a sick family member or care for a child under the conditions stipulated by the Labour Code, or in case of medical examination or quarantine of the person who otherwise takes care of the child.

An employer shall provide an employee with the time off from work for the purpose of his/her medical examination for 7 working days per calendar year as well as for the purpose of accompanying their family members to the medical examination for another 7 days. Such days off are remunerated. Extra remunerated time off is provided to a pregnant woman in relation to the preventive medical examination related to her pregnancy. Special family circumstances such as attending a funeral of defined family members or attending one’s own marriage or marriage of their children or parents or the birth of a child constitute reasons for awarding time off from work in accordance with the conditions set by the Labour Code (which may or may not be remunerated depending on the specific circumstance).

A person – parent shall become entitled to the following state social benefits at birth of a child/children:

• Child birth allowance
• Child care allowance
• Parental allowance

For further details read the maternity benefit (provided from the Social insurance)and other benefits of the State social support.

School education is provided by public, private and church schools. Public primary and secondary schools are established by self‑governing bodies (municipalities, cities and self‑governing regions) and education is provided free of charge. In private and some church schools a school fee is paid. Special schools and special educational establishments (attended by children with physical and mental disabilities, talented and very talented children) are set up under the authority of the state (regional authorities).

Certain schools focus on developing specific pupils’ talents, such as sports schools, schools for mathematics, foreign languages, etc.

Tuition takes place 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday. School year lasts from September 1 to June 30, July and August being summer holiday. The tuition usually begins at 8:00 AM and contains from 4 to 8 lessons per day. A standard lesson takes 45 minutes and is mostly followed by a 10‑minute break; lunch break being longer.

The number of pupils in primary school classes is around 23 pupils per class; however this number slightly rises in upper grades.

There is a general grading scale:

1 – excellent

2 – very good

3 – good

4 – satisfactory

5 – unsatisfactory (fail)

The form of assessment may also include verbal assessment, depending on the grade and subject.

In the majority of schools, the Slovak language is the language of instruction. However, there are also schools with instruction in other languages – Hungarian mostly, but also Ukrainian, Bulgarian, German, and English.

Glossary

Základná škola = primary school

Gymnázium; Stredná škola; Lýceum = secondary grammar school

Obchodná akadémia = secondary school of economics and administration

Spojená škola = joint school with two organisational units e.g. a secondary grammar school and a primary school or two different types of schools at the same educational level.

• Primary education

Primary education is provided through basic education and is generally divided into primary and lower secondary education. Compulsory school attendance lasts 10 years and starts at the beginning of the school year following the child's sixth birthday, provided the child has reached school maturity. It lasts at most until the end of the school year in which the pupil turns 16 or completes ten years of compulsory schooling.

First stage of primary education: grades 1 to 4 (usually age 6 to 10).

Second stage of primary education: grades 5 to 9 (usually age 10 to 15).

Note: The compulsory school attendance period may extend beyond the nine years spent in primary school, for example when pupils continue their compulsory schooling in secondary education.

• Secondary education

Secondary education lasts from three to five years (usually covers the age 15 to 19). It is provided by the following types of schools:

1. Gymnasium (secondary grammar school): Provides general secondary education and prepares for further study at universities and other higher education institutions.
2. Specialised secondary school: Prepares students for vocational education and for study at higher education institutions.
3. Conservatories: Conservatories are a special type of professional school that provides courses in such fields as singing, music, dancing and dramatic arts.
4. Vocational secondary school: Prepares students for occupations requiring higher level vocational education and a school leaving certificate. Students may continue their studies at higher education institutions.
5. Apprentice training centres: Prepare school‑leavers for professional activities.

Secondary school‑leaving certificate

The general prerequisite for admission to higher education study is a secondary school‑leaving certificate issued after passing the secondary school‑leaving examination taken upon completing secondary education leading to the school-leaving examination (maturita). The school‑leaving certificates are issued by most of the mentioned types of secondary schools. Higher education institutions organise as a rule the admission examination.

• Higher education

For details on the higher education system see the Higher Education Sector section

In Slovakia, preschool education (pre-primary education) extends until the start of compulsory school attendance and is offered through both non-institutional and institutional ways. Non-institutional preschool education occurs within families, while institutional preschool education is provided by preschool establishments, including kindergartens and special kindergartens.

These establishments typically admit children aged 3 to 6, with exceptions for those as young as 2 years old. Pre-primary education is compulsory for children who reach the age of five by 31 August preceding the school year in which they are due to start compulsory school attendance. Additionally, children over 6 who have deferred school entry or compulsory schooling may also attend. Preschool establishments operate various schedules, such as half-day or full day, with many offering full-day programs to accommodate parents' needs, typically from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Further information is available HERE

Primary and secondary school classes are usually held from 8:00 to 13:30. Pupils of the first stage of primary schools can spend their free time after classes in special school establishments ("družina"). Their activities are aimed at developing pupils' talents, preparing for lessons on the next day and organising sports activities in general.

Students can attend after school clubs run by schools themselves, devoted to various fields of interest, e.g. science, ecology, drama classes, music, sport, photography, etc. Main enrolment/registration days for a particular after school activity/programme are usually held in September. For further information contact a chosen school.

Apart from that, students can also attend language classes specially designed for their age and interests, leisure and hobby centres, or primary schools of art. (When looking for primary schools of art search for the term "základná umelecká škola" ("ZUŠ") in a standard search engine).

There are so‑called centres of free time("Centrá voľného času" – CVČ) in all the regions of Slovakia. For more information please use again the standard search engine.

Many children and youth organisations providing after‑school activities are associated with the Youth Council of Slovakia.

• Au-pair services

If you need to babysit your child, you can use the services of one of the many agencies which arrange babysitting for a fee (for both healthy or sick children, whole day or just an afternoon babysitting – with the possibility of being prepared for classes or accompanied to children's clubs, after‑school activities, babysitting in the evenings and on weekends, etc.).

A babysitting charge depends on a type of babysitting (regular, occasional, in a school facility or in the household), on a length of babysitting (short‑time or long‑time babysitting), as well as on a number of children. The price varies depending on the provider, location, type and duration of childcare.

For further information, contact particular agencies or consult their websites. A majority of agencies can also provide a babysitter who can speak a foreign language (usually English, German or French).

For a few examples of these, see e.g.: http://www.babysittingagency.sk/en/home.html (in English); https://www.domelia.sk/ponuka-prace/opatrovanie-deti (in Slovak only)

Slovak, the official language of Slovakia, belongs to the West Slavic subgroup of the Indo‑European language family and uses the Roman script. It does not differ significantly from Czech, and comprehension in both languages is rather common. The majority of the population of the Slovak Republic (86 %) speaks Slovak as their mother tongue. The second most widely spoken mother tongue is Hungarian.

The most widely spoken foreign languages in Slovakia are English, German, Russian, Hungarian and French. The young urban population is generally considered to be the most linguistically proficient. Foreign languages are sometimes taught at kindergarten.At primary and secondary schools, foreign language education forms part of the curriculum, with English being the most commonly taught foreign language. The specific language and the number of lessons depend on the school's educational programme and the applicable curriculum. There are some primary and secondary schools that conduct classes in foreign languages such as Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Private language schools offer many possibilities for children, young people and adults to learn foreign languages.

• Foreign language schools

To familiarise yourself with the Slovak language, you can use a free on-line portal Slovake.eu, which offers Slovak language courses at different levels (A1 and A2), grammar, exercises or games. Another on-line Slovak language lessons for beginners can be found here.

Some universities and research institutions organise Slovak language courses for their international students/researchers, e.g. the Institute for Language and Academic Preparation for Foreign Students of the Comenius University in Bratislava and the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. For more information, contact the International Relations Office of the respective higher education institution.

Nationals of countries outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland can attend a free of charge 'Free Slovak Language and Cultural Orientation Course'organised by the IOM Migration Information Centre. The courses are available to non-EU/EEA nationals with temporary, permanent or tolerated residence in Slovakia, including persons with temporary protection.

Foreigners can also attend courses of the Slovak language at several private language schools that provide education at all levels of language proficiency: beginner, intermediate, advanced. They offer group tuition or individual courses tailored to the clients’ individual needs. The courses are aimed at mastering all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The courses are usually held twice a week, 2 standard lessons (90 min. in total) per session. The availability, format, schedule and fees vary according to the language school. Private language schools offering courses of Slovak are, for example, Academy of Education, Eurolingua, Berlitz or other smaller private language schools.

• Summer School of Slovak Language and Culture - Studia Academica Slovaca (SAS)

The summer school SAS is aimed at all those studying Slovak language and culture and towards all Slavists in general. The intensive programme is suitable especially for university or college professors, experienced teachers, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates of Slovak and Slavonic studies, to writers, translators and all others interested in Slovak language and culture. The summer course lasts 3 weeks and takes place in August.

Bilateral intergovernmental agreements often offer scholarships for participation in this oldest Summer School of Slovak Language and Culture in Slovakia, organised by Studia Academica Slovaca (SAS) – The Centre for Slovak as a Foreign Language.