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- Ελληνικά
The attraction and utilization of students from third countries, who wish to study and work, is an important parameter of the Government's development planning.
In particular, expanded access of foreign students to the labour market can combine university education with professional development, help upgrade services, fill some of the seasonal needs and create additional quality jobs in higher education that are attractive to the domestic workforce.
The government's plan for further utilization of foreign students in the labor market, formulated by the Ministries of Finance, Interior, Education and Labor, includes: strengthening the supervisory framework, updating the access provided, expanding the accessible professions, extending the allowed working hours and providing the possibility to stay for work after completion of undergraduate studies.
In this context, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education have planned increased inspections to check the student status of working foreign students in order to verify that they are actively participating in their academic programmes of study, while at the same time promoting the tightening of penalties for them and the institutions they attend in order to make an example of abuses and violations.
In addition, it has been decided to renew the Decree on the access of foreign students to the labour market issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, so that students studying in academic institutions in the country are entitled to work until March 2024, following the previous Decree that allowed students enrolled in academic institutions to work until October 2022, as well as to expand the professions to which access is allowed, with the inclusion of retail salespersons and saleswomen, following a labour market check on the availability of domestic human resources.
At the same time, the Ministry of Interior is working on amending the relevant legislative framework to increase the maximum number of permitted working hours per week, during periods of course attendance, from 20 to 25 hours and to provide the possibility of staying in the country to work for a period of 12 months after the completion of undergraduate studies.
It is expected that the rational use of the extended access to the labour market of third country nationals who are in Cyprus as students will have a positive effect on the development prospects of the country through the legal and transparent staffing of businesses and organisations and the further expansion of Cypriot higher education.
(EAT/EP)
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