No vacancy

By Timothy Sifert

The country's imminent European Union membership, the potential for more stringent visa requirements in the United States and growing competition are factors pushing companies and organizations providing work-and-travel programs to begin to consider offering new countries in which their clients can work.

Each year roughly 20,000 young nationals travel to the U.S., the most popular port of call, via a host of for-profit and non-profit entities, to participate in five-month programs that allow them to work for up to four months then travel the country for another 30 days. At the same time as these companies and their U.S.-focused programs have steadily grown in popularity - largely on account of Poland's tight relationship with the U.S. - these firms are beginning to think about pushing other European countries to be as amenable as the U.S. to the short-term contracts of local workers.

There has been hearsay that the American government, which has recently become more sensitive to travelers of all nationalities accessing its borders, is aiming to limit the number of students or to pose more discerning criteria on those to whom it issues J-1 student visas - a cornerstone for the work-abroad business.

But the most likely important impetus to companies' shifts in strategy is that Poland's imminent EU membership will allow locals to trek off to six European countries to work legally.

Naturally, opportunity knocks for companies in this competitive industry.

"We will be allowed to work legally in six countries," said Agata Juzyk-Juskowiak, product manager of JDJ Bachalski, which provides work-abroad and other programs here. "It would be easier for us."

She added that the company has no concrete plans to beef up its European offerings, although it is considering doing so. Bachalski also entertained the idea of the U.S. possibly becoming a less friendly place in terms of visa restrictions.

"There is talk that the American government is going to impose some restrictions, but that's only what we hear," she said. In that vein, she commented that JDJ has not factored new restrictions into its future business model.

"We hope that (the U.S.) is not going to introduce many restrictions," Bachalski said. "Now we just follow the rules published by the state department."

Michał Kołtyś, president of Youth Travel Polska (YTP), which mainly sends clients to the U.S., said that his firm is considering other countries, due to Poland's upcoming EU membership and the loosening of work prohibitions that union membership entails. At present, he said that - notwithstanding work restrictions - the idea of doing any type of work in the United Kingdom, for instance, would be prohibitive. That's one of the reasons why the U.S. has been a favorite destination for young Poles.

"London and the U.K. are expensive," Kołtyś said, explaining that simple but core costs for transportation, food and lodgings weigh heavily on students' budgets. "Food and transportation in the U.S. are inexpensive, (but) you earn quite a bit of money. And the U.S. is also a dream country for Poles."

Nevertheless, he said that one of the ways to keep YTP's client roster (2,000 this year) growing is to look to other countries because the U.S. - even today - only allows a certain number of travelers.

Joanna Bernacka, educational program director of work-abroad agency Almatur, agrees at least that a more diversified product offering is a path to success.

"(There is) big competition on the Polish market," she said. "All companies are trying to get as many students as possible."