The first step to a successful start in a new country. That is the Welcome to the Czech Republic adaptation and integration course, which Slovo 21 has been working on since 2013. Nowdays, our courses are mandatory for some foreigners by law, and we continue to ensure that they are high-quality and provide up-to-date and verified information.
• 4 hours, 1 lecturer, 1 interpreter, and topics such as residence, employment, education, healthcare, and housing, this is the core structure of the course
• Information is delivered in Czech and interpreted into one of nine designated languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English, Vietnamese, Arabic, Serbian, Mongolian, Spanish, and French
• If needed, we also provide interpretation into so-called rare languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, or Korean
• Since courses became mandatory in 2021, 38,000 foreigners have taken them
How were the courses created?
Starting a new life in a foreign country is not easy. Many Slovo 21 employees, who are immigrants themselves, have experienced this firsthand.Thanks to their personal experience and close collaboration with the Department of Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior (OAMP MV ČR) and other non-profit organizations, the idea to create a course that provides foreigners with all the essential information in one place was born. Between 2013 and 2020, when the form of the course was gradually taking shape, 7,347 people passed through our course. In this pilot phase, we at Slovo 21 were responsible for the entire organisation of the courses.
Since 2021, adaptation and integration courses have become mandatory for certain groups of newly arrived third-country nationals under an amendment to the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals. At this stage, we are already cooperating with other entities in the implementation of the courses on a national scale: the centres for the support of the integration of foreigners, which announce the courses and decide where, when and in which language the course will take place, and the Department of Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the smooth running of the mandatory courses on behalf of the state.
The Role of Slovo 21
Our organization is responsible for the expert and methodological aspects of the project. This means we oversee and continuously update course content. For example, if there is a change in the commercial health insurance system for foreigners, our lecturers must be informed immediately, and the information must be updated in all materials and translations. In addition to this, we are responsible for the lecturers and interpreters, whose quality performance is essential for the course to be truly beneficial to the foreigners.
Working with Lecturers and Interpreters
We manage a large database of lecturers and interpreters in nine languages, which helps integration centers staff courses across the country. Our database is constantly expanding to meet demand in all regions. To maintain high-quality teaching, we regularly organize training sessions for lecturers and interpreters, guiding them through the process until they pass the official exam before the Commission of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic. Only those who successfully pass this exam are allowed to teach or interpret at the adaptation and integration courses.
Even after “certification”, we continue working with lecturers and interpreters, mainly thanks to regular supervision sessions, which are a tool for providing detailed feedback. In addition, we organise regular methodological meetings for them. This is all in order to continue to maintain their quality and also to create a space for sharing experiences.
What is the feedback on the courses?
Since 2021, we have been conducting an extensive evaluation every year, which focuses on the participants as well as the integration centres and the lecturers and interpreters. Its main part is a quantitative questionnaire survey among foreigners who evaluate both the quality of the lecturers and interpreters and the usability of the different topics. From their answers we know that 90 percent of the participants would like to take the course again, even if it were not compulsory (and paid). We also know that foreigners find it most beneficial to take the course as soon as possible after arrival. The usefulness of the information provided gradually decreases with the length of stay in the Czech Republic.
More information is available on the official project website: https://www.vitejtevcr.cz/cs/
The Welcome to the Czech Republic 2025 project is funded by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.
