A 30-day online qualification course is now being offered to unskilled and skilled professionals in the service, tourism, hotel and restaurant sectors. While employees participate in distance education, companies can cover their salary losses through funds from WEU reimbursement and competency funds.

Empty restaurants and hotels hit the service, tourism, hotel and restaurant business hard. But it must help a new collaboration.

3F, HORESTA and the Board of Labor Market and Recruitment have agreed on a model where companies from all over the country can send unskilled and skilled employees on skills development for up to 30 days. Rybner's Course Center offers the course, which focuses on industry-specific competencies such as personal sales, online customer service, marketing and food hygiene.

During the training period, companies can receive the pay loss partly from the WEU allowance and partly from the competence fund funds, if these are available through the agreement. This means that companies do not have to pay employees' salaries during the training period. The companies pay the course fee alone.

The qualification course, which is offered as distance education, gives the participants credit if they later want to continue on an ordinary professional education.

Minister of Employment Peter Hummelgaard says:

- This is a really good initiative. In this difficult time with major challenges in the labor market, it is nice to see when the parties come together on good models that benefit both employees and companies. It's great if some companies can even get employees back, rather than having to be laid off at worst.

- I realize that the model is far from solving all problems, but I think it is a good complement to all the measures the government has put in place to keep hand under workers and companies to secure the work and livelihood of the Danes .

CEO of HORESTA Katia K. Østergaard says:

- Hotels, restaurants, bars and many other businesses in our industry are incredibly hard hit by this extreme situation. Therefore, of course, we are looking for all initiatives that can help companies keep on their employees.

- If it becomes possible for companies to use this very concrete initiative in conjunction with the other political initiatives such as wage compensation, it will be a welcome extension for both companies and employees from the industry partners, where we together find possible solutions in an impossible situation.

Michael Jørgensen, Education Consultant 3F Private Service, Hotel and Restaurant says:

- 3F is very pleased with the initiative, which allows our members to strengthen their skills through distance education, and we hope that they will have a good experience and then see the value of continuing education. This applies not only to AMU, but also the path from unskilled to skilled. Both contribute to strengthening the value of the individual in an industry that will certainly be severely challenged in the future.

- Finally, the measure shows the strength of the Danish model. The competency funds that make these offers possible are the result of the agreements concluded between trade unions and companies, for the benefit of the covered companies and 3F's members.