Air Serbia has opened 36 vacancies for various entry-level roles in the airline, all due to start just ahead of Christmas this year. The recruitment push is part of the Serbian Government's policy program of boosting employment and skills in the country. Let's take a look at the roles on offer.

36 new vacancies at Air Serbia

In August this year, the Serbian Government launched My First Salary, a policy aimed at stimulating youth employment and skills development in Serbia. As part of the policy, employers in Serbia have access to two billion Serbian Dinars (20,000,000 USD) to pay for wages of 10,000 apprentices. The condition is that the apprentices are under the age of 30 and have no previous work experience, Novosti reports.

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Air Serbia has advertised 36 vacancies through the My First Salary program. The apprenticeship positions cover both office jobs and operational positions, so candidates can work both at Air Serbia's head office and at the airport.

Examples of positions listed for office jobs include:

  • Accounting Specialist
  • Revenue Accounting Specialist
  • Sales Accounting Specialist
  • Business Analyst
  • Salary Specialist
  • Recruitment And Selection Specialist
  • Interface Programer
  • Data Analyst

More airline-specific positions include:

  • Engineer For Aircraft Performance
  • Logistics Assistant
  • Aviation Documentation Administrator
  • Maintenance Assistant
  • Dispatcher
  • Cargo Revenue Specialist
  • Crew Resource Analyst
  • Uniform Specialist
  • Luggage Service Specialist
  • Document Verification Administrator
Air Serbia
The airline saw its best September in history. Photo: Getty Images

Serbia to pay for apprenticeships at Air Serbia

Air Serbia has applied to participate in this program in September, and, as part of the program requirements, it is now advertising 36 positions for which candidates can apply between the 1st and 15th of October. Candidates that are successful in their applications will begin working on 16th December, and their apprenticeship wages will be paid for by the Serbian government for nine months. However, Air Serbia is free to top up these wages if it wishes to do so.

As part of the program, the Serbian government will be paying 20,000 Serbian Dinars (200 USD) monthly to apprentices with secondary education, while those with tertiary education will receive 24,000 Serbian Dinars (240 USD) per month.

Air Serbia Airbus A330 New York JFK
Russians looking to return home have been reccomended to fly through Belgrade, creating inbound and outbound traffic. Photo: Getty Images

Air Serbia was hit hard by COVID-19

The Serbian national airline will benefit from this government scheme at a time when it is still suffering fairly adverse market conditions. The Serbian flag carrier is still constrained by travel restrictions for Serbian nationals wishing to enter much of the European Union, on top of weak demand already resulting from economic uncertainty and health fears.

Some routes are doing well: Air Serbia scheduled a major increase in capacity for its route between Belgrade and New York JFK  for October. In contrast, this time last year, Air Serbia was actually canceling services to New York.

However, on the whole, the airline has expectedly been suffering from a slump in demand, and so it will welcome this policy as a means of cost-cutting that does not come with a reduction in operations.

Do you think Air Serbia will see long-term benefits to its business from this policy? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.