Bildungskarenz

Hey there,

as Emmanouil alreday stated the Bildungskarenz is a much better option than unemployment leave. It has the same financial benefits but does not count towards unemployment. Basically Bildungskarenz (4-12 months) interrupts your working contract and therefore you need to apply for it before your actual contract ends. An example: your contract ends on May 31st 2021, then you start your Bildungskarenz on May 29.  Let s say you take it for 6 months then this would interrupt your contract until 28th of november. Then you continue working for two days of teh contract. Afterwards you can still apply for unemployment benefits.

The bureaucracy behind Bildungskarenz is not very tedious: you need first to agree with your supervisor/head of Institute (as far as I know a formality), and sign an agreement https://www.ams.at/content/dam/download/formulare/001_avrag_11.pdf. Then you are in contact with the Personalabetilung (Human Resource Department), they give you information on the internal requirements. Then you need to apply at AMS (https://www.ams.at/arbeitsuchende/aus-und-weiterbildung/so-foerdern-wir-ihre-aus--und-weiterbildung-/weiterbildungsgeld German page), there you need to fill out some forms. That's it.

I would ask your supervisor also for a geringfügige Beschäftigung during the Bildungskarenz. It is a separate work contract and mitigates any risks relating to being at the university (e.g. lab work accident-if you are on Bildungskarenz only there might be liability issues also for the supervisor, the same applies by the way for unemploment benefits). It is very cheap for the supervisor (600 Euros/month).

Hope that helps,

Stef