The Minister of Territorial Policy and Spokeswoman of the Acting Government, Isabel Rodríguez, today highlighted the new call for employment training projects promoted by local entities, amounting to 300 million euros, of which 200 million are today called, financed by the Employment, Education, Training and Social Economy Program, of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), of the programming period 2021- 2027.
The minister has highlighted the good management of the funds for training and employment of the Provincial Council of Albacete, represented by its president, Santiago Cabañero, and has encouraged all local entities to participate in the new program that is called today, “with special dedication to the rural environment, and the rural environment, so that people do not have to leave the town where they want to be in search of a job and so that there is employment and opportunities in the municipalities.”
Isabel Rodríguez, who participated in a colloquium on training for employment organized by the Provincial Council of Albacete, stressed that “from the Government, we believe that proximity to municipalities will transfer greater confidence and possibilities to people with difficulties and will be a good investment of European funds.”
He also highlighted the extension of the cofinancing of these funds: “The percentage of funding will increase in the less developed regions from 80% to 85%. The goal is to find a job, that is what we are trained for and that this job makes us happy.”
Isabel Rodríguez recalled that the employment situation after the pandemic and the consequences of the war is better than in the previous crisis: “We have made a lot of progress in terms of employment in this country, we must also celebrate the good things that happen to us because they are a collective success, with 20.8 million workers, with the highest rate of women working of all our history, but there are still people who still have difficulties to find a job and those people are targeted by this program.”
Beneficiaries and objectives of the grants
The municipalities of municipalities with a population of over 20,000 inhabitants; the provincial deputies, the foral deputies, the island councils and councils or, where appropriate, the uniprovincial autonomous communities, in the exercise of the competences that correspond to the provincial deputies; and the autonomous bodies dependent on one of the entities indicated, if they have sufficient functions and competences to be able to develop the object of the project.
Target and amount of support
The ESF+ grants that are the subject of this call will be used to cofinance projects promoted by local entities that request them, they must include work placement routes, they may contain activation and information days and their purpose will be to carry out these types of actions:
a) Work placement routes that include interrelated actions aimed at unemployed people, seeking to improve their employability situation.
b) Days of activation and information on employment.
Application submission deadline
Applications can be submitted until January 25, 2024, electronically, through the EFESO application (FSE+), accessible from the electronic headquarters of the Ministry of Territorial Policy.
Competitive competition
The procedure for granting aid will be handled on a competitive basis with criteria that will assess the complementarity of the project with other instruments and actions: participation in the design and planning of the project of different categories of agents linked to employment; the percentage of training itineraries intended for the groups furthest from the labour market; percentage of training itineraries linked to obtaining the certificate of professionalism; percentage of long-term unemployed people, women to be trained, exceeding the average over the total number of participants; percentage of women to be trained over the total number of participants or percentage of participants who obtain a job, included on their own account, after their participation, which exceeds the average of the eligible projects in the whole urban category.
Recipients of project actions.
The recipients of the employment pathways will be unemployed persons, registered as job seekers in the public services.
Groups further away from the labour market are: long-term unemployed; persons over 45 years of age, in particular women; persons with a disability equal to or greater than 33%; third-country nationals; participants of foreign origin; participants belonging to minorities; other persons in a socio-economic situation of vulnerability, including those who are in a situation or risk of poverty, social exclusion or discrimination in its multiple facets, as evidenced by a report from the social services. Long-term unemployed persons shall be deemed to be those who are permanently unemployed for at least one year.
The selection of participants in the itineraries will respect the principles of equal opportunities, objectivity, publicity, transparency and non-discrimination. Preference will be given to unemployed people who have not participated in training actions financed by the European Social Fund Plus.
The activation and information days will be open to participants, in addition to the people who are the recipients of the integration itineraries, trainers, guidance counsellors, tutors and other personnel involved in the development of the project; economic and social agents; representative bodies of civil society whose activities relate to training for employment and social inclusion; public administrations and other actors present in the territory that contribute to achieving the priorities of the programme.