1. The unemployment rate in Catalonia has fallen for four consecutive quarters during 2021. What has been the impact of active employment policies? How is this impact evaluated?
The Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) promotes different active employment policies to promote and guarantee quality services for people and companies in Catalonia. To evaluate the impact of these policies, since 2014, the SOC has had an annual evaluation model, prepared by the Catalan Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (Ivalia). This system allows us, on the one hand, to provide evidence of the results and impacts of the policies that have already been implemented and, on the other, to contribute to the continuous improvement of future active employment policies.
Specifically, the impacts achieved by the different programs promoted by the SOC are positive.
A very recent example is the program through which we subsidize the hiring of young people for a year by companies, freelancers, cooperatives and social entities; and that it’s having a very positive and immediate result. This is a case that exemplifies the usefulness and impact of SOC programs, both in the field of recruitment, training and job orientation. And another example is the Work and Training Program for long-term unemployed people without professional qualifications. Once evaluated, 34.45% of the people who have participated in the program have entered the job market sixteen months after completing it. In other words, one out of every three people has found a job as a result of their participation in the programme.
2. What is needed so that active employment policies can be programmed for multi-annual periods and carried out continuously throughout the year?
The programming of the SOC is already carried out in a multi-year scenario in the medium term, taking into account the various sources of financing and their specific management rules. In fact, the General Law on Subsidies, in its article 8, already establishes that public administrations will have to specify a strategic subsidy plan, its objectives, impacts, deadlines, costs and sources of financing, and this is what the SOC does.
The planning of the programming financed with specific funds such as the ESF, REACT, MRR is already specified through multi-annual files of 2-3 years as a general rule; that allows the collaborating or beneficiary entities of the SOC to have stability in its execution, but in the case of programming financed by the State, the situation is somewhat different since these agreements for the distribution of funds between the Autonomous Communities are only made annually and, therefore, calls must be made year after year. Although it is planned with a multi-year scenario, the commitments can only be assumed annually and in accordance with the budget allocations assigned and always conditioned by the new agreements that are approved each year.
3. During the pandemic, many guidance and training actions have been carried out through videoconference platforms and virtual classrooms. What assessment do you make? What is the future strategy?
In the field of Professional Guidance, we adapt action protocols, methodological guides, publication of informative notes that are still in force today, always keeping in mind placing the citizen at the center of our attention with a close and quality service. The means used have not been limited to videoconferencing, but have gone further and have used the telephone, email… to attend to users, beyond having or not having access to virtual means.
Regarding the assessment, after two years, it is positive. This modality has made us get even closer to the population, offering greater accessibility to technical personnel and giving the same opportunities throughout the territory. We must also highlight that the virtual modality offers greater family reconciliation and time flexibility. Looking to the future, the bet will surely be a mixed system to guarantee that everyone can have access to our service, regardless of their digital skills.
Regarding Vocational Training for Employment, the assessment of the use of online platforms and the virtual classroom is very positive. The training entities use the virtual classroom as a pedagogical resource, taking advantage of the strengths to work on the more theoretical contents and reserving the presence for the development of activities that require practical skills and the use of instruments and facilities. Training without attendance is a model that we do not expect to disappear, on the contrary, pedagogical models develop more and more resources for online group work and this model makes more sense than ever, when professional sectors have incorporated teleworking.
Currently, from the SOC, and in collaboration with the training entities involved, an analysis is being carried out on the implementation of these tools that will help us to determine their future use in a non-pandemic context.
4. The Employment Service of Catalonia has published new calls for subsidies for the hiring of young people, women and people over 45 who are unemployed. What are these subsidies? What is the response from companies?
The SOC, this year, has released a new proposal for aid to companies for hiring these groups. It is about supporting the hiring of people with special insertion difficulties so that they can access the labor market, since it is more complicated than the rest of the people who may be unemployed.
In the case of people over 45 years of age, women and the long-term unemployed, the SOC gives a subsidy of up to 12 months for the salary and the cost of Social Security. This measure has been successful and a very good response from companies.
For young people we have two current calls for subsidies for the hiring of young people between 16 and 30 years of age who are unemployed. These grants have a financing of 125M euros from the European funds REACT-EU. The contracts will be subsidized for one full-time year and the entities that can participate are companies, associated work cooperatives and non-profit entities (associations and foundations).
5. The Employment Service of Catalonia has also published for the first time a call for grants to provide dual training. What does it consist of? What is the future strategy for dual training within the framework of active policies?
The new vocational training program for employment in a dual format allows unemployed young people to receive training to obtain a certificate of professionalism in different specialties while being hired by a company for 12 months.
The main objective of this call is to help unemployed young people without qualification or a low level of training and with greater difficulties in accessing the labor market, to improve their employability through the dual training of a professional certificate and a training contract.
Dual VT provides answers and improves the empowerment of people and also responds to the needs of the productive fabric and of companies regarding the training and qualification of people. It’s a strategic commitment to meet the needs of the labor market for the coming years.
6. What policies does the SOC to promote self-employment?
Self-employment is promoted from the SOC’s own portfolio of services. The Labor Offices guide people enrolled in self-employment and business creation itineraries, informing them of the tools available to them. One of these tools is accredited training in micro-enterprise management, where the people who participate receive skills in very diverse fields such as taxation, business plans, accounting, marketing, etc. This training, free for unemployed people, is key to reducing the mortality of new companies set up by entrepreneurs.
At the university level, we also promote self-employment by cooperating with universities, since they are key agents in guiding young university students in promoting entrepreneurship and the birth of new knowledge-intensive companies such as start-ups.
To promote these services, the SOC coordinates with the Generalitat’s bodies in matters of economic promotion, the social economy and the creation of companies, which are the responsibility of the Department of Business and Employment.
7. What has been your experience as an entrepreneur?
After leaving, in 2014, my job at the financial institution where I had worked for more than 28 years, I started a personal project, creating a law firm, together with other professionals; in which I have developed the free exercise of the legal profession. Also as a team trainer for different companies.
My father was an entrepreneur, he came from his town, to Jaén, to Catalonia, and opened his barber business, where he worked for more than 40 years. It is what I have lived in my house all my life, and I always thought that it was what I had to end up doing, creating my own professional project, and so I did.
8. The claim of Autoocupació is «I am what I want to be». And you are?
For many years now I can say that “I am what I want to be”. I decided to leave the job I had been in for more than 28 years and embark on my professional path as a lawyer, which, until then, I had been combining.
Since 2016, when I accepted the task of directing first the CIRE and now the SOC, I have been fully dedicated to public functions, a privilege that allows me to dedicate myself to serving the citizenry and to issues as important as the social reintegration of people deprived of freedom and now in the field of employment. But I’m always clear about my origin and, above all, what my point of reference is.
