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Improve the employability of people to promote access to work, strengthen the link with companies, promote employment policies adapted to each territory and prioritize the work with groups in a situation of greater vulnerability. These are the four main objectives contained in the Transformation Plan of the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) promoted by the Government with multiple actions and changes that will be rolled out over the next 4 years.
The most prominent are the following:
8 Territorial Employment Councils have been set up (Barcelona, Camp de Tarragona, Girona, Ponent, Terres de l'Ebre, Alt Pirineu and Aran, Penedès and central Catalonia) formed by the local, economic and social bodies of each territory. They will be in charge of identifying needs, planning, defining and implementing employment policies, promoting a bottom-up process.
The SOC will finance with 40 million euros these territorial strategies that will incorporate the programs and actions in occupational matters that will be carried out over the next four years. The SOC will validate them and guarantee funding throughout the period, which ensures economic stability and greater efficiency.
From this year and progressively, the Employment Offices will have a space (SOC Empresa) for specific attention to companies. This service will be open to local economic promotion services with a responsible reference person and qualified technical staff. The 'SOC Empresa' will offer effective and adaptable services and will act proactively with business entities to bring the SOC closer to their needs (profiles, training, etc.).
This year, 230 new counselors, professionals in charge of individual tutoring and ongoing advice to people seeking employment, will join. These additions, which involve an investment of 9 million euros, will allow for a 50% increase in guidance staff (which will include around 660 people) to better adjust the policies to each person and better work on job profiles. To these 660 people we must add 277 more counselors who are financed by the SOC and who work in the other entities of the employment system. In total, therefore, 937 guidance professionals.
This single file will be shared by all the agents of the employment system, to improve the labor mediation processes. This information will be key to offering personalized placement services and offering professional guidance with proactive proposals for upskilling and reskilling actions adjusted to each person and the reality of the labor market.
Employment policies will be adapted to certain groups of priority attention in order to achieve in this way a differentiated action, specific to the characteristics of these groups and the development of specific employment programs such as the Action plan for people over 45 and long-term unemployed, the Quality Youth Employment Strategy 2022-2027 or policies for women.
The payment of these grants (for conciliation, travel, accommodation) will be expedited to attract participation in professional training for certain people and more grants will be included for specific groups such as:
All these changes will require an initial investment of 5 million euros to develop the software that allows for integrated management of information systems and progress in the opening of digital channels of communication and attention to citizens, companies and entities . Although face-to-face care will be guaranteed, a new space will be created that allows access to all services and procedures and allows you to interact with SOC professionals virtually.
