The CEOE  Foundation presents the platform ‘Empresas por Ucrania’ (‘Companies for Ukraine’) to help in the integration of people from Ukraine through training and employment

So far, some 450 companies have joined the platform and around 2,000 job openings have been registered. The project is supported by Universia, Banco Santander's open platform for non-financial services that aims to help users on their path to employability, and by the strategic consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. The Adecco Group will contribute personnel who will provide information about the platform at the reception hubs for people from Ukraine, based on leaflets prepared in collaboration with MAPFRE.

The CEOE Foundation, pursuing its goal of channelling the solidarity and social action of Spanish companies, has launched, together with private sector entities, the digital platform ‘Companies for Ukraine’.  This platform is born with the aim of concentrating training and employment offers, preferably for people from Ukraine, as a preliminary step to achieve their effective integration in Spain.

Specifically, for the creation of this digital space that brings together companies and people fleeing the armed conflict, the CEOE Foundation has had the support of Universia, Banco Santander’s open platform for non-financial services, with a view to assisting users on their path to employability, providing guidance and with a special focus on lifelong learning.

In addition, the consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, a member of CEOE, is participating by providing strategic advice and helping to coordinate the project.

The ‘Companies for Ukraine’ platform is a new phase of the CEOE Foundation’s ‘Companies that Help’ (EQA, for its Spanish acronym) programme, which was launched in April 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic.  Its purpose is to channel the economic aid and supplies that the business sector wanted to provide to the neediest groups. 

This time, in a new example of public-private collaboration and solidarity, the CEOE Foundation has established a channel of action together with the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration in order to provide information, training and employment from the private sector all in one place, within the framework of the Government’s programme for the reception and inclusion of people from Ukraine.

Over the course of the platform’s implementation process, around 450 companies have already joined, ranging from large to small and medium-sized companies from very different sectors, and almost 2,000 job openings have been received to date for these individuals.

Thus, the idea is to provide a solution for some of the millions of Ukrainians who, in search of a new opportunity, are arriving in European countries such as Spain and are totally lacking the necessary tools to look for a job, starting with the fact that they do not speak the language.

The three main lines of action

Employment: Interested companies will post job openings on the platform, which will allow people to apply directly. The published offers will go through a validation process to ensure the reliability of the platform. The project is supported by the job offer aggregators Adecco Group, Randstad, Eurofirms and Job&talent, in addition to the companies that collaborate individually.

Training: to guide them in their training, free online language courses will be offered by different providers, as well as courses in other skills to promote employability, with a focus on digital skills and new jobs. These free courses do not require identification, the portal will work by redirecting the user to the original website of the course. In this case, the CEOE Foundation will have the support of partners such as CEOE Campus, UNED, Cisco Systems and Microsoft.

Information: The platform will bring together official and verified information that may be needed for the integration of these individuals.

The platform will be promoted through telematic and face-to-face channels. Information stands will be set up in the four reception hubs for people who, in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, are located in Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga.  There, staff from the human resources company Adecco will offer first-hand information about the platform based on an explanatory leaflet prepared in collaboration with MAPFRE.

Presentation of the project at CEOE’s headquarters

During the presentation of the ‘Companies for Ukraine’ initiative, the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, stressed that “solidarity is shown through actions” and that, although in the current situation it is inevitable to deal with economic issues, “it is time to talk about people”.

He said that the platform presented today “is an example of responsibility and true public-private collaboration”. “It is a great opportunity to make all the people who come to Spain feel at home and integrated”, he concluded.

In turn, the president of the CEOE Foundation, Fátima Báñez, highlighted the role of the companies that “generously and voluntarily are uploading their job offers to the platform so that these refugees can find a life project and a sense of independence”. “The solidarity of Spanish companies today is reflected in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag”, she summarised. 

Juan Manuel Cendoya, Vice President of Santander Spain and General Director of Communication, Corporate Marketing and Research at Banco Santander, said: “For Banco Santander and Universia it is an honour to put our employment and guidance platform at the service of society and companies, and we thank the CEOE for their trust. I would like to highlight the great effort of the teams that have worked so hard to have a working solution in record time and, especially, thank the general director of Universia, Rafael Hernández”.

Pablo Campos, CEO of Oliver Wyman in Spain and Portugal, added: “Every year, Oliver Wyman commits a percentage of our resources, skills and experience to supporting projects where they are most needed. We are convinced that effective public-private collaboration has a huge multiplier effect on the scope and results of the different contributions to these types of initiatives”.

Partner companies of the ‘Companies for Ukraine’ Project

–    Laboratorios Rovi
–    Grupo Ibaizabal
–    Banco Santander con Universia
–    Oliver Wyman
–    Grupo Adecco
–    MAPFRE
–    Randstad
–    Microsoft
–    Cisco Systems
–    Eurofirms 
–    Job&talent

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/UhaMUdtgszc