THE EMPLEA LAB PROJECT
The project “Emplea LAB: Pilot project with intensive itineraries aimed at employment integration” is being coordinated by Cáritas Spain and implemented within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, under the provisions of Royal Decree 378/2022, of May 17 of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
The purpose is to design and assess social integration itineraries with the aim of contributing, from a social innovation stance, to generating knowledge in integration policy, guiding the spending policy of public administrations and creating greater impact by ensuring this design is focused on results and in accomplishing objectives.
Emplea LAB targets primarily people who are receiving the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) and, in addition, people of working age who are in vulnerable situations or in a situation of social exclusion. Emplea LAB aims to define and develop intensive itineraries in employment guidance, provide training in digital and basic skills and act as a mediator in order to improve the employability of these people through integration itineraries, and assess the impact of implementing these itineraries.
One of the hypotheses that this project aims to explore is the value that the business sector may contribute, by participating in the process of identifying vacant jobs and the subsequent intermediation between companies and those individuals at risk of exclusion. And this is where, from the CEOE Foundation, we are working on job scouting and collaborating in the intermediation process. Our aim, based on a better knowledge of the business fabric of the 11 provinces participating in this pilot project (Albacete, Barcelona, Cuenca, Girona, Guadalajara, León, Lugo, Menorca, Ourense, Valladolid, Zamora), is to help these vulnerable people access the labour market, by encouraging companies to collaborate with the Emplea Lab project and identifying job offers that may be suitable for the participants.
It is the most important project of the CEOE Foundation in social commitment. Employment changes people's lives, it is the best social policy and the main tool to reduce social inequalities.