The new labor market opportunities that arise in connection with the ecological transition face the challenge of ensuring that the transition is fair and equitable. To this end, it is essential to invest in training and skills upgrading, matching them with business needs.
In this context, the study “Employment and ecological transition. Employment sources, labor transformation and training challenges in sectors related to climate change and biodiversity in Spain.”published in 2023 by the Biodiversity Foundation and the Spanish Climate Change Office of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, identifies 14 priority sectors with a high potential for transformation, reconversion and employment generation.
To help promote the ecological transition by improving skills and training in the sectors linked to this transformation, the Biodiversity Foundation will soon publish a call for grants for the acquisition or improvement of skills for the ecological transition. in the framework of the Empleaverde+ Programco-financed by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
This call will promote training projects aimed at facilitating access to the labor market and fostering professional retraining and entrepreneurship, favoring actions that lead to the reduction of gender gaps and equal opportunities and treatment between women and men. It is aimed at unemployed, working and entrepreneurial people.
The call for proposals, with a budget of 30 million euroswill support projects that respond to the challenges and opportunities linked to the ecological transition and to the needs identified in the study, which identifies employment opportunities, new professional competencies and technical and professional skills needed to drive the ecological transition, supporting training projects within the framework of a culture of lifelong learning.
The themes of the projects should be in line with topics such as urban renaturation, management of natural heritage and protected areas, ecological restoration, sustainable nature tourism, sustainable farming (agriculture, livestock and beekeeping), sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, sustainable forest management, circular economy (prevention, management and transformation of waste), energy rehabilitation of buildings and energy efficiency, low energy housing construction, urban environment, urban planning and sustainable mobility, renewable energy production, climate emergencies: protection and response to extreme events, and electrified means of transport (electric vehicle): sustainable urban planning and mobility, renewable energy production, climate emergencies: protection and response to extreme events, and electrified means of transport (electric vehicle).
The new Empleaverde+ Program aims to move towards a climate-neutral and regenerative economy, positive for nature, efficient in the use of resources and circular to generate new employment opportunities and green businesses. As new features, it will support projects of greater amounts (up to 2 million euros) and duration (up to 24 months), with more synergies (complementary to other funds), more professionalized (with certificates of professionalism and training specialties), more innovative learning methodologies.
Support will be given to training projects for the acquisition or improvement of skills for green employment and practical training projects for unemployed people, which use “learning by working” methodologies and make it possible to carry out an effective job.
Another novelty of this call is that it allows the presentation of projects by groups and, to facilitate this, the Biodiversity Foundation has launched a platform to help those entities that need to contact others to implement a joint project.
Through the convocatoriasfb.es website, which functions as a bulletin board, entities can, on the one hand, register and fill out a form with what they are looking for, what they offer and the type of entity, among other data. On the other hand, they can search the proposals already published and select the ones that fit the requested objectives. Both the entities that demand and those that offer to group together will contact each other through the mailing address provided.
If you want more information about the next call, you can consult the new Empleaverde+ Program website and the draft submitted to the public information process.
