- In 2023, “European Year of Skills”, the Biodiversity Foundation launches the Empleaverde+ Programme, within the framework of the new European Social Fund Plus
- The Pact is an initiative of the European Skills Agenda to mobilise and incentivise the public and private sectors to take action to upskill people of working age
- The Biodiversity Foundation is committed to promoting a culture of lifelong learning for all people through the Empleaverde+ Programme, which will support training projects related to the ecological transition
The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has joined the European Union’s Pact for Skills to contribute to promoting the ecological transition by betting on improving skills and training in the sectors linked to this transition. This Pact is one of the initiatives included in the European Skills Agenda in 2023, designated by the European Commission as the European Year of Skills. The new opportunities that arise linked to the ecological transition have the challenge of ensuring that it is fair and equitable, which is why the European Union urges investment to focus on vocational training and the improvement of qualifications, making them coincide with the needs of companies. The purpose of this Pact is to mobilise and incentivise the sectors concerned, both public and private, to take concrete measures to improve and reskill the skills of people of working age, as well as to join forces in partnership to achieve a workforce with the skills in demand and to contribute to sustainable economic and social growth. to promote greater innovation and improve the competitiveness of companies. To date, more than 1,000 organizations have signed the Compact. Member entities can benefit from services such as a Networking Hub, to find partners and tools for the development of their commitments, as well as to promote their activities. They can also access the Knowledge Hub, which organises webinars and learning activities on good practices and projects, and the Guidance Centre, to find information on national and EU funding. THE BIODIVERSITY
FOUNDATION’S COMMITMENTBy signing the pact, the Biodiversity Foundation undertakes to promote a culture of lifelong learning for all people through instruments that facilitate access to training and allow people, both unemployed and working and entrepreneurial, to face the changes that are going to take place in the labour market with greater security. Along these lines, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, in collaboration with the Spanish Office for Climate Change, is promoting a study on sources of employment, new knowledge and capacity building, related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change and the conservation of biodiversity, green infrastructure, connectivity and ecological restoration in Spain. The preliminary results of this study, which will be published soon, identify 14 priority sectors with a high potential for transformation, reconversion and job creation. These include the renewable energy sector, energy rehabilitation of buildings, bioeconomy, sustainable agriculture and forestry, circular economy, urban renaturation and ecological restoration. To help respond to these needs, the Biodiversity Foundation, as an intermediate body of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), is launching the Empleaverde+ Programme. The new Empleverde+ Programme, which has an endowment of 44 million euros, will respond to the training needs identified in the study of employment sources.
To this end, it is planned to finance, through calls, projects to improve skills and abilities, within the framework of a culture of lifelong learning. In addition to training projects, there is the possibility of including proposals with “learning by doing” methodologies, which combine theory with practice in the same work environment, with the consequent improvement of employability. A first call for this programme, with an endowment of 22 million euros, is expected to be published in the first half of this year. On 30 March, the Biodiversity Foundation will hold the conference “Methodologies: learning while working for an ecological transition”, to learn about the potential of methodologies, learning by working to achieve greater employability in the context of the ecological transition and what these methodologies can contribute in a dynamic labour market that is opening up to new occupations. This conference is aimed at entities that work with these methodologies or want to start implementing them.
