Companies and entities can apply for aid to hire young people for one year

In the set of actions in active employment policies aimed solely at young people, the Department of Business and Labor, through the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC), has made available to companies, self-employed individuals, associated work cooperatives, and non-profit entities a line of aid of 125 million euros for the hiring of unemployed people under 30 years of age for one year and full-time.

The call for this line of aid, already open, will provide work experience to more than 7,000 unemployed young people and is an opportunity for companies and entities to reactivate after the COVID-19 crisis with the incorporation of young talent, for which they will receive more than 17,000 euros for each young person hired.

The Department of Business and Labor allocates more than 216 million euros to active employment policies aimed solely at young people, to benefit more than 25,000 boys and girls, with resources largely from REACT-EU funds and with the aim of addressing the social and labor consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. These actions are part of a global shock plan for employment of 917 million euros, focused on helping groups with greater difficulties in entering or remaining in the labor market (such as women, young people, and those over 52 years of age).

The new line of adjustments for hiring young people between 16 and 29 years old has been designed with two aspects. On the one hand, with the formalization of training contracts to obtain professional practice for qualified young people (whether university, intermediate or higher-level training cycles or equivalents, or professional certificates). On the other hand, with the realization of labor contracts for young people who cannot sign a training contract for internships. It should be noted that the young person hired must be registered with the SOC as an unemployed job seeker, at least, from the day before the start of the contract.

Both options will encourage the use of the internship training contract, a modality that, with the entry into force of the new labor reform, can have a fixed duration of one year and which, despite how infrequent they have been until now in the business fabric, is precisely a contractual relationship that offers a first quality opportunity in the working world, as it provides practical experience to young people. The aid line determines that the number of subsidized contracts in a company cannot exceed five or exceed 50% of the beneficiary entity's workforce. In the case of a natural or legal person with up to one contracted person, they can apply for the subsidy for a new contract.

Before the labor reform, contracts for specific work or service accounted for about 30% of all hires of young people under 30. Now, with the elimination of this modality, it is expected that companies will opt for internship training contracts, which until now barely reached 1% as the chosen hiring modality.

For the Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent, these training and occupational programs have been designed "to reduce youth unemployment and, at the same time, intensify the path of transforming our country's productive system. Because the transformation towards a more resilient, more sustainable model, that transitions towards the green economy and that puts people at the center, goes through employment. It goes through making the terms work and quality inseparable. Because we must be competitive in the quality of employment."

Requirements for contract subsidy

Young unemployed people interested in being hired within these programs should contact their Employment Office, by calling 900 800 046. The requirements are to be between 16 and 29 years old and to be registered with the SOC as an unemployed job seeker. You will find all the information on this website.

As for companies, self-employed individuals, associated work cooperatives, and non-profit entities with an operational establishment in Catalonia, which have information available in the employment service, the SOC offers them aid of 17,684 euros for each young person under 30 years of age hired for a minimum of 12 months on a full-time basis. The contract can be formalized from last November 30, 2021, until April 1, 2022. Grant applications can be submitted until April 30 in the Procedures section of the Generalitat de Catalunya's Electronic Headquarters or on the Business Channel, specifically by searching for "Promotion of employment and hiring by the Public Employment Service of Catalonia" in the procedures search engine.