The Government promotes the transformation of the SOC with 55 million and the incorporation of 230 professionals

To improve people's employability to favor access to work, strengthen the link with companies, promote employment policies adapted to each territory, and prioritize work with groups in situations of greater vulnerability. These are the four main objectives included in the Transformation Plan of the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) promoted by the Government with multiple actions and changes that will be deployed over the next 4 years.

The most notable are the following:

Territorial Concertation: 8 Territorial Councils and €40M

8 Territorial Employment Councils have been established (Barcelona, Camp de Tarragona, Girona, Ponent, Terres de l'Ebre, Alt Pirineu i Aran, Penedès, and Central Catalonia) formed by local, economic, and social entities from each territory. They will be responsible for identifying needs, planning, defining, and executing employment policies, fostering a bottom-up process.

The SOC will finance these territorial strategies with 40 million euros, which will incorporate occupational programs and actions to be carried out in the next four years. The SOC will validate them and guarantee funding throughout the period, ensuring economic stability and greater effectiveness.

'SOC Empresa' in the 70 employment offices

Starting this year and progressively, the Employment Offices will have a space (SOC Empresa) for specific attention to companies. This service will be open to local economic promotion services with a dedicated reference person and qualified technical staff. 'SOC Empresa' will offer effective and adaptable services and will proactively engage with business entities to bring the SOC closer to their needs (profiles, training, etc.).

Reference Tutor: 230 new counselors

This year, 230 new counselors will be incorporated, professionals in charge of individual tutoring and continuous advice to job seekers. These incorporations, which entail an investment of 9 million euros, will allow a 50% increase in guidance staff (who will comprise about 660 people) to better adjust policies to each person and better work on professional profiles. To these 660 people, another 277 counselors financed by the SOC and working in the rest of the entities of the employment system must be added. In total, therefore, 937 professional counselors.

The 70 employment offices will have the 'SOC Empresa' service to strengthen the link with the business world

This unique file will be shared by all agents of the employment system, to improve labor intermediation processes. This information will be key to offering personalized placement services and providing professional guidance with proactive proposals for upskilling and reskilling actions adjusted to each person and the reality of the labor market.

Work oriented to groups with the elaboration of shock plans for those in situations of greater vulnerability

Employment policies will be adapted to certain priority attention groups to achieve a differentiated action, specific to the characteristics of these groups and the development of specific employment programs such as the Action Plan for unemployed people over 45 years of age and long-term unemployed, the Quality Youth Employment Strategy 2022-2027 or policies for women.

230 new employment counselors will strengthen closer work with users and individualized tutoring

The payment of these aids (for conciliation, travel, accommodation) will be streamlined to attract participation in vocational training for certain people and more aids will be included for specific groups such as:

• Women victims of gender violence
• Companies and/or entities that host students for the completion of non-labor professional internships

All these changes will require an initial investment of 5 million euros to develop the software that will allow integrated management of information systems and advance in the opening of digital communication and service channels for citizens, businesses, and entities. Although in-person service will be guaranteed, a new space will be created that allows access to all services and procedures and enables interaction with SOC professionals virtually.