More than 2 400 young people with no prior work experience are already employed thanks to the programme ‘First work experience in Public Administration’.
A major obstacle for young people looking for a job is their lack of work experience. This fact, together with Spain´s efforts to fight youth unemployment are the reasons behind the scheme ‘First work experience in Public Administration’.
Young people gain experience with their first job
Through public calls at State and regional levels, since 2022 the first experience programme finances the hiring of young unemployed people to provide them with training and work experience in public administrations, this way increasing their opportunities of finding a job after the programme.
Young people who are hired through a training contract for the acquisition of professional practice, must:
- be between 16 and 30 years old; and
- hold a university degree, an intermediate or higher VET diploma, or a VET professional certificate. Students with an educational diploma in arts or sports can also be hired.
The training contract must be made within 3 years – or 5 if the person has a disability – after completing the relevant studies. During this full-time contract of 10 to 12 months, the salary cannot not be less than 60% of the salary set for an employee in the same position. and in no case less than the minimum inter-professional wage in force.
The training contract details the individual training plan with the skills to be developed, a work activity assessment system and tutoring activities. This first experience programme gives priority to positions in public administration services related to the ecological transition and the green economy, the digitisation of services, social cohesion, and local rural development. Thanks to this programme, young people can acquire soft skills, as well as social and professional skills identified in their individual training plan. The programme covers the cost of compensating someone from the host institution to act as a tutor/mentor and assist the trainees during the first 3 months of the contract.
The first round of the programme, launched at the end of 2021, benefited 43 public bodies who offered more than 1 144 jobs, while the number of beneficiaries in the second round increased to 91, offering 1 267 posts. Some of the first public institutions to join the programme were the Women's Institute and Paradores de Turismo de España, a State-owned commercial company made up of 97 hotels and inns, usually in a scenic or historical area, two examples of entities hiring young unemployed people under the programme.
The first experience programme, with a total budget of EUR 330 million is financed by the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) and developed in the context of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan as part of Investment 1 ‘Youth Employment’, included in Component 23 ‘New public policies for a market of dynamic, resilient and inclusive work’. On 1 April 2023, a third and final period opened for public entities to participate in the programme.
Read more
Programa Primera Experiencia Profesional en Administraciones Públicas [Programme First work experience in Public Administration]
Programa Primera Experiencia Profesional: ofertas de Empleo en Paradores [First Professional Experience Programme: Job offers in Paradores]
Contratación para la Obtención de la Práctica Profesional [Training contract for the acquisition of professional practice]
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Please cite this news item as: ReferNet Spain; Cedefop (2023). Employment opportunity comes knocking. National news on VET |