Brussels time
The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) aims to support member states and regions to improve employment and education opportunities, to enhance social inclusion and to tackle poverty.
This call aims to support employment by endorsing and promoting the implementation of tailor-made employment services that ensure quality working conditions.
The overall objective of this call for proposals is to ensure around 4 000 placements for mobile jobseekers, in particular of young people. The action targets the filling of hard-to-fill vacancies and labour shortages as identified in national/EU labour market studies or other data sources. The action, being strongly result-oriented, may contribute to:
a) addressing labour market needs, in particular tackling labour markets' imbalances, as well as labour and skills shortages;
b) improving the conditions for jobseekers and workers to exercise their right of freedom of movement across the EU;
c) filling of hard-to-fill vacancies (in the form of either jobs, traineeships or apprenticeships), notably where specific labour shortages have been identified;
d) enhancing the service catalogue of the EURES organisations;
e) fostering public-private partnerships within EURES.
The EURES Targeted Mobility Scheme (TMS) constitutes a European-level labour market measure designed to address labour shortages and hard-to-fill vacancies. It combines tailor-made recruitment, matching, training, and placement services with financial incentives. Support measures may vary based on labour market needs and their analysis. They should include provisions for interviews in another EU/EEA country, relocation, linguistic training, recognition of qualifications, as well as recruitment support. The end beneficiaries may include job changers, job/traineeship/apprenticeship seekers, and recruiting businesses, including SMEs, who may receive direct financial support through targeted allowances.
The activities will encompass the provision of direct services to jobseekers and employers, including:
− information, matching, recruitment and placement; This may include innovative approaches and matching/recruitment methods to identify and reach individuals with particular skills, qualifications or profiles in line with the needs of specific labour sectors affected by labour shortages, in identified geographical area.
− pre- and post-placement support (e.g., profiling and pre-selection of jobseekers, assessment of training needs and skills development, providing interview preparation support, offering information and assistance, addressing challenges that may arise during the early stages of employment, regular monitoring and assessing the performance and satisfaction of placed individuals and employers).
− direct financial support to jobseekers to contribute to interview and relocation trip expenses, language training, and recognition of qualifications.
− direct financial support to SMEs for training programmes for newly recruited individuals.
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
− be legal entities (public or private bodies),
− be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e. EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs) or non-EU countries which are listed EEA countries associated to the ESF+ (list of participating countries).
In addition to above-mentioned eligibility requirements:
o Coordinators (lead applicants) must be no profit entities, listed in the following categories:
− EURES National Coordination Offices,
− EURES members or EURES partners which are placed in organisations whose main mission is to ensure the provision of employment and placement services to jobseekers, job changers, trainee/apprentice jobseekers and employers covering jobs and/or work-based trainings. Those services must include information, recruitment, matching and pre and post-placement support.
• Co-applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities listed in the following categories:
− EURES member organisations (i.e. National Coordination Offices, EURES Members and Partners),
− Public or private labour market actors (including the third sector) providing services from the range of services provided by lead applicants and/or complementary customer-oriented services in other expertise fields such as information, training, education, career guidance, mentoring, legal advice, integration support or other equivalent.
Only consortia are eligible.
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities). Those 2 beneficiaries must be EURES Member/Partner organisations established in at least two different EU/EEA Countries.
Project budgets (maximum grant amount) are expected to range between EUR 2 million and EUR 6 million per project.
This does not however preclude the submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts. The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.
Projects are expected to have a duration of 24 months. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.
Brussels time
