Por Redaccion 
The Ministry of Employment, Business, and Self-Employment allocated a total of 220.7 million euros last year to fund actions in the field of vocational training for employment, representing a 163% increase compared to 2018, the last year before the change of government in Andalusia. This investment more than doubles the 83.7 million euros executed six years ago, and almost nine times the 26.5 million euros recorded a decade ago, at the end of 2015.
These figures were provided by the Minister, Rocío Blanco, in the Andalusian Parliament, who detailed that the number of beneficiaries of the various programs promoted by her department in the last 15 months (2024 and early this year) totaled 32,730, more than double the participants in the entire 2015-2018 period, which barely reached 13,083.
The number of completed training actions has also reached a historic high with 2,525 since January 2024, 115% more than those carried out throughout 2023 and an improvement of 131% compared to the 1,093 launched between 2015 and 2018. During that four-year period, an average of only 273 actions were convened per year, almost a tenth of those accumulated last year.
During her address to the Chamber, Blanco emphasized the value of vocational training for employment as «a key tool to provide workers with the necessary skills to fully develop», as well as to take advantage of employment opportunities offered by the labor market through their professional progress.
That is the main objective, as highlighted by the Minister, of the range of actions deployed by the Ministry of Employment to «offer opportunities» to workers and the unemployed, especially «to those groups facing greater difficulties in labor market integration.» Among them, she mentioned the Employment and Training program, which last year funded 509 projects of public entities worth 83.6 million euros, with 3,048 students participating.
This program, continuing this year thanks to a new call for 71 million euros, will have a new variant in 2025. Endowed with 30 million euros, the Employment and Training in Companies line will aim to improve the employability of up to 1,875 students, combining knowledge acquisition with paid activity.
The Minister also highlighted the 57.1 million euros that have allowed 29,115 unemployed individuals to participate in some of the nearly 2,000 training actions organized in collaboration with 217 private entities. This amount adds to the 17.3 million euros that have supported 822 projects not leading to professional certifications. Projects aimed at unemployed and employed individuals, whether leading to professional certificates or non-leading specialties, will amount to 44 million euros this year.
Among the other actions, there is the call last year for 44.4 million euros in subsidies aimed at financing professional requalification actions (reskilling and upskilling) in strategic sectors. Also, programs linked to the use of new technologies such as training in 5G and SAP, or the Preparadas program, which since its launch in 2023 has brought nearly 60,000 women from rural areas closer to digital environments and will continue until 2026 with the aim of reaching 85,000 beneficiaries.
Singular Projects
Blanco also reiterated the strong commitment of the Ministry of Employment to the design of singular projects that address specific needs of companies in emerging sectors or facing greater challenges in finding professional profiles. An example of this is the training actions linked to the naval sector in the Bay of Cadiz, which has already received participation requests amounting to 577,000 euros, or the upcoming call this year for a training plan for the aerospace sector in Seville and Cadiz, with over 8 million euros allocated.
Likewise, Employment is finalizing the call for 5.5 million euros for training actions that will meet the high demand for workers in projects related to the emerging green hydrogen sector in Andalusia, or the program that will mobilize up to 11.6 million euros to provide qualified personnel to the Army’s Land Logistics Base in Córdoba.
Finally, among the new programs being finalized by the Ministry of Employment is the one aimed at self-employed workers, who for the first time will have a specific action in teletraining mode that up to 4,760 entrepreneurs can take advantage of.