Employment and Training

ONCE Foundation is firmly committed to an inclusive labour market that, using the model of equal opportunities and non-discrimination, considers the employment of people with disabilities as an opportunity for everyone.

We understand that employment is an essential factor for the social inclusion of people with disabilities.

In order to effectively fulfil this purpose, ONCE Foundation allocates at least 60% of its annual budget to its Training and Employment Plan. Our main lines of action in this area are thus:

• To provide people with disabilities of working age with a professional qualification and the necessary work skills to be able to access the labour market with equal opportunities via training actions
• To promote the creation of employment for people with disabilities, using the different ways and formulas existing in Spanish legislation
• To support the creation of occupational positions in collaboration with the entities of the associated movement of people with disabilities and their families

Direct training for employment actions are carried out through the activity of INSERTA Empleo (within the framework of the operational programmes of Social Inclusion and Social Economy (Poises) and Youth Employment (POEJ), which is being developed by ONCE Foundation with the co-financing of the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative).

The following criteria have always been applied to the training offer:

• Flexibility: to adapt to the changing demands of the labour market
• To provide sufficient knowledge, skills and technical abilities for an adequate performance of the job
• To develop the social and personal skills essential for optimal professional performance
• Accessible: providing each training action with the technical adaptations, number of hours, methodology and material and human resources necessary according to the specific needs of each of the people with disabilities participating in the action

ONCE Foundation is committed to quality in employment (stable jobs and the promotion of access to more highly qualified jobs); as well as to favouring, in terms of equal opportunities, the most disadvantaged groups: women with disabilities, people with disabilities over 65%, young people with disabilities, people with disabilities over 45 years of age and people with disabilities who, because of their disability, individual and/or social situations encounter greater difficulties in accessing and/or maintaining employment.

Current employment plan

Since 1997 we have developed various employment plans. In that year the first Plan was launched, the so-called "5,000/10,000 Plan", whose objective was to create 5,000 jobs, as well as to carry out 10,000 training actions for people with disabilities during the four-year period 1997-2000. The results of the plan exceeded the most optimistic expectations: in the first two years (1997-1998) the established figures were already surpassed.

In 1999, a second General Agreement on Cooperation, Solidarity and Competitiveness was signed with the National Government for the stability of ONCE's future. This agreement set out new social objectives for the training and employment of disabled people for the period 1999-2008, which were embodied in the so-called "20,000/40,000 Plan". This plan set the goal of creating 20,000 jobs for people with disabilities and carrying out 40,000 training actions. ONCE Foundation has committed itself to creating 13,000 jobs and carrying out 18,000 training activities in the decade 1999-2008.

In 2004, in order to comply with and implement the commitments undertaken in the area of training and employment for persons who are blind or have other disabilities, with the Government of the Nation, under the General Agreement on Cooperation, Solidarity and Competitiveness for the future stability of ONCE, the "8,000/16,000 Plan of the ONCE Group " was approved regarding the creation of employment and training for persons who are blind or have other disabilities during the period 2004 to 2011. The objectives of this Plan were the creation of 8,000 new jobs for people with disabilities and occupational placements and the development of training courses for 16,000 people with disabilities. In 2005, one year after the approval of the 8,000/16,000 Plan, and after evaluating the objectives achieved, it was agreed to replace this Plan with the 16,000/32,000 Plan of ONCE and its Foundation regarding job creation and training for people with disabilities for the period 2004-2011.

Having exceeded the objectives of the so-called 16,000/32,000 Plan on 18 November 2011, the Council of Ministers approved a new General Agreement for the period 2012-2021, under the name of 15,000/30,000 Plan, according to which ONCE and its Foundation committed to creating 15,000 new jobs and occupational positions and to promote and develop training courses for 30,000 people with disabilities.

Within these general objectives, the ONCE Foundation is responsible for:

• The creation of 11,800 jobs
• The creation/consolidation of 2,400 occupational positions
• and the training of 14,000 people with disabilities: 8,000 people with disabilities in occupational training and 6,000 in continuous learning

It is worth noting a fundamental change that occurs with the 8,000/16,000 Plan and which continues with the 16,000/32,000 Plan and the current 15,000/30,000 Plan: the commitment to job creation is made by betting on job stability, since to evaluate the degree of compliance with the objective of job creation, only jobs generated by third companies and entities with the support of ONCE and its Foundation that exceed a certain period of time will be taken into account. As for the internal employment of ONCE Foundation and ILUNION, the annual net growth will be calculated. This change is due to the commitment of ONCE and its Foundation in favour of quality in the employment of people with disabilities.

INSERTA Programme

ONCE Foundation, in view of the need to join efforts and adopt projects and actions aimed at promoting and enabling the full inclusion of people with disabilities in society, and being aware that in order to achieve its objective all the means available to public authorities, institutions, social and business agents and society in general are necessary, develops programmes such as the INSERTA Programme.

The INSERTA Programme is aimed at companies that include within their strategic policies the implementation of a management system based on the principles advocated by Corporate Social Responsibility, fundamentally through the voluntary integration of social concerns into their commercial operations and their relations with their Stakeholders, and specifically promoting their commitment to the disabled, for which the ONCE Foundation offers the company its specialised guidance.

Membership in the Programme is carried out through the signing of an Agreement, through which a specific action plan is articulated in a coordinated manner, which, progressively, for each of the years of the Agreement's validity, determines the actions to be undertaken according to the needs, the specifics of the business, the object, social objective and strategies of each company.

The fields of action of the INSERTA Agreement, in which ONCE Foundation advises companies, are comprised of:

• As a fundamental axis, the development of strategic projects for the generation of direct employment and the promotion of training for people with disabilities
• And as complementary axes:
  • Indirect labour integration
  • Promotion of actions in the field of accessibility of goods and services
  • Inclusion of actions and strategies around disability in the social responsibility plans of large companies
  • Dissemination and social awareness actions
  • Encouragement, promotion and sponsorship of actions that contribute to employment insertion
  • Projects that contribute to the improvement of the collective of people with disabilities
  • Any other of a similar nature that serves to further the social objectives pursued by the signatories

The development of the majority of these Conventions, particularly in the areas related to training and employment, is carried out by the entity Inserta Empleo.

INSERTA Agreements

Legislation on labour integration

The ONCE Foundation and ILUNION, with more than 20 years of experience generating employment for people with disabilities, offers companies:

• Labour intermediation and training for people with disabilities.
• Legal advice for the implementation of the alternative measures.
• Generation of indirect employment for people with disabilities through their SECs.
• Management and reception of donations to promote actions that contribute to the generation of employment and training for people with disabilities.