SERVEF

Public Employment Service of the Valencian Community (Spain)

1-	Could you rapidly present your Training Institute/Region?

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SERVEF is the Public Employment Service of the Valencian Community, integrated in the Spanish National System of Employment. SERVEF, as part of the Valencian Regional Government (Generalitat Valenciana), is the public authority in charge of improving the employability of workers. Our organisation employs around 1.500 professionals and manages a network of 56 job centres and 13 training centres spread all around the Valencian Community.

►	SERVEF has three main goals: Job insertion, Promotion of Employment and Professional training and qualification. The latter contains:

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Vocational training for unemployed workers: a) National Plan of training and job insertion; b) Workshops of training and job insertion; c) Valencian Programme of online and part-time Vocational Training (small in figures but important because it is online) d) Training Workshops for Professional Insertion targeting the youngsters that have failed at school

•	Continuing training

•	Training Programmes for employment: Workshop Schools, Craft Centres and Employment Workshops. These are both training and work since they are at the same time learning and earning money.

•	Programmes of Local Units for Learning

2-	Which are your experiences in the field of restructuring?

The Valencian Community is a Spanish region of the Mediterranean coast with a developed services sector but also with an important industrial sector (18% of the employment), in particular in traditional industries. That is why it has been necessary to develop actions of restructuring in the last years. The most relevant actions have been the following:

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Integral Employment Plans for the outplacement of workers unemployed due to business crisis (since 2004, around 1.000 people have participated): personalised and integrated activities of job counselling, training and job insertion implemented by collaborating entities and with economic incentives for the firms which hire. The integrated assistance lasts 12 months in average.

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Continuing training for the economic diversification: This is a preventive approach to face the sector and business restructurings, through the training of workers in the emerging activities of the territory, in order to facilitate their outplacement before a situation of unemployment. This training has been implemented thanks to an agreement with the social partners which have collaborated in the actions of training and job counselling. Development of this programme in the areas most specialized in one sector.

►	The sector plans in the textile sector (beginning: last quarter of 2008) and soon as well in the industries of shoes, toys and furniture.

Subventions during the job search, for the geographical mobility, to facilitate the job insertion of workers over 52, special subventions for workers over 55 without any unemployment benefit, promotion of self-employment.

►	Wage of Insertion Programme: it is a new action (2009), which aims at facilitating the functional mobility of the workers through helps for trainings in a new sector of activity and to complement the initial wage (which can be lower than the wage in the sector of origin)

Moreover, we are preparing an application for the European Globalization Adjustment Fund about the sector of tile and ceramics which is very affected by the effects of globalization and of the economic crisis. We are waiting for possible changes in the EGAF Regulation.

3-	Which are your expectations for the project: Going Local?

SERVEF is interested in getting in contact with other Public Employment Agencies in order to collaborate with them. SERVEF wishes to participate in Going Local in order to identify Best Practices in Employment and Training. We wish to participate in Employment Transnational Networks to work in depth on: Restructuring, Retraining of unemployed people, Outplacement, Emerging sectors, New jobs, Training needs, Social Dialogue, Entrepreneurship, etc..