Brief description of the main purposes and contents

Financial support for employers who sign open-ended or fixed-term employment contracts for 12 months or more with unemployed people registered with the IEFP, with the obligation to provide professional training for the contracted workers.

Reasons why the project / program is considered a “good practice”

It is a good practice because it aims to: prevent and contrast unemployment; encourage and support the net creation of jobs; to encourage the access to the labour market of adults with disadvantaged backgrounds; promote the improvement and quality of employment, encourage more stable employment relationships; encourage the creation of jobs located in inland territories, in order to reduce regional asymmetries.

Managing authority / organisation

Institute of Employment and Professional Training – IEFP

Main target group

Unemployed adults

Source of funding

European

Stakeholders involved 

The stakeholders are: the recipients (unemployed registered with the employment services in designated situations) and individuals or legal entities, of a private, profit-making or non-profit nature.

Contribution of the practice in improving / promoting the social inclusion of the beneficiaries

This practice contributes to the social inclusion of the recipients in that it tries to provide a quick response to unemployment situations, promoting hiring and entrepreneurship.

Elements of the project / program that could be easily transferred to other contexts

Taking into account the main objective, it is considered that this measure may be transferable to other countries.

Other potential target groups to which the project / program could be extended

Employed low-skilled adults

Description of the methods of implementation and any recommendations

The ATIVAR.PT Incentive Measure is an IEFP program aimed at providing a quick and comprehensive response, through vocational training, professional internships and reinforced support for hiring and entrepreneurship. This Measure provides financial support to employers who sign open-ended or fixed-term employment contracts for 12 months or more with unemployed people registered with the IEFP, with the obligation to provide professional training to the contracted workers. Promoters are individuals or legal entities, of a private legal nature, with or without profit-making purposes. The recipients are Unemployed persons registered with the employment services, in specific situations (consult additional information through the link below). The financial support is given as follows: 12 times the value of the Social Support Index ((Value of the IAS (Social Support Index) in 2022: € 443.20)), in the case of open-ended employment contracts; and, 4 times the value of the IAS, in the case of fixed-term employment contracts. The financial support is increased (and may be cumulative), in specific cases /The financial support of the Incentive Activate.PT measure cannot be cumulative with measures that foresee the partial waiver or total exemption of the payment of contributions to the general social security regime, nor with other direct support to employment applicable to the same job position. The employer is obliged to provide vocational training adjusted to the skills required for the job, in one of the following modalities: on-the-job training adjusted to the skills of the job, for a minimum period of 12 months, accompanied by a tutor appointed by the employer; and, training adjusted to the skills of the job, in a certified training entity, with a minimum workload of 50 hours, carried out, whenever possible, during normal working hours. /The requirements for granting the support are: The publication and registration of the job offer on the portal https://iefponline. iefp. pt/, signaling the intention to apply for the measure; The signing of an open ended or fixed term employment contract for 12 months or more, full or part time, with unemployed registered with the IEFP; Net job creation (net job creation is considered to exist when the entity reaches, through the supported employment contract, a total number of workers higher than the average of the workers registered in the 12 months preceding the month of registration of the offer or, for applications submitted until December 30th 2021, higher than the average of the workers registered in the three months preceding the registration of the offer) and the maintenance of the employment level reached through the support; Provide vocational training for the duration of the support; and, The remuneration offered in the contract must comply with the provisions of the Guaranteed Minimum Monthly Wage and, when applicable, the respective collective bargaining agreement. /Only contracts concluded for a fixed term, of 12 months or more, with unemployed people in one of the following situations are eligible: beneficiary of social insertion income; person with disability and incapacity; refugee; ex-prisoner and those serving or having served non-custodial sentences or judicial measures and who are in a position to enter working life; drug addict in the process of recovery; person who has no social security records as an employee or self-employed worker in the last 12 consecutive months preceding the date of registration of the job offer; a person who is homeless; a person who has been recognized as an Informal Caregiver and has provided care as an informal primary caregiver; a person aged 45 or older who has been registered with the IEFP for at least 2 consecutive months and unemployed persons who have been registered for at least 12 consecutive months. / The employment contract can be signed before the application is submitted, as long as it is after the job offer has been registered on the iefponline portal. / For application purposes, the employer must meet, cumulatively, the following requirements: To be regularly incorporated and registered; to fulfil the legal requirements for exercising the activity or to present the proof of having initiated the applicable process; to have its tax and social security contributions up to date; not to be in default regarding the financial support granted by IEFP; to have its situation settled regarding refunds under the ESF financing; have organized accounts in accordance with the law; have no overdue salary payments (with the exception of companies that have initiated a special revitalization process under the Insolvency and Company Recovery Code or a process under the Out-of-Court Company Recovery System); and, have not been convicted in a criminal or administrative procedure for violation of labor laws, including discrimination in employment and access to employment, in the last three years. The application is made in the iefponline portal (https://iefponline.iefp.pt) after the signaling of the job offer related to the jobs to be filled, and the entity must indicate the intention to benefit from the support under the Incentive Measure ATIVAR.PT. The entity may indicate the unemployed person it intends to hire. The measure has a closed application regime, and the respective opening and closing periods, to be held annually, are defined by deliberation of the Directive Council of the IEFP, IP and disclosed on this portal. Besides these application periods defined annually, the Directive Council can deliberate the opening of extraordinary periods. The schedule for applications to the Incentive Measure ATIVAR.PT is made annually and approved by deliberation of the Directive Council of the IEFP, IP. This Measure is financed by the European Social Fund.

Project / program website or other online reference resources

LINK