The "La Caixa" Foundation Incorpora programme has provided more than 34,200 new jobs for vulnerable people

The "la Caixa" Foundation's Incorpora employment integration programme provided 34,274 jobs for vulnerable people in 2020. This was possible thanks to the collaboration of 11,700 companies in this social responsibility project. 

In a year in which the spread of the coronavirus has forced many sectors to stop their activity, the programme has adapted to new needs, such as those arising in the socio-health or agricultural sector, cleaning or commerce, building bridges with companies and offering training actions that prepare job seekers for essential jobs. 

"The enormous effort made by the Incorpora network of organisations to adapt to the circumstances has borne fruit, making it possible to employ people at risk of exclusion, who have become essential, and responding to new social and employment needs", points out the Chairman of "la Caixa" Foundation, Isidro Fainé.

From the total insertions, 18,733 were of women and 15,541 of men. In addition, 8,525 were people with disabilities and 25,749 were people at risk or in a situation of exclusion. 

Likewise, out of the 34,274 new hires made last year through Incorpora, 31,400 were in Spain and 2,874 abroad, as the programme also operates in Portugal, Hungary, Morocco and Poland. 

The Incorpora programme, launched in 2006, offers companies a free advice and support service to facilitate the incorporation into their workforces of people with disabilities or in vulnerable situations, such as young people at risk of exclusion, victims of gender violence, long-term unemployed and ex-prisoners, among others, which, in turn, reinforces the social responsibility of these companies. 

Incorpora aims for people to be agents of their own change in order to get out of difficult situations, and it does this through employment as a form of social integration. To this end, it builds bridges between companies and around 500 social organisations that carry out the programme throughout Spain and with which "la Caixa" Foundation has just renewed its collaboration agreement for the fifteenth consecutive year.

In 2020, entities intensified their efforts to respond to the new needs that arose. The programme's network of more than 1,200 technicians, who offer personalised attention and continuous follow-up to participants, continued to provide comprehensive support to users before, during and after their recruitment. 
The tasks carried out by the job placement technicians include prospecting for companies, monitoring the beneficiary's training process, accompanying those placed in employment, resolving any possible conflicts that may arise in the context of the employment relationship and encouraging new companies to join the programme. 

In addition, since 2016, Incorpora has been carrying out a line of self-employment thanks to which people at risk of social exclusion are participating in a new way of integrating into the labour market. People with an entrepreneurial attitude and capacity can develop a business plan to create their own company, supported by a personalised itinerary, with training and support provided by the programme through 45 Incorpora Self-Employment Points throughout Spain. 

Thanks to this initiative, in 2020 Incorpora assisted 2,838 people interested in starting a business and facilitated the creation of 1,192 new microenterprises. Likewise, within the framework of the agreement between "la Caixa" Foundation and MicroBank to facilitate financing for self-employment projects for people in vulnerable situations, microcredits were granted to the value of 5,944,163 euros.