The Ministry of Employment, Business, and Self-Employment allocated an investment of €96.2 million in 2024 to boost self-employment, entrepreneurship, and social economy entities as «an option for job creation and improving the capacity of the Andalusian business fabric.» Minister Rocío Blanco highlighted this in a parliamentary committee, where she detailed the various initiatives to activate the labor market implemented during the previous year, totaling an execution of over €715 million.
Among them, the Minister emphasized the significant investment in self-employment, «a priority sector for our economy,» which benefited 31,741 self-employed workers in Andalusia. She mentioned the promotion of self-employment through subsidy programs like the ‘Zero Fee,’ which reduces social security burdens for these workers in their first years of activity. In 2024, a total of 16,160 self-employed individuals benefited from this program, amounting to €16.7 million.
In addition, Blanco also mentioned the support for ‘Start of Activity’ for new self-employed workers under the national flat rate scheme, totaling an execution of €70.3 million and benefiting 15,581 self-employed individuals. The total amount for the 2023-2024 call reached €132 million.
Furthermore, in 2024, a new round of grants aimed at promoting the association of self-employed individuals was implemented, with three entities benefiting from nearly €2.5 million.
Likewise, to enhance the positioning and representativeness of the Social Economy, the Ministry of Employment granted €1.72 million through the ‘Associationism of the Program for the Support and Development of the Social Economy’ line. Additionally, €2.32 million was allocated to promote stable, qualified, and quality employment in Cooperatives and Labor Societies, with an extra €2.15 million for promoting the sector, fostering entrepreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness in these entities.
To complement investments in this area, the establishment of the network of chairs in the social economy through an agreement with the 10 public universities of Andalusia was initiated last year, amounting to €385,000.
Other noteworthy grant programs
In addition to the self-employment investment, the Minister also mentioned other measures implemented in 2024 by her department to create stable and quality employment in Andalusia.
Regarding employment incentives, she highlighted two programs under the Andalusian Youth Employment Plan: ‘Active Andalusia,’ which granted over €106 million to 801 municipalities and local autonomous entities, leading to the hiring of 10,127 unemployed individuals; and ‘Employ-T,’ which allocated over €62 million to 2,608 beneficiary entities and resulted in the employment of 4,125 individuals.
She also noted subsidies for the integration of people with disabilities through special employment centers and ordinary companies, exceeding €104 million in 2024 to support the employment of 19,290 individuals with disabilities. Additionally, the incentive program for stable employment generation in Andalusia, aimed at companies and self-employed workers, received over €10.8 million in 2024.
Regarding Vocational Training, Blanco highlighted the ‘Employment and Training’ program, carried out in collaboration with local non-profit entities, which facilitated 509 actions with alternating training contracts for 3,048 students, with an investment of over €83.7 million. She also mentioned grants exceeding €57 million to finance the training offer of the Vocational Training System in the labor market associated with the National Catalog of Professional Qualifications, as well as over €17.3 million to support non-professional certification training.
Within the training field, the Minister also mentioned the ‘Reskilling & Upkilling’ programs for the non-formal training of active population in strategic sectors, with over €44.4 million allocated for the training of 84,398 individuals until June 2025. She also referred to the ‘Prepared’ program, initiated in 2022 and aimed at developing skills for employability and digital entrepreneurship among women in municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants. This program, endowed with over €30 million, will run until June 2026, benefiting a total of 55,323 women out of the planned 85,000 by the end of 2024.
Furthermore, in terms of labor orientation and mediation, Blanco mentioned the grants awarded by the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE), such as the ‘Professional Orientation and Insertion Support’ program, which granted over €29.4 million in its latest 2024 call. She also highlighted the ‘Comprehensive T-We Support’ projects for the labor insertion of young individuals, which were called in December 2024 with a total committed amount of €61.8 million.
Lastly, among the measures to promote trade and craftsmanship, she highlighted grants aimed at enhancing their competitiveness and digitalization. The first call, focused on fostering sector growth and consolidation, resulted in over €12.5 million granted to 517 beneficiary SMEs. The second call, under mode B, will take place in the first half of the year and extend until 2026 with a budget of €7 million to support the productive sector in adopting TIC technologies and business models.
After presenting the overview, the Minister expressed satisfaction with the measures implemented by the Ministry in the past year, stating that they «have fulfilled the dual purpose of creating optimal conditions for workers to access employment and enabling self-employed individuals and companies to find the profiles they need, contributing to fostering a favorable environment for entrepreneurship and a competitive setting for the consolidation of a stronger and more robust business fabric.»
