European Social Fund

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which actions may be co-financed by the ESF?

The ESF co-finances actions in the following fields:

  • Assistance to people - this is the main form of ESF aid and covers areas such as occupational training or education, support for employment and post-university training
  • Support to structures and systems - with the aim of modernising, improving, articulating and increasing the effectiveness of activities which provide support to people
  • Monitoring measures - through support for the supplying of caring services for dependant people, the promotion of socio-pedagogical monitoring and awareness and information campaigns

More specifically, actions co-financed by the ESF may have the following scope:

  • School and career guidance for employment
  • Occupational training (initial and on-going)
  • Training of highly qualified human resources (advanced training)
  • Insertion in the labour market
  • Aid to employment
  • Post training monitoring and post-placement
  • Development of studies and the production of technical and pedagogical resources

 

Which entities may have access to ESF support?

The following entities may apply for ESF support:

  • Certified training entities - that is, profit or non-profit entities from the public, co-operative and private sectors which must be certified in the fields for which they have applied for financing, and which develop actions benefiting moral or individual persons, external to them
  • Beneficiary entities - that is, profit or non-profit employing entities from the public, co-operative or private sectors who apply to promote actions either for the benefit of workers in their service or in the service of other enterprises, provided that these are suppliers or clients and when the relevance of the intervention is demonstrated; also actions targeting the unemployed who are going through a recruitment process, provided that there is a guarantee of the contracting of a significant number of them. The applications for financing must be put to effect by these entities using duly certified training centres or structures, or through the acquisition of services from certified entities whenever the applications include training activities
  • Other operators - that is, entities which do not themselves have a recognised training capacity and which apply for financing to promote actions in the ambit of their functions and mission benefiting persons external to them. These may be public entities, non-profit entities whose objectives are in the ambit of the pursuit of development and the social economy (provided that the actions are directly related to their aim or mission); business, professional or trade union associations (when the actions target their members); secondary or higher educational establishments; technological infrastructures; and other entities (only where they provide advanced training scholarships and work placements) and also public and private entities, only for the carrying out of studies and for the conception and production of didactic methods and resources