The Department of Employment, Business, and Self-Employment allocated an investment of 96.2 million euros in 2024 to promote self-employment, entrepreneurship, and social economy entities as «an option for job creation and improving the capacity of the Andalusian business fabric.» This was highlighted by the councilor Rocío Blanco, in a parliamentary committee, where she detailed the various initiatives to activate the labor market implemented during the previous year, which amounted to an execution of over 715 million euros.
Among them, the councilor emphasized the significant investment effort in self-employment, «a priority sector for our economy,» which benefited 31,741 self-employed workers in Andalusia. In this regard, she mentioned the promotion of self-employment through subsidy programs such as the ‘Zero Fee,’ which reduces the social security burdens of these workers in the early years of their activity, and which was utilized by a total of 16,160 workers in 2024, amounting to 16.7 million euros.
In addition, Blanco also recalled the support for ‘Business Start-Up’ for new self-employed workers under the national flat-rate scheme, which resulted in the execution of 70.3 million euros and benefited 15,581 self-employed workers. The total amount for the 2023-2024 call reached 132 million euros.
Furthermore, in order to enhance the positioning and representativeness of the Social Economy, the Department of Employment granted 1.72 million euros through the ‘Associationism of the Program for the Promotion and Development of the Social Economy’ line; 2.32 million euros to promote stable, qualified, and quality employment in Cooperatives and Labor Societies; and another 2.15 million euros to promote the dissemination and promotion of the sector, as well as to boost entrepreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness in these types of entities.
To complement the investments in this area, Blanco highlighted the establishment last year of the network of chairs in social economy through an agreement with the 10 public universities of Andalusia, with a budget of 385,000 euros.
Other notable aid programs
In addition to the investment in self-employment, the councilor also mentioned other measures developed by her department in 2024 for the creation of stable and quality employment in Andalusia.
Regarding employment incentives, she highlighted two programs from the Andalusian Youth Employment Plan: ‘Active Andalusia,’ which, with over 106 million allocated to 801 municipalities and local autonomous entities, enabled the hiring of 10,127 unemployed individuals; and ‘Employ-T,’ with a call for four of its seven lines resulting in over 62 million being granted to 2,608 beneficiary entities and the hiring of 4,125 unemployed individuals.
She also mentioned subsidies aimed at the integration of people with disabilities through special employment centers and ordinary companies, which amounted to over 104 million euros 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 individuals, received over 10.8 million in 2024.
In terms of Vocational Training, Blanco highlighted the implementation of the ‘Employment and Training Program,’ in collaboration with non-profit local entities, which allowed for 509 actions with alternating training contracts for 3,048 students thanks to an investment of over 83.7 million euros. She also mentioned the allocation of over 57 million in subsidies to finance the training offer of the Vocational Training System in the labor sector associated with the National Catalog of Professional Qualifications, as well as over 17.3 million to support non-certified training offers.
Within this training area, the Employment councilor also mentioned the development of the ‘Reskilling & Upkilling’ programs, for non-formal qualification and requalification training of the active population in strategic sectors, which received over 44.4 million for the training of 84,398 individuals by June 2025; as well as the ‘Prepared’ program, initiated in 2022 and aimed at developing employability and digital entrepreneurship skills among women in municipalities with less than 30,000 inhabitants. This program, endowed with over 30 million, will continue until June 2026, as by the end of 2024, a total of 55,323 women out of the planned 85,000 had already benefited.
Furthermore, in terms of guidance and labor intermediation, Blanco mentioned the grants awarded by the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE), such as the ‘Professional Orientation and Insertion Support’ program, which in its last call in 2024 granted over 29.4 million. Similarly, with the ‘Comprehensive Projects T-We Support for the labor insertion of young individuals’ called in December 2024, with a total committed amount of 61.8 million.
Finally, among the measures aimed at promoting commerce and craftsmanship, she highlighted the grants aimed at improving their competitiveness and digitalization. The first call, dedicated to fostering the growth and consolidation of the sector, resulted in the granting of over 12.5 million euros to 517 beneficiary SMEs. This aid, in its B category, will be announced in the first half of the year and will continue until 2026 with a budget of 7 million euros to support the productive sector in adopting ICT technologies and business models.
Following the presented overview, the councilor expressed her satisfaction with the measures implemented by the Department in the past year, which «have fulfilled the dual purpose of favoring the ideal conditions for workers to access employment and, at the same time, for self-employed individuals and companies to find the profiles they need, contributing to fostering a favorable climate for entrepreneurship and a competitive environment for the consolidation of a stronger and more robust business fabric.»