The Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC) only manages about 60,000 job offers of the million contracts signed in Catalonia. The Government wants to increase intermediation and for that purpose it launched yesterday a profound reform of the system to create the professional profiles that companies demand with a budget of 55 million euros.
To begin with, the Generalitat committed to increasing the number of SOC professional counselors by 50%. The objective is to incorporate 230 people, which will bring the number to 660 people. To this amount we must add another 200 counselors from private collaborating entities. They are professionals who accompany and guide the unemployed throughout the entire job search process.
President Pere Aragonès, who participated in the presentation of the organization’s remodeling, highlighted that the objective is to help companies find the right profiles and accompany the unemployed in their search for employment. Also present at the event held in the modernist premises of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona were the Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent; the union leaders Javier Pacheco (CC.OO.) and Camil Ros (UGT) and other representatives of the employers’ associations and municipal associations.
Torrent explained that “the desire is to change the mentality, since the SOC is not just a placement office.” With the new structure they hope to be able to create new profiles. He clarified, in any case, that the increase in the number of counselors depends on the budgets for 2024 being approved. When half of January has passed, the accounts have not yet been agreed upon by the different political groups. “Let’s hope there are budgets from the Generalitat,” said Ros in his speech. Pacheco valued the importance of coordination between the Administration, unions and employers.
Some of the measures contemplated in the new program were already included in the agreement signed between unions and employers within the social dialogue at the end of December.
Among the new measures, the implementation of a single professional file stands out to know in more detail the profile of each job seeker and direct them to an optimal itinerary. Yesterday, the last of the eight territorial occupation councils of the SOC was established, that of the Barcelona area, which will promote dialogue between local entities, companies and social agents to design active employment policies.
