The European

Social Fund in Sweden 20072013

The Swedish ESF Council

• The Swedish ESF Council is the Managing and the Certifying Authority for the European Social Fund and for the European Integration Fund.

• The Swedish ESF Council has 120 employees in eight regional units all over the country, and the Head Office in Stockholm.

Eight regions – eight plans

1. Övre Norrland

2. Mellersta Norrland

3. Norra Mellansverige

4. Östra Mellansverige

5. Stockholm

6. Västsverige

7. Småland och Öarna

8. Sydsverige

Head Office in Falun and Stockholm

Cooperation between structural funds

Social fund Regional fund

ESF-council TVV

MC

MC Monitoring Committée

MC

MC

OP Operative program

OP

OP

OP

OP

OP

OP

OP

RP

Regional plan RP

RP

RP

RP

RP

RP

RP

Structural fund

partnerships in

Each region

OP

• Oversees the implementation and guarantees quality and efficiency.

• Consist of representatives from authorities, non-profit organisations, labour organisations and universities and colleges.

The Monitoring Committee

• Each of the eight regions has a joint Structural Fund partnership for the European Social fund and the Regional Development Fund.

• It consist of elected representatives from municipalities and county councils, and representatives from labour organisations, county administrative boards, the Swedish Employment Service, other stakeholders and associations. The Sami Parliament (Sametinget) is also represented in the two northernmost regions.

• These partnerships are tasked with prioritizing the projects deemed eligible by the managing authorities.

Structural Fund Partnerships

ESF in Sweden 2007 - 2013

• SEK 6.2 billion, excluding national co-financing

• Approximately 2000 projects

• 30 per cent, Skills provision (Priority axis 1)

• 70 per cent, Increased labour supply (Priority axis 2)

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• ESF is only a small part of all resources for employment policy/social measures in Sweden

= • Opportunity for innovativ actions and development of new

methods

Added value in the social fund is created by making it possible to influence and improve:

1. Individuals, the situation of vulnerable groups in working life

2. Corporate strategies, productivity, growth

3. Workplaces' formal and informal procedures

4. Policy and development of new concepts in policies, structures, institutions

• Activities focus on employees and entrepreneurs in the public and private sectors and the social economy.

• Support is offered to develop relevant skills, comprising a careful analysis of needs followed by appropriate training. This improves the adaptability and employability of workers and allow them to meet new challenges and a changing environment.

• Other projects aim at preventing long-term sickness leave and combating discrimination in getting and advancing in a job.

Priority 1: Skills supply

• Focus on people outside of the labour market, especially on young, immigrants and those on long-term sickness leave.

• The aim is to get them into work or, through education schemes or other measures, to bring them closer to getting a job.

• For example, by encouraging early school leavers to return to education or training or to participate in activities designed to prepare them for working life.

Priority 2: Increased labour supply

• Gender mainstreaming and accessibility for people with disabilities are priorities across the whole OP.

• This includes funding projects

that helps to improve skills to eliminate gender-based segregation on the labour market

that helps to improve skills to remove obstacles which people with disabilities are encountering on the labour market

Gender mainstreaming and accessibility

1. Mapping and analysis of the needs and problems at hand

2. Project activities and objectives

3. Target groups

4. Gender mainstreaming

5. Accessibility for persons with disabilities

6. Programme criteria (varies from call to call: learning environments, innovation, cooperation and strategic impact)

7. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (only monitoring in phase 1: feasibility study)

8. Project organization and competence

9. Risk management (only phase 2: implementation)

National Selection Criteria

Learning & Strategic Impact

Before application

Preparation / Preplanning

Implementation

After the project

Accessibility and Gender Mainstreaming

Supporting projects and Thematic Groups - Support structure for the project implementation and impact

Project development

Thematic Groups

• Accessibility for persons with disabilities

Agreement with the Swedish Agency for Disability Policy Coordination in cooperation with The Swedish Disability Federation, the united voice of the Swedish disability movment before government, the parliament and national authorities.

• Gender mainstreaming

Agreement with County Administrative Boards

Support project

Supporting projects versus Thematic Groups

• Regional project development support aid should primarily support the projects before the application and pre-planning phase

• ”SPeL” should mainly support projects in the implementation phase, with a focus on learning and strategic impact

• ... while the Thematic Groups in particular will work on the projects 'outputs'

Thematic Groups in ESF 2007-2013

• Integration into Workinglife (Linköping University) The main focus is (re-) entry and integration into working life for people with foreign backgrounds, people with disabilities, and people who are long-term sick.

• Theme Group Youth (Ungdomsstyrelsen) The main focus is on methods to counteract unemployment among young and strategies for the development of the transition between school & work.

• Workplace Learning & conversion (Luleå University of Technology) The main focus is the efforts of employees to meet future demands in the workforce through training, including work as a tool for learning, increased ability to cope with changes and validation of skills.

• Business and entrepreneurship (Tillväxtverket) The main focus is how entrepreneurship and business can contribute to reducing exclusion in the workplace. This thematic group included social economy and entrepreneurship as a tool of empowerment and to counteract exclusion.

• Equality & discrimination into Workinglife (Arbetsmiljöforum) This thematic group focuses on all forms of discrimination. This includes new methods to promote equal treatment/opportunities in employment and skills enhancement initiatives to improve skills in working life.

From the proposal of call of the Thematic Groups :

"The role for the Thematic Groups' will be to develop, analyze and discuss the project results in order to affect more long term than the individual projects can do for themselves. The Thematic Groups will achieve the impact and influence audiences under the thematic area. "

Action Support Accessibility - Activities -12 000 participants from working life in our activities -600 trainings/educations for different funded ESF-projects

-1000 individual counselings -Participation in 350 information meetings -Many seminars including breakfast seminars -7333 visits at our website www.tillgangligtprojekt.se in 2011

• -Several hundreds of viewers watched our 6 webcasted training programs 2011. Either the original version or the sign interpreted -7 network meetings in our consultant network -Customer satisfaction index was 82% in the evaluation made by Sweco (evaluation consultant company) 2010 -More than 10 times presentation on Action Support Accessibility in an international context

Activities (2)

www.esf.se/english

More information in English about the Swedish

ESF Council, our programes and with

presentations of current projects