Young people between 18 and 29 years of age who are unemployed and have completed their Compulsory Secondary Education studies. This is the profile of the people who are eligible for any of the 600 paid employment offers that the Mapfre Foundation is funding with two million euros. The second edition of the programme ‘Accedemos’ is trying to encourage small and medium sized businesses to create jobs for young people.

The website announcing this initiative, www.accedemosalempleo.org, has published more than 700 offers and almost 200 contracts have been signed to date. SMEs interested in this project must fulfil a series of requirements, such as preferably having a maximum of 15 employees, no redundancies since 1 January 2014, being up-to-date with payments to public administrations and contracting a young person even if he has no prior experience.

The Mapfre Foundation will make an initial selection among the people interested who have registered on the website; it shall nominate three candidates for each position and the company will finally select the most suitable candidate. The aid each worker will receive amounts to a maximum of 3,000 euros (500 euros a month for six months), which can be extended for an additional six months if the company hires the candidate indefinitely. Thanks to the ‘Accedemos’ programme, over 500 young people signed work contracts last year; contracts that became indefinite arrangements in almost 60% of the cases.