Employment and Training 

The ONCE FOUNDATION is strongly committed to creating an inclusive job market that, from the paradigm of equal opportunities and non-discrimination, tackles the employment of people with disabilities as an opportunity for everyone.

Ever since it was established, the maximum priority of the ONCE Foundation has been the creation of employment for people with disabilities, from the conviction that employment is an essential factor for the social inclusion of people with disabilities. Therefore, the priority objective of the ONCE Foundation, bearing in mind the social reality and the specific needs of people with disabilities in Spain, depends on promoting the employment of these people, as an indispensable prior step towards their full social integration. For the effective fulfilment of this aim the ONCE Foundation allocates at least 60% of its budget to its Training and Employment Plan.

The ONCE Foundation’s essential axes of action to promote the employment of people with disabilities and contribute to the improvement of their employability conditions are:

•  To provide people with disabilities of a working age with a professional qualification and the necessary labour skills to be able to access the job market under equal opportunities, by carrying out training actions;
• To promote the creation of employment for people with disabilities, using the different channels and formula which exist in Spanish legislation;
• To support the creation of occupational placements in collaboration with the entities of the interest groups of people with disabilities and their families.

The creation of job positions in the ONCE Foundation area is carried out thought the following channels: companies within the Fundosa Group (holding company of the ONCE Foundation), financial support to third-party projects; external transitions of sheltered workplaces to the ordinary market, labour mediation in the ordinary market through the activity of the FSC-INSERTA Association (in the framework of the Operational Programme Fight against Discrimination co-financed by the European Social Fund) and of the FSC-Disability Association, occupational placements and the entrepreneur programme.

Employment training is a determining factor in the employability of people. Participation in the job market can only advance once certain levels of qualification and professional competence have been reached. This premise has constantly guided the actions of the ONCE Foundation. 

The implementation of direct training actions for employment is carried out through the activity of the FSC-INSERTA Association (in the framework of the Operational Programme Fight against Discrimination co-financed by the European Social Fund) and of the FSC-Disability Association.

The training offer has always obeyed the following criteria:

• Flexibility: to adapt to the changing demands of the job market.
• Providing sufficient knowledge, skills and technical expertise for an adequate performance of the job position.
• Developing the social and personal skills which are essential to an optimum professional performance.
• Accessibility: providing in each training action, the technical adaptations, the numbers of hours, the methodology and the material and human resources necessary according to the specific needs of each person with a disability that participates in the action.

From the start of its activities, the ONCE Foundation has collaborated with the public administrations, businessmen and women, social agents, the interest groups which represent people with disabilities and society in general in the development of programmes and projects which facilitate the professional qualification and access to the labour market of people with disabilities, through training and the creation of stable job positions.

The ONCE Foundation is committed to quality in employment (stable jobs and the promotion of access to higher qualified jobs); as well as employment which favours, in terms of equal opportunity, the most disadvantaged collectives: women with disabilities, people with severe disabilities (with disabilities greater than 60%), young people with disabilities, people with disabilities who are more than 45 years old and people with disabilities who, due to their disability, individual and/or social situations have greater difficulties in accessing employment and/or maintaining the same.

From 1988 until December 2008 the ONCE Foundation has created more than 63,650 jobs and occupational placements for people with disabilities. This figure converts the ONCE Foundation into the principal socio-economic and employment operator in the Spanish disability sector.