ACOL – Work and Training Program

The project

ACOL program is a grant of the Work and Training Program of the Employment Service of Catalonia, with the collaboration of the Secretariat for Equality, Migration and Citizenship aimed at non-profit organizations based in Catalonia in order to facilitate the access, through them, to a residence visa for migrants in an irregular situation facing vulnerability. 

To achieve its objectives, ACOL program subsidizes NGO’s to enable them to hire and provide training to migrants in irregular situation. The target group of the program may be foreigners who, on the date of submission of the grant application by the NGO, meet the requirements to obtain a residence and work authorization in Spain by social rooting (arraigo social). Employment agreements must be for a minimum of 12 months, full-time, for non-structural tasks inside the applicant NGO. The mandatory training actions can be carried out through professional certificate training modules (between 80 and 200 hours) or transversal training modules (between 60 and 80 hours).  

It is important to highlight that the grant is only awarded if the employing organization proves that the person to be hired has obtained residence and work authorization.  

To identify the beneficiaries of the program, the Catalan Government developed a vulnerability scale to ensure that the most vulnerable migrants are reached. To this end, four variables are taken into account when prioritizing each beneficiary: 

1. Taking a course of insertion into Spanish society awards up to 30 points. 
2. Receiving a salary lower than the minimum wage established in the salary scale awards 5 points. 
3. Homelessness or residing in a migrant reception center, 10 points. 
4. Having dependent minor children living in Spain up to a maximum of 10 points (2 points per child). 

The impact of the good practice

In 2019, 123 migrants got a job in local NGOs for a period of 12 months and were able to apply and obtain residence and work permits.  Family members of these regularized migrants benefited indirectly from the program by also getting their regularization through family reunification. Migrants who were hired through the program gained work experience that became essential to access the labour market. 

Since 2018, ACOL program signed 81 employment agreements and had 44 beneficiary entities. In 2019 the number of beneficiary entities increased to 69 and achieved to formalized 123 employment agreements. Despite not yet having the results of the program during implementation in 2020, a maximum of 194 beneficiaries are expected to be reached by 2021.