The GazteOn program to promote employment has managed to employ more than 300 young people who are at risk of being excluded from society.

The fifth edition of the mixed employment and training program has begun by strengthening the industry and sustainable construction tracks and increasing the number of participants to 350 (from 120 in previous years). For the first time, the program has been opened to minors taken in by the Children's Service of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia. Vice President Mikel Torres and Vice President Teresa Laespada visited the Peñaskal Cooperative training center. Mikel Torres pointed out that through the 2022-2024 youth employment program, almost 105,000 young people will participate in the Basque Government's programs.

Laespada: "They want to work and they just need an opportunity"

Since its launch in 2020, the GazteOn mixed employment and training program promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia has managed to employ at least 309 young people who are at risk of social exclusion; this means that they are more than 60% of all participants.

Vice President Mikel Torres and Vice President Teresa Laespada visited the facilities of Peñaskal Cooperativa on September 13, one of the centers that supports the training related to the GazteOn program. There were 350 participants in the program this year, compared to 120 in previous editions.

The program is in its fifth edition this year, and for the first time this year, among those who can benefit from the program are also minors (16-18 years old) who are currently in the care of the Children's Service of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia.

Regarding the data on participation and employment (the figures from last year's edition are not final), it can be said that since the beginning the program has had 501 participants and 309 jobs (61.67%). Among the sectors worked on are industry (food, shipbuilding, maintenance or surface treatments), carpentry, cooking, electricity, housing, sustainable construction or fishing.

The GazteOn program promotes the economic development and prosperity of all citizens of Bizkaia. In the first year alone, the difference between the investment (program and aid for young people) and the benefits (savings in aid for young people, and the consumption, purchases, contributions and taxes generated by these young people) was over 365,000 euros.

Laespada, at the same time, is also the head of the Department for the Promotion of Employment, Social Cohesion and Equality, and as he stated during the visit, they are young people who want to work, and are only waiting for an opportunity to do so.The GazteOn program shows that, despite the lies and stereotypes, young people at risk of social exclusion, regardless of where they come from, respond with effort and commitment when they are given real opportunities to advance in life with decent employment, he added.