The Municipal Training and Employment Center of the Development Society of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, located in the old Tena Artigas school in the Miramar neighborhood (Ofra-Costa Sur), yesterday hosted a meeting with the Talents program as its axis. The conference was organized by Fundación ONCE and its subsidiary entity, Inserta Empleo, which brought a project to the Island to promote the hiring of people with disabilities. The means was to show SMEs from different productive sectors the tax and social advantages (corporate social responsibility) that they would obtain if they incorporated members of the group into their workforce.
People arrived little by little, little by little, and between representatives of the companies, members of the organization and other guests, some forty people gathered early in the morning in the central classroom of this multifunctional infrastructure. At the entrance each one was presented with objects related to the act. From a bag to a notepad, pens, a folder and a triptych detailing the initiative.
discover capabilities
The summary of a forum that the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, closed after two in the afternoon could be that “the companies of Tenerife discover the talent of people with disabilities.” The initiative was born with the aim of “giving visibility to the undiscovered talent of these people and encouraging their hiring”. In the closing ceremony, Mayor Bermúdez stressed the need to move towards “equal opportunities”. In addition, he stressed in the closing the “social commitment” of the promoting entities that they want to instill in the island firms. Among others, El Corte Inglés, the Femete Federation, Century 21, Prefabricados Alcasur, Direx, Intelequia, Canarian Hospitality, Grupo Coelca and Comercial Yoifer were present.
The Talents program is co-financed by the European Social Fund within the framework of the Social Inclusion and Social Economy Operational Program (Poises). The initiative aims to bring the talent of people with disabilities closer to companies to encourage their hiring through a series of meetings in which the advantages of having them are made known.
unfavorable reality
This is the fourth of five in Canary Islands where they arrive for the first time. The reality is unfavorable to the binomial employment and disability. Thus, in the Archipelago, 74% of people with disabilities of working age are unemployed and the most frequently offered positions for the group are low-skilled.
The regional director of Inserta Employment in the Canary IslandsEmma Fernández, opened the day with the presentation of the program and its main objectives, among which she highlighted the inclusion of people with disabilities through the recovery of their talent and the improvement of the link with companies and job seekers, “although, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), only 0.6% of companies in the Canary Islands have more than 50 employees – up to 200 – a requirement that legally requires hiring 2% of people with disabilities.
Fernandez Manrique considered “important that SMEs know the benefits of their hiring and the social profitability it generates.” The head of Inserta Empleo in the Canary Islands insisted on the need to make social and labor inclusion a reality for people with disabilities, who in the Canary Islands account for 5.7% of the active population (91,000 people).
In this sense, Andrés Guillén, director of ONCE in the province, also expressed his gratitude to the companies for their commitment. He assured that “it is a much-needed day to build a more modern, more egalitarian and stronger society.”
The conclusions of the study of the business fabric of the Canary Islands were then presented, which reflects a panorama made up mainly of small companies, a situation that makes it difficult to hire people with disabilities. The services sector is the one that generates the most contracts in Tenerife, followed at a considerable distance by Construction.
Talk, round table and workshop
Hauche Perdigón, lawyer responsible for Fidelitis, a law firm specializing in work disabilities, defended a presentation on the benefits and tax incentives involved in hiring people with disabilities.
The day continued with a round table that featured experts such as Victoria Trianes, from Inserta Empleo, Alfonso del Bosque, head of Personnel Selection and Training for the El Corte Inglés group, or Juan Luis Perdomo, coordinator of the Chicharrera Development Society.
Lastly, Raúl Rojas, PhD in Communication, gave a group workshop to experience the challenges of people with disabilities. The participants were able to make a collective reflection on the concepts of inclusion and exclusion in order to question established prejudices. It became clear that an inclusive company is a profitable company.
Human resources, the best heritage
Inserta Empleo is the human resources entity of Fundación ONCE. It has more than 25 years of experience and 47 offices throughout Spain. It provides free assistance to people with disabilities to help them find a job, trains them if necessary and offers companies the best candidates for the positions to be filled. In 2022, it obtained a total of 802 contracts for people with disabilities in the Canary Islands, 331 in the province.
