Employment and skills – Recovery and Resilience Plan
The Programme will raise the employment rate and skill levels, enabling sustainable growth to gather pace. Funding will be directed at e.g. employment services, study opportunities, research, development and innovation activities, and sectors particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goals
The goals include renewing jobseeker services by making them more customer-oriented and taking advantage of digitalisation in such services. Work-based immigration will also be streamlined and wellbeing at work promoted, and people with impaired capacity for work will be able to find employment more successfully.
Long-term growth will be promoted by raising skill levels among both young people and adults. Further opportunities will be created for continuous learning, with a focus on opportunities that are not location dependent.
The Programme will promote the joint use of research infrastructures and will increase research and development intensity, enabling growth to pick up over the longer term as well.
The goal is to accelerate renewal, recovery and sustainable growth in sectors most affected by the pandemic crisis, i.e. travel and tourism, the creative economy and the events sector. This work will focus on innovative approaches and making use of research information.
Funding
EUR 575 million at current prices
Project examples
‘Employment and skills’ projects focus on areas such as:
- adoption of a Nordic employment service model: additional staff for the Employment and Economic Development Offices and modification of information systems
- smoother recruitment of top talent from abroad
- flexible new opportunities for continuous learning, along with digital services to support these, and use of digitalisation to open up study opportunities in higher education institutions
- additional funding for research and development, and for research and innovation infrastructures
- support for renewal and revival of travel and tourism and the creative and cultural sectors.
What practical benefits will there be?
Jobseekers and businesses will benefit from a customer-oriented service when the online services of the Employment and Economic Development Offices are improved and additional staff hired. Work-based immigration will operate more smoothly through the creation of convenient digital services. The Ohjaamo one-stop guidance centres will widen the range of their youth services. In addition, people with impaired capacity for work will be able to find employment more successfully when structural reforms supporting this are brought forward.
A skilled workforce will improve the prospects for achieving reforms in working life. There will be more opportunities for continuous learning, and it will be easier to find these, which will help people acquire new skills and find employment. There will be more equitable participation.
In higher education institutions it will be possible to study flexibly and on a location-independent basis when digital learning environments are developed further. Flexibility will also attract foreign students to Finland. Higher education institutions will have more student places available.
Research, development and innovation will bring improved productivity and boost the international competitiveness of businesses. Additional funding will focus especially on skills and innovation that support the green transition. Investment will also be made in research and innovation infrastructure. As businesses succeed in the competitive environment, the Finnish economy will grow and employment will rise.
Sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will recover and cope with future crises only if they are able to renew and regenerate. This is why the Programme aims to support the revival of travel and tourism and the creative and cultural sectors, focusing on competency and research as the basis for this renewal. Financial support will be available for exporting and for internationalisation, among other things. This will secure jobs – and at the same time offer services and leisure-time experiences to the public at large.
