The Programme “Human Resources & Social Cohesion 2021-2027” (HRSC) is a Sectoral Programme for the 2021-2027 Programming Period, co-financed by the ESF+ and with a budget of €4,161,594,204[1].
The Programme aims for a more social and inclusive Europe and Greece through the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), in accordance with Policy Objective 4 of the 2021-2027 Programming Period and the corresponding Specific Objectives that define its thematic scope, covering all Regions of the country.
Specifically, the Programme aims to:
- improve access to employment and enhance the employability of the entire workforce, with a particular focus on young people up to 29 years old Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs),
- promote equal access to quality and inclusive education, training, and lifelong learning,
- promote social inclusion and ensure equal access to quality health services,
- address material deprivation, and
- promote social innovation.
Through the Programme, the following are fully served:
- the national objective of the NSRF (14% of the country’s [2] ESF+ resources) for actions supporting young people up to 29 years old who are Not in Employment, Education or Training,
- the national objective of the NSRF (6% of the country’s ESF+ resources) for Food Assistance and Material Deprivation actions.
Furthermore, the Programme will contribute to:
- the national objective of the NSRF for social inclusion, as well as combating child poverty, mainly through systemic actions (contribution to 28% of the country’s ESF+ resources),
- the national objective of the NSRF for the institutional empowerment of social partners and civil society organizations (contribution to 0.65% of the country’s ESF+ resources).
The Programme is structured into the following Priorities:
- Priority 1 “Horizontal – Systemic Interventions”, with a budget of €165 million, supports interventions for the modernization, adaptation, and strengthening of labor market institutions and services, social inclusion and health, improving the capacity of social partners and civil society organizations to participate, governance actions for all levels of education, creation of Observatories or digital portals for monitoring the implementation of actions or mapping target groups for more effective policy formulation, etc.
- Priority 2 “Employment & Labor Market”, with a budget of €957 million, aims at drastically addressing unemployment, increasing employment, enhancing access to the labor market, with an emphasis on population groups with the highest unemployment rates (long-term unemployed, women), as well as interventions to promote equal participation of both sexes in the labor market, etc.
- Priority 3 “Education & Lifelong Learning”, with a budget of €1,223 million, includes interventions aimed at upgrading quality and enhancing equal access and extroversion at all levels of education, as well as lifelong learning through the utilization of new technologies and the digital transformation of the educational/learning process, linkage with the labor market, provision of modern knowledge and skills, career guidance and counseling services, etc.
- Priority 4 “Social Innovation”, with a budget of €25 million, aims to fund social innovation actions, new fields of social economy, social experimentation, etc.
- Priority 5 “Youth Employment”, with a budget of €939 million, will include actions to address unemployment among young people up to 29 years old who are not in employment, education, or training, and their sustainable integration into the labor market through the implementation of apprenticeship actions, vocational training and skills certification, acquisition of work experience, promotion of youth entrepreneurship, etc.
- Priority 6 “Food Assistance & Addressing Material Deprivation”, with a budget of €400 million, includes actions for the practical support of the poor and generally those at risk of extreme poverty, as well as accompanying actions to support the socialization and social inclusion of the poor, as a successor Priority to the “Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived” (formerly FEAD) for the 2014-2020 period.
- Priority 7 “Technical Assistance”, with a budget of €54 million, includes actions to support the MA, Beneficiaries, and Intermediate Bodies in the implementation of the Programme.
- Priority 8 “Skills Enhancement for Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP)”, with a budget of €50 million, includes targeted actions for the development of highly specialized skills related to the development/production of critical technologies in strategic sectors, in accordance with the objectives of the STEP initiative.
- Priority 9 “Skills Enhancement in Defense Technologies within the framework of the STEP initiative”, with a budget of €113.9 million, includes targeted actions for the development of highly specialized skills related to the development/production of defense technologies in accordance with the objectives of the STEP initiative.
- Priority 10 “Skills Enhancement in the fields of Civil Preparedness, Defense Industry & Cybersecurity”, with a budget of €234 million, includes targeted actions for the development of skills in the fields identified in Article 12c of Regulation (EU) 2025/1913.
Finally, the Programme includes emblematic projects of strategic importance,
Indicatively:
- Open Programme for acquiring professional/work experience for unemployed individuals aged 30 and over (30+) with an emphasis on groups absent from the labor market and groups particularly affected by unemployment
- Universal implementation of the “Neighborhood Nannies” action
- Inclusive education for students with disabilities: Adaptation of the educational system towards the full development of inclusive education
- Programme for learning the Greek language and culture for beneficiaries of international protection, aiming to enhance their integration process
- Support for Skills Workshops for students at all levels of Primary and Secondary education (2024-2027)
- Operation of Professional Development & Career Offices – PDCOs (2023-2027)
- Programmes to support and enhance youth entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on the green, digital, and blue economy and in high-growth sectors (2024-2027)
- Implementation of Apprenticeship (Post-Lyceum EPAL year) for Young People up to 29 years old (2023-2027)
- Gender Equality and Demographic Policy Observatories (2024-2027)
[1] In Public Expenditure (PE), co-financed by the European Social Fund, ESF+ and national contribution.
[2] Objectives are calculated in ESF+ Community Support (CS).
