The Employment and Training Corporation has launched two EU-funded programmes aimed at investing in the motivation of job-seekers and others in employment wanting to improve skills.

The programmes, launched by Social Policy Minister John Dalli this morning will be in operation till 2013.

The Employment Aid Programme is aimed at jobseekers that are in a disadvantaged situation due to their life circumstances.

These could include young people under 25 who are within two years of completing their full-time education and are unemployed; people who have been unemployed for at least two years; single unemployed people with others depending on them; people with secondary school education who have been made redundant in the past six months; people over 50; those who have been registering for employment for a long time; and people with a disability.

Through this programme, the ETC will provide financial assistance to employers opting to employ these persons. This will be in the form of a generous subsidy in the salary of these individuals, as well as in the employer’s contribution to the employee’s National Insurance. This subsidy will be given for a number of months, and in the case of companies who employ persons with disability this will be given for three whole years. In the case of workers who work in Gozo, the subsidy will be for longer.

Under the Training Aid Framework programme, the ETC will be giving financial assistance to companies investing in the training of their workforce.

This scheme is available for companies in the private sector and the subsidy will vary according to the type of training and the size of the enterprise.

Training can be in-house or out-sourced and can be given in Malta or abroad through distance learning. It can even be a university course and can lead to PhD. The self-employed will also be eligible. Each company will be eligible for a maximum of €250,000 each year.