Marianne Öberg-Håkansson, national coordinator for the European social fund in Sweden presented the ESF and how it works in Sweden.

1. The European
Social Fund in
Sweden 20072013

2. The Swedish ESF Council
• The Swedish ESF Council is the Managing
and the Certifying Authority for the
European Social Fund and for the
European Integration Fund.
• The Swedish ESF Council has 120
employees in eight regional units all over
the country, and the Head Office in
Stockholm.

3. Eight regions – eight plans
1. Övre Norrland
2. Mellersta Norrland
3. Norra Mellansverige
4. Östra Mellansverige
5. Stockholm
6. Västsverige
7. Småland och Öarna
8. Sydsverige
Head Office in Falun and
Stockholm

4. Cooperation between structural funds
Social fund Regional fund
ESF-council TVV
OP
RP OP Operative program
Regional plan RP OP
MC Monitoring Committée
RP OP
MC
RP OP
RP OP MC
RP OP
Structural fund RP OP
MC
partnerships in
RP OP
Each region

5. The Monitoring Committee
• Oversees the implementation and
guarantees quality and efficiency.
• Consist of representatives from
authorities, non-profit organisations,
labour organisations and universities and
colleges.

6. Structural Fund Partnerships
• Each of the eight regions has a joint Structural
Fund partnership for the European Social fund and
the Regional Development Fund.
• It consist of elected representatives from
municipalities and county councils, and
representatives from labour organisations, county
administrative boards, the Swedish Employment
Service, other stakeholders and associations. The
Sami Parliament (Sametinget) is also represented
in the two northernmost regions.
• These partnerships are tasked with prioritizing
the projects deemed eligible by the managing
authorities.

7. ESF in Sweden 2007 - 2013
• SEK 6.2 billion, excluding national co-financing
• Approximately 2000 projects
• 30 per cent, Skills provision (Priority axis 1)
• 70 per cent, Increased labour supply (Priority axis 2)
____________________________________
• ESF is only a small part of all resources for employment
policy/social measures in Sweden
=
• Opportunity for innovativ actions and development of new
methods

8. Added value in the social fund is created by
making it possible to influence and improve:
1. Individuals, the situation of vulnerable
groups in working life
2. Corporate strategies, productivity,
growth
3. Workplaces' formal and informal
procedures
4. Policy and development of new
concepts in policies, structures,
institutions

9. Priority 1: Skills supply
• Activities focus on employees and
entrepreneurs in the public and private
sectors and the social economy.
• Support is offered to develop relevant skills,
comprising a careful analysis of needs
followed by appropriate training. This
improves the adaptability and employability
of workers and allow them to meet new
challenges and a changing environment.
• Other projects aim at preventing long-term
sickness leave and combating discrimination
in getting and advancing in a job.

10. Priority 2: Increased labour
supply
• Focus on people outside of the labour
market, especially on young, immigrants and
those on long-term sickness leave.
• The aim is to get them into work or, through
education schemes or other measures, to
bring them closer to getting a job.
• For example, by encouraging early school
leavers to return to education or training or
to participate in activities designed to prepare
them for working life.

11. Gender mainstreaming
and accessibility
• Gender mainstreaming and accessibility for
people with disabilities are priorities across
the whole OP.
• This includes funding projects
 that helps to improve skills to eliminate
gender-based segregation on the labour
market
 that helps to improve skills to remove
obstacles which people with disabilities are
encountering on the labour market

12. National Selection Criteria
1. Mapping and analysis of the needs and
problems at hand
2. Project activities and objectives
3. Target groups
4. Gender mainstreaming
5. Accessibility for persons with disabilities
6. Programme criteria (varies from call to call:
learning environments, innovation, cooperation
and strategic impact)
7. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (only
monitoring in phase 1: feasibility study)
8. Project organization and competence
9. Risk management (only phase 2:
implementation)

13. Supporting projects and Thematic Groups - Support
structure for the project implementation and impact
Before Preparation / After the
application Preplanning Implementation project
Accessibility and Gender Mainstreaming
Project
development
Learning & Strategic
Impact
Thematic Groups

14. Support project
• Accessibility for persons with disabilities
 Agreement with the Swedish Agency for Disability
Policy Coordination in cooperation with The Swedish
Disability Federation, the united voice of the
Swedish disability movment before government, the
parliament and national authorities.
• Gender mainstreaming
 Agreement with County Administrative Boards

15. Supporting projects
versus Thematic Groups
• Regional project development support aid
should primarily support the projects before
the application and pre-planning phase
• ”SPeL” should mainly support projects in the
implementation phase, with a focus on
learning and strategic impact
• ... while the Thematic Groups in particular
will work on the projects 'outputs'

16. Thematic Groups in ESF 2007-2013
• Integration into Workinglife (Linköping University)
The main focus is (re-) entry and integration into working life for people with foreign
backgrounds, people with disabilities, and people who are long-term sick.
• Theme Group Youth (Ungdomsstyrelsen)
The main focus is on methods to counteract unemployment among young and strategies for
the development of the transition between school & work.
• Workplace Learning & conversion (Luleå University of Technology)
The main focus is the efforts of employees to meet future demands in the workforce through
training, including work as a tool for learning, increased ability to cope with changes and
validation of skills.
• Business and entrepreneurship (Tillväxtverket)
The main focus is how entrepreneurship and business can contribute to reducing exclusion in
the workplace. This thematic group included social economy and entrepreneurship as a tool
of empowerment and to counteract exclusion.
• Equality & discrimination into Workinglife (Arbetsmiljöforum)
This thematic group focuses on all forms of discrimination. This includes new methods to
promote equal treatment/opportunities in employment and skills enhancement initiatives to
improve skills in working life.

17. From the proposal of call of
the Thematic Groups :
"The role for the Thematic Groups' will be
to develop, analyze and discuss the
project results in order to affect more
long term than the individual projects can
do for themselves. The Thematic Groups
will achieve the impact and influence
audiences under the thematic area. "

18. Action Support Accessibility - Activities
-12 000 participants from working life in our activities
-600 trainings/educations for different funded ESF-projects
-1000 individual counselings
-Participation in 350 information meetings
-Many seminars including breakfast seminars
-7333 visits at our website www.tillgangligtprojekt.se
in 2011

19. Activities (2)
• -Several hundreds of viewers watched
our 6 webcasted training programs 2011.
Either the original version or the sign
interpreted
-7 network meetings in our consultant
network
-Customer satisfaction index was 82% in
the evaluation made by
Sweco (evaluation consultant company)
2010
-More than 10 times presentation on
Action Support Accessibility in
an international context

20. www.esf.se/english
More information in English about the Swedish
ESF Council, our programes and with
presentations of current projects