Training becomes a driving force capable of improving business competitiveness
En España conviven dos realidades que parecen ignorarse mutuamente: empresas que no logran cubrir casi la mitad de sus vacantes y un millón y medio de desempleados que viven al borde de la exclusión social. La Fundación Adecco responde a esta paradoja con Empleario, un programa que no se limita a formar, sino que construye un puente entre quienes más barreras enfrentan y los empleadores que más necesitan talento. Es un recordatorio de que la brecha laboral no es solo económica, sino también humana, y que cerrarla exige actuar en ambos extremos al mismo tiempo.
- España tiene 2,7 millones de desempleados, pero el 43% de sus vacantes siguen sin cubrirse, una contradicción que lleva años agravándose.
- Más de la mitad de quienes buscan empleo viven en riesgo real de pobreza o exclusión social, atrapados en una espiral donde la falta de formación bloquea el acceso al trabajo.
- Empleario no ofrece cursos aislados: combina formación técnica, desarrollo de habilidades blandas, mentoría empresarial y becas en un ecosistema completamente gratuito para el participante.
- El programa prioriza a quienes más lo necesitan —personas con discapacidad, mayores de 45 años y mujeres vulnerables— porque son quienes corren el riesgo de quedar doblemente excluidos en un mercado que cambia a alta velocidad.
- En 2025, más de 4.200 personas ya participaron en sus plataformas digitales, escuelas especializadas y experiencias inmersivas en empresas colaboradoras, con salida directa a empleo real.
El mercado laboral español vive una paradoja incómoda: las empresas no encuentran trabajadores para casi la mitad de sus puestos vacantes, mientras 1,5 millones de desempleados —el 55% del total— enfrentan riesgo de pobreza o exclusión social. La causa no es escasez de personas dispuestas a trabajar, sino una brecha de competencias que separa lo que los empleadores necesitan de lo que los buscadores de empleo pueden ofrecer. Empleario, la nueva iniciativa de la Fundación Adecco, nace precisamente para cerrar esa distancia.
El programa no trata la formación como un fin en sí mismo, sino como un puente. A través de la Empleario Academy, los participantes acceden a cursos digitales en sectores de alta demanda —tecnología, logística, empleo verde— a su propio ritmo. La Escuela Digital ofrece formación intensiva en desarrollo web, análisis de datos y ciberseguridad, con mentoría de empresas colaboradoras y proyectos reales. La Escuela de Capacitación acompaña a los participantes en itinerarios completos en sanidad, logística e industria, combinando instrucción técnica con orientación personalizada y prácticas en empresas. Todo el ecosistema es gratuito, y un sistema de becas elimina las barreras económicas para quienes estudian con discapacidad o provienen de entornos de bajos ingresos.
El programa dirige su atención hacia quienes acumulan más obstáculos: personas con discapacidad, trabajadores mayores de 45 años en desempleo prolongado y mujeres en situación de vulnerabilidad. Como señala Begoña Bravo, directora de inclusión de la fundación, en un mercado que cambia a gran velocidad, quienes parten con más barreras corren el riesgo de quedar excluidos dos veces. Lo que distingue a Empleario de la formación convencional es su lógica inversa: en lugar de diseñar cursos y esperar que el mercado los absorba, parte de las necesidades reales de contratación de las empresas para construir los itinerarios formativos, y conecta directamente a los egresados con esas oportunidades. En 2025, más de 4.200 personas ya recorrieron ese camino.
Spain's labor market is caught in a peculiar bind. Companies report they cannot fill nearly half their open positions. Meanwhile, 1.5 million unemployed people—more than half of all jobless Spaniards—live in or near poverty. The mismatch is not mysterious: employers need workers with digital skills, specialized technical knowledge, and sector-specific training. The people seeking work often lack exactly those credentials. Into this gap steps Empleario, a new training and placement initiative from the Adecco Foundation, designed to move vulnerable job seekers into real employment as quickly as possible.
The numbers frame the challenge starkly. Spain has 2.7 million unemployed people overall. Of those, according to AROPE data, 55.4 percent—1.5 million individuals—face genuine risk of poverty or social exclusion. At the same time, research from The Adecco Group found that eight in ten companies struggle to fill their vacancies. The Spanish Public Employment Service reports that 43 percent of open positions are hard to fill, a share that has only grown since 2023, when difficult-to-cover roles increased by 15 percent. The root causes are familiar: an aging population, insufficient generational replacement, and a widening gap between the skills workers possess and the skills employers demand.
Empleario attempts to solve both sides of this equation at once. Rather than treating training as a standalone intervention, the program wraps job seekers in what the foundation calls "transversal and individualized accompaniment." The approach combines technical instruction, soft skills development, mentorship from partner companies, and direct connection to actual job openings. Francisco Mesonero, the foundation's director general, frames it as a way to activate available talent while simultaneously reducing social exclusion. "Training becomes a driving force capable of improving business competitiveness," he explained, "while also helping reduce the risk of social exclusion in Spain."
The program operates through several interconnected channels. Empleario Academy is a digital platform offering online courses in high-demand sectors—IT, logistics, supermarket operations, green jobs, and general digital competencies—allowing participants to progress at their own pace through accessible, adapted content. The Escuela Digital (Digital School) offers intensive training in technologies like web development, data analysis, and cybersecurity, pairing instruction with mentorship from collaborating companies and a capstone project that gives participants real-world experience. The Escuela de Capacitación (Training School) provides complete pathways in sectors with strong hiring demand—healthcare, logistics, industrial work—combining specialized technical training, one-on-one job counseling, immersive company experiences, and direct pathways to employment.
The foundation also operates a scholarship system designed to remove financial barriers. Scholarships support students with disabilities pursuing vocational or university credentials, as well as high-ability students from low-income backgrounds. The entire ecosystem is free to participants. Beyond classroom and online work, the program includes practical training placements with partner companies, mentorship arrangements, and volunteer professional opportunities that let participants experience actual work environments, build competencies, and strengthen their confidence as they search for jobs.
The program targets people facing the steepest barriers: those with disabilities, workers over 45 facing long-term unemployment, and women at risk of social exclusion. During 2025, 4,207 people in vulnerable situations participated in Adecco Foundation training programs. Begoña Bravo, the foundation's inclusion director, emphasizes that training matters for everyone, but becomes essential for those already marginalized. "In a labor market changing at high speed, those starting with more barriers risk being doubly excluded," she said. "With Empleario, we want to prevent that talent from falling behind."
What distinguishes this approach from conventional job training is its insistence on alignment with actual employer need and its refusal to treat training as separate from placement. The foundation works backward from company hiring demands, designing curricula around what businesses actually need to hire for, then connecting graduates directly to those opportunities. It is, in effect, an attempt to close the gap not by retraining millions of people in isolation, but by building a bridge between vulnerable job seekers and employers desperate for workers they can actually hire.
Citas Notables
In a labor market changing at high speed, those starting with more barriers risk being doubly excluded. With Empleario, we want to prevent that talent from falling behind.— Begoña Bravo, Inclusion Director, Adecco Foundation
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a foundation need to launch something like this? Isn't job training already available in Spain?
It is, but it often doesn't connect to real jobs. People train in skills no one's hiring for, or they finish a course and have no pathway to an actual employer. Empleario treats training and placement as one continuous process.
So the real problem isn't that people don't want to work or can't learn—it's that the system is broken?
Exactly. You have 1.5 million unemployed people in poverty on one side and companies saying they can't fill jobs on the other. That's not a talent shortage. That's a coordination failure.
Who benefits most from this program?
People with the fewest options: someone over 45 who's been out of work for years, a person with a disability, a woman in a precarious situation. These are people employers often overlook, even when they could do the job.
The scholarship piece seems important. Why?
Because if you're poor and unemployed, you can't afford to spend three months in unpaid training, even if it leads to a job. The scholarships remove that barrier. Otherwise, only people with savings can afford to retrain.
What's the risk here? What could go wrong?
The program could train people in skills that still don't match what employers actually need, or it could place people in jobs that don't pay enough to lift them out of poverty. Scale is also a question—4,200 people trained in a year is meaningful, but 1.5 million are still waiting.
So this is a start, not a solution?
It's a model that works. Whether it can be expanded fast enough to matter at the national level—that's the real question.