The Basque Government launches a pilot programme to bring more women into production roles in Basque industry

• This new pilot programme has an initial budget of up to €1 million, which will be allocated to training and grants. It will initially seek between five and seven local projects.
• Participants will receive training focused on the needs of local industry and, as a new feature, a grant of up to €1,000 per month during the training period.

The Basque Government, through SPRI, has launched the Transformative Project “Emakumea Industriara”, an initiative intended to promote the entry of women into production roles at industrial companies in Euskadi through training pathways linked to actual hiring commitments.

The Department of Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability is thereby fulfilling its commitment to attract and train women with professional experience in other sectors and bring them into industrial production roles through this new pilot programme. It has an initial budget of €1 million, which will be allocated to training and grants. It will initially seek between five and seven local projects.

Another objective of this new Transformative Project is to respond to the need for talent in Euskadi’s industry and increase women’s participation in a sector where they remain underrepresented, currently accounting for 21.7%. This percentage is noticeably lower in industrial production roles on the shop floor.

At the project’s presentation, the Basque Government Minister for Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability, Mikel Jauregi, stressed that “industry offers quality employment, and the low presence of women is one of the greatest factors of inequality in the workplace in our country. Fighting the underrepresentation of women in industry means fighting for equality between men and women in Euskadi.”

The Minister emphasised that “as a society, we need women to enter industrial production roles. With ‘Emakumea Industriara’, we want to meet our industry’s need for talent by attracting and training women to enter industrial production roles. Promoting equality in industry is synonymous with greater competitiveness.”

To launch “Emakumea Industriara”, the Basque Government has mobilised three departments: Industry, Education and Employment, through the training programmes of Lanbide, the Basque Public Employment Service; specifically, the programme that promotes training for the hiring of women in male-dominated sectors. The aim is to structurally change the talent base of Basque industry by connecting equality, competitiveness and generational renewal. In this way, the project seeks to bring about lasting change in the composition of the industrial sector, bringing in new female professionals and helping to secure the generational renewal and capabilities Euskadi will need for its industrial future.

The pilot projects will involve local development agencies and industrial associations and will have a maximum duration of six months. Applications for the programme will open in the coming days.

Applications must present the training offer and the jobs to be filled. Participants will receive training focused on the needs of local industry and, as a new feature, a grant of up to €1,000 per month during the training period.

Drawing on the experience gained from these pilots, a programme covering all of Euskadi will be launched next year to continue promoting industry in Euskadi and creating jobs for women in the industrial sector.

This new publicly led Transformative Project is the seventeenth to be presented of the 25 pledged by the Basque Government under the Industry Plan – Euskadi 2030. Of the 17, six are privately led, and this is the eleventh led by the public sector.

Of the 25 Transformative Projects, 17 have now been launched: six led by the private sector and 11 by the public sector

The Industry Plan – Euskadi 2030 set out 23 Transformative Projects led by the public and private sectors. Two new privately led Transformative Projects have been added: “Zero Emissions Marine Boat” and “Hidrogeles inteligentes para Nanomedicina”.

The Industry Plan is a dynamic plan under which the Transformative Projects are developed, so further projects are expected to be added as industrial needs evolve.

In total, 17 of the current 25 Transformative Projects have now been launched: 11 led by the public sector and six by the private sector.

The publicly led projects are: ESG Euskadi; Euskadi: Climate Change adaptation living lab; Planificación de las redes eléctricas vascas (aumento potencia más del 40%); Euskadi SpaceLab (ESA BIC); Desarrollo Energías Renovables; Mejora de los procesos administrativos (Autopista Regulatoria); Reserva estratégica de suelo industrial e infraestructuras; Fondo Scale Up; Euskorpus; Basque Zirkular Metals; and the project presented today, “Emakumea Industriara”.

The six privately led projects, in addition to this one, are: “Nuevas Arquitecturas de Motor Aeronáutico para la Aviación Sostenible y Competitiva en Euskadi”; “ROBOOST”; “Hidrogeles Inteligentes para la Nanomedicina Personalizada”; “Hub de Combustibles Renovables”; “Grid4Industry”; and “Zero Emissions Marine Boat”.

These six Transformative Projects represent an initial investment of more than €679 million, of which €368 million is allocated to R&D and technological development. The six projects will create more than 3,800 quality jobs in the coming years. They will also generate activity for another 159 companies — most of them SMEs — in the Basque industrial sector, with the collaboration of the country’s Technology Centres.