The Government launches the second call of the 'Digital Generation SMEs' plan to boost training

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence and the EOI Foundation, attached to the General Secretariat for Industry and SMEs, have published in the Official State Gazette the second call for applications for the "Digital Generation SMEs" Programme, which is part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

"Digital Generation SMEs" is an initiative led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation that aims to boost the digital transformation of Spanish SMEs, thus improving their productivity and their possibilities for growth and internationalisation.

The aim of this initiative is to offer a training and mentoring programme to SME management teams and their employees, as well as to unemployed young people who want to help contribute to the digital transformation of these companies.

The grants under this call for proposals, in the form of subsidies, are aimed at leading training organisations in Spain. These Entities will be in charge of delivering the training programme throughout the national territory.

The "Digital Generation SMEs" initiative is articulated through two projects:

1. Digital Generation SMEs: training and mentoring in digital transformation for people in management teams and qualification of people employed in SMEs.
2. Digital Generation Agents of Change: training and mentoring for young unemployed people and SME workers to become the experts who will contribute to the SME digitisation process.

The aim of these projects is:

• To provide SME managers with the knowledge and skills needed to drive the digital transformation of their companies and thus improve productivity and their chances of growth and internationalisation.
• To provide future "agents of change" with the knowledge and skills needed for their incorporation in the labour market or retraining as agents of digital transformation.
• To show how technology impacts on business, enabling the customer to be placed at the centre to provide solutions to their needs, and to generate and exploit data for business decision-making.
• To provide the business fabric with talent and the capacity to implement concrete and specific actions under an action plan.
• To reduce the gender digital divide by increasing the number of women trained in SME digital management.

The EOI Foundation is in charge of managing the investment foreseen for this initiative, which in this second call amounts to 140.6 million euros (98.3 million for "Digital Generation SMEs-Management Teams" and 43.3 million for "Digital Generation-Agents of Change"), coming from the funds of the Recovery Plan.

Applications to become a Training Entity can be submitted through the EOI Foundation's website and the submission period will be open for one month from the publication of the call for applications in the BOE (Official State Gazette).

This call for grants is part of Component 19, "National Digital Skills Plan", of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which has an overall budget of 3.593 billion euros and the objective of guaranteeing the training and digital inclusion of citizens and workers, leaving no one behind in the digital transformation of society and the economy.

Non official translation