Call
ESF-SI-2025-SKILLS-GUARANTEE-01
Published: November 27, 2025
Closing: 29 January 2026 17:00:00 CET
Piloting a Skills Guarantee for Workers in Transition
The European Commission and the European Competence Centre for Social Innovation launched a new transnational Call: ‘Piloting a Skills Guarantee for Workers in Transition’ under the European Social Fund+ Social Innovation+ initiative.
The Call, which aims to pilot a Skills Guarantee, is published in the context of the European Commission’s recently launched Skills Guarantee tool to support workers and businesses and tackle labour shortages in strategic and growing sectors. A flagship initiative under the Union of Skills, the Skills Guarantee will help support strategic sectors in line with the European Competitiveness Fund.
This Call will pilot a job-to-job transition scheme that supports smoother and more effective job transitions for workers in the automotive sector and related supply chains who are at risk of unemployment. It will test how to improve the transition of workers from these sectors into new employment and develop the skills needed in strategic and growing sectors. The pilot will shape a fully-fledged Skills Guarantee scheme, which is set to be implemented under the EU’s future long-term budget (2028-2034).
With an overall Call budget of EUR 14.5 million, it will fund transnational projects that test different delivery mechanisms for supporting workers in transition – especially public–private cooperation models. Projects should involve relevant local, regional, and national partners and public authorities to ensure alignment with each country’s specific strategies and context.
Three different delivery mechanisms will be tested under this Call to help shape the future Skills Guarantee scheme:
- Social-partner-led or private-sector-led mechanism.
- Public-Employment-Service-led or other public-authority-led mechanism.
- Public-private partnership.
Each selected mechanism must integrate training opportunities with complementary employment support measures to promote effective job matching and ensure sustainable employment outcomes.
Who can apply:
- Only consortia are eligible.
Each consortium must consist of at least three (3) organisations: one applicant (coordinator) and at least two (2) co-applicants. Associated partners do not count towards this minimum requirement for the consortium.
The consortium must include at least one national or regional public authority as applicant, co-applicant, or associated partner, which should be:
- established in the same country as the applicant or one of the co-applicants,
- responsible for implementing policies relevant to the aim of the Call.
To be eligible, the applicant, acting as the coordinator, must be established in an EU Member State.
Eligible countries for co-applicants and associated partners:
- EU Member States.
- Non-EU countries (List of Participating Countries in ESF+):
– European Economic Area (EEA) countries and those associated to the ESF+ (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, and Serbia).
– Countries with which an association agreement is being negotiated (Ukraine and Kosovo) provided the agreement enters into force before the signature of the Grant Agreement.
Duration: The expected duration of a project is up to 24 months.
Grant amount: The estimated size of a grant is between EUR 2 500 000 and EUR 3 000 000 per project (but this does not preclude the submission/selection of applications requesting other amounts), constituting no more than 80% of the total project budget. A co-funding of at least 20% must thus come from sources other than the EU budget.
Form of grant: a lump sum grant.
Timeline of the Call
27 November 2025
Call opening
16 December 2025
Info session for applicants
29 January 2026, 17:00 CET
Deadline for submission of applications
February- April 2026
Assessment of applications
June 2026
Grant Agreement signature
Call documents:
- Call Conditions
- Annex 1 Detailed Budget Table
- How to enable macros (tutorial)
- How to fill in Detailed Budget Table
- Annex 2 Grant Agreement, template
- Annex 3 Application Form, template
- Annex 4 List of Required Documents
- Annex 5 List of Previous Projects, template (pdf, word)
- Annex 6 Declaration of Honour for Beneficiaries, template (pdf, word)
- Annex 7 Final Report ‘Lessons Learned and Future Plans’, template (pdf, word)
- Annex 8 Declaration of Professional Competencies, template (pdf, word)
- Annex 9 Public Legal Entity Form (if coordinator is public entity, Annex 9 should be submitted instead of Annex 5 (List or Previous Projects) and Annex 8 Declaration of Professional Competencies)).
- Annex 10 Report on Mapping, Outreach, and Matching, template (pdf, word)
- Annex 11 Interim Report, template (pdf, word)
How to apply
All applications must be submitted online via the Portal eSInnis (Electronic Social Innovation Information System).
Paper applications are not accepted.
The applications must be submitted before the Call deadline: 29 January 2026, 17:00 CET.
Please note that the system will not allow you to submit an application after the deadline.
Step 1
Guides for applicants
To inquire
For IT-related questions, please get in touch with us at IThelp@socialinnovationplus.eu
For the Call related inquiries, please get in touch with us at SKILLS-GUARANTEE@socialinnovationplus.eu
Official Call websites
https://ec.europa.eu/european-social-fund-plus/en/esf-social-innovation