IEFP - +Employment

The ATIVAR.PT Incentive - Employment Measure of IEFP (Institute for Employment and Vocational Training) is an initiative aimed at supporting job creation in Portugal, especially for groups in situations of greater vulnerability, such as the long-term unemployed and young people seeking their first job. The measure offers financial incentives to employers who sign open-ended or fixed-term employment contracts, provided certain requirements are met, such as a minimum duration of the contracts.

Unemployed persons registered with the IEFP, in one of the following situations:

- For at least 3 consecutive months.

- Regardless of the registration period, if the person is:

A young person aged 35 or younger, with a qualification level lower than Level 6 of the National Qualifications Framework;

A beneficiary of unemployment benefits;

A beneficiary of the Social Insertion Income;
A person with disabilities or impairments;
A single-parent family member;
A person whose spouse or cohabiting partner is also unemployed and registered with the IEFP;
A person who has been placed under a residential care promotion and protection measure;
A victim of domestic violence;
A national of a third country, provided they have a permit that allows their residence or stay in Portugal and qualifies them to register as a job seeker;
A refugee or beneficiary of temporary protection;
A former prisoner or someone serving or who has served non-custodial judicial sentences or measures, capable of reintegrating into active life;
A recovering drug addict or alcoholic;
A person unemployed for the last 12 consecutive months preceding the date of the job offer registration, without any records in social security or any other mandatory social protection regime, neither as an employee nor as a self-employed worker;
A person who has served in the Armed Forces under Contract Regime, Special Contract Regime, or Volunteer Regime, under the conditions provided in Article 22, no. 2 of Decree-Law No. 76/2018, of October 11;
A person in a situation of homelessness or in a social integration process defined for this purpose;
A person who has been recognized as an Informal Caregiver and who has provided care as the main informal caregiver;
A person who has completed an IEFP-funded internship less than 12 months ago;
A beneficiary of the Interior More Employment Measure;
A person aged 45 or older.

Requirements

To be eligible to apply, the entity must satisfy the following requirements:

Be duly incorporated and officially registered;
Hold all licences and legal authorisations required to carry out its activities, or provide evidence that the process to obtain them is underway;
Have no outstanding debts or breaches in relation to financial support granted by IEFP;
Be compliant with all repayment obligations relating to funding received from European Funds;
Maintain properly organised accounting records, where applicable;
Not have been convicted, within the previous two years (or for a longer period where stipulated by the applicable sanction), of criminal offences or serious or very serious infringements of labour law.

How to obtain

Application periods are defined by a decision of the IEFP Board and published on the IEFP website.

Applications must be submitted within the following deadlines:

For job offers registered during the application period, within 30 consecutive days following the date of registration of the offer;
For job offers registered prior to the application period, within 30 consecutive days following the opening date of the application period.

Learn more

Further information regarding the +Employment measure and the IEFP support programmes is available on the IEFP’s website.