The employment grant can be applied for by registered associations and foundations that have been in operation for at least a year and whose activities promote the employment opportunities of unemployed Helsinki residents.
An application for the following calendar year must be submitted during the previous year. The employment grant for 2024 is being applied for from 17 November to 14 December 2023, and the application period ends on 14 December 2023 at 4.00 pm. An application is considered to be overdue if the application has not been submitted by the deadline or if an incomplete application has not been completed by the given deadline. Applications submitted as empty are considered to be overdue and cannot be completed after the application period has ended. Late applications will be proposed to be rejected.
The application process proceeds in three stages. The application has either been received, in progress or closed. The current stage of the application in question is shown in the section Application statuses. “Closed” means that a decision has been made on the application. Information about the decision will not be visible on the application, however. If the application’s status is shown as a “draft”, it has not been submitted. While the application is being processed, communication takes place through the application’s messaging function. The decisions on the grants to be distributed are made by the Director of Employment. Information about the decision will be sent to the applicant by letter or email about three months after the application period has ended.
Grants of less than €8,000 will be paid in a single instalment. Grants of more than €8,000 are paid in 2–4 instalments. A report on the use of the grant must be provided attached to the application for the following year. If you are not applying for the grant the next year, the report must be submitted in accordance with the instructions attached to the original decision.
The grant is given in accordance with the grant guidelines approved by the City Board, as well as the additional conditions defined in Helsinki’s employment management policy. The party giving out the grant has the right to audit the accounts and administration of the recipient and perform other audits regarding its activities as necessary.
Grant criteria
Operating grants are distributed as general grants for an organisation’s operations. When sharing the grants, the number of work try-out days carried out on an annual basis is considered a priority. Work try-out refers to workers with an employment contract that is based on the local government pilot on employment. (Agreement on a work try-out at a workplace). In addition, the following factors will be considered: training offered to unemployed people, other group activities aimed at the unemployed, the targeting of the activities at the priority groups of the city’s employment management (the long-term unemployed, young people, immigrants), the goal-oriented targeting of the activities towards the open labour market or education, as well as the factors mentioned in the city’s general guidelines for grants, in particular the results and scope of the activities, the quality of the services and the community’s expertise. When distributing the grants, the operational costs are taken into account, such as the salary and facility costs in proportion to the scope of the operations. The achievement of previous years’ objectives will be taken into account in the next year’s grant sum.
Operational development grant is shared for the development of the organisation’s activities aimed at unemployed people and towards increasing the organisations’ internal competence, strengthening communications, developing and adding services and opening new paths of cooperation. Development grant may also be granted to more than one organisation on the basis of a joint application.
Contact information
Sari Rasanen, Senior planning officer, sari.rasanen@hel.fi (Link opens default mail program)