Mapiser
The Spanish company, recognised in the local edition of the SME EnterPRIZE project in the Community category, promotes employability for the most vulnerable
Mapiser is a firm whose foremost objective is to professionally train people who come from circumstances of social vulnerability to ensure their integration into the labour market.
Founded in 1997 in Zaragoza, Mapiser was promoted by Fundación Picarral and Fundación Integración y Empleo.
Fundación Picarral was formed in 1980 to fight for equal opportunities for all. In 1995, the pre-employment training project Serpi was launched to improve the employability of young people with borderline intelligence or mild intellectual disabilities. Fundación Integración y Empleo was created by a group of professionals from different fields (academia, business, social, etc.) to promote sheltered employment projects aimed at professionally training people at risk of exclusion.
Mapiser stems from these Foundations’ conducive environment – with the same aim to create employment opportunities for people in situations of social vulnerability.
There is no distribution of profits among members, the profits are instead reinvested in the company itself for training, infrastructure upgrades, machinery, etc. The company’s partners have remained the same since its founding and today continue to guide the firm and ensure that it stays true to the values on which it was originally established.
Mapiser seeks to consolidate a business structure that is innovative, dynamic and, at the same time, competitive and profitable. Its target is to generate stable and qualified employment for people that come from precarious contexts, through socially useful activities such as industrial handling, removals and transport, or painting and graffiti removal. Mapiser accompanies workers for a maximum duration of 3 years, in which they gain social and labour experience within the company. This allows them to increase their employability and facilitates their access to the world of work. All this is carried out through productive and paid work, which serves as a channel for acquiring and improving professional and personal skills.
The company has social and production teams that collaborate to open up new avenues for workers to enter the labour market. This unified effort ensures the smooth transition of workers in both the social and work context.
The social and labour programme is based on practices that can enhance an individual’s occupational capacity, both in terms of productivity and professional and social training, while being able to respond to the needs of each individual. The programme typically includes 4 stages: selection, adaptation, development of professional skills, and integration into the labour market. The latter takes into account 5 steps: equality, participation, occupational health and safety, external communication and internships.
Mapiser applies occupational health and safety measures also in the management of people: it respects the rights of staff by promoting equal treatment and opportunities, favours positive discrimination and the balancing of work and family life, as well as compatibility between the objectives of the organization and those of workers’ individual and professional development.
In 2020, 39 people with an average age of 47 years, 28% of whom were women, completed the socio-labour programme. 17% successfully entered the labour market.
More information on the Mapiser’s employment programme can be found at: