The European Social Fund is a crucial instrument in the European Union’s drive to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.  With its investments in the adaptability of workers, in access to employment, in vocational and lifelong learning, and in bringing down the barriers of social exclusion and poverty, the ESF has the potential to change lives in the most direct and tangible manner.  This is what distinguishes ESF from the rest.  However, the benefits of ESF cannot be channelled down to the rightful recipients without a strong, efficient and effective system for its management and control.

Guided by its core priorities of employment, education, social inclusion and improved public services, ESF operational programmes for the 2014-20 period are streamlined to fit into an intervention logic which identifies the development need, the solutions and actions proposed, and measures their success on the basis of clear indicators.  The Performance Reserve now rewards Member States for results achieved by 2018; financial corrections may ensue for failed targets in 2023.  

What are the implications of this framework on the management of ESF programmes regionally and locally?  What are the attributes of a successful ESF application form?  What alternative forms of financial support and simplification measures are available to help?  How will the error rate go down, as momentum is shifted increasingly towards performance rather than financial management?  Is it all about performance evaluation and not about financial verifications?  

This course is designed with the specific needs of ESF 2014-20 in mind.  Through a linear approach, we analyse the most important features of the Fund from programming, through project application, selection and implementation, down to evaluation.  All supported by practical cases, examples and workshops that will help participants to better understand and relate to his or her day-to-day job with ESF.