Technology, social impact measurement, mental health, workforce sustainability, and a regulatory framework in full evolution. Special Employment Centers are facing a transformative phase that obliges the sector to reassess its operation and anticipate the changes that will shape the labor market in the coming years.
These will be the core pillars of the 21st edition of the National Congress of Special Employment Centers, which the Confederation of National Centers for Special Employment (CONACEE), the oldest trade association in the sector, will hold on September 22 and 23 at the Palacio de Cibeles in Madrid under the theme “Transforming Capabilities.”
The gathering will bring together entities and professionals linked to Special Employment Centers and experts from the business, academic, and institutional spheres to analyze the main challenges that will drive the sector’s transformation.
Quota for employment reserve, unemployment, and the Social Economy Law
The first of those fronts, the regulatory one, has been in a period of intense activity. Last July, the Congress of Deputies approved elevating noncompliance with the disability employment reserve quota to the level of a “very serious” offense. The reform, which is now moving through the Senate, seeks to reinforce compliance with a 2% obligation for companies with 50 or more employees that has been in place for more than four decades.
CONACEE positively values the strengthening of measures aimed at guaranteeing compliance with the employment reserve quota for people with disabilities, considering that they will help push greater labor inclusion, although it regards it as appropriate to raise that quota to 4%. Moreover, the Confederation argues that this objective should be accompanied by recognition of the role played by Special Employment Centers (CEEs) as a proven tool for generating employment opportunities, especially for those who face greater barriers to entry into the regular labor market.
“We need a framework that incentivizes job creation, provides legal certainty for businesses, and strengthens those instruments that have demonstrated their effectiveness in promoting the employment inclusion of people with disabilities,” summarizes Albert Campabadal Blanco, president of CONACEE.
Social Economy Law
In this regard, the other major regulatory front is the Social Economy Law, which has left out of its recognition the Special Employment Centers (CEEs) that are enterprise-initiated, representing more than two-thirds of the sector and responsible for more than 82,000 jobs, more than 69,000 of which are for people with disabilities. For CONACEE, inclusion does not depend on the legal form of each center, but on the outcomes of the sociolabor model of the CEEs, which for four decades has generated stable and tailored employment opportunities for a group with particular difficulties accessing the ordinary labor market.
Both debates coexist with a telling statistic: the employment rate for people with disabilities has barely advanced in recent decades, from 27.7% in 2010 to 28.9% in 2024 (INE’s latest official data). Among the population without disabilities, the rate stands at 69.7%, leaving a gap of almost 41 percentage points.
This gap highlights the need not only to review the tools for accessing employment but also to measure which policies and models are delivering real results. Measuring social impact will be one of the main themes of CONACEE’s National Congress, alongside the application of artificial intelligence to the management of CEEs.
Moreover, among the most prominent speakers this year will be professional coach and CEO of the Pegasus Foundation, David Rodríguez, who will serve as master of ceremonies for the two days and will also share his own reflections on the barriers and biases that still condition the employment of people with disabilities.
The event will also feature the VASS Foundation, which will address the application of artificial intelligence in CEEs through José Samuel Berigüete, Director of Delivery Cross Service Line & AI Lead Spain for the organization, and the Pontifical Comillas University, which will share its experience in measuring social impact through Carlos Ballesteros, director of its Chair of Social Impact. Along with them, Juan José Laguna, president of the Association of Special Employment Centers in Madrid (ACEEM), will accompany Albert Campabadal Blanco at the opening and closing of the Congress.
«Our sector is facing a decisive moment, in which technology, social impact measurement, and the regulatory framework will determine its ability to generate stable and greater employment for people with disabilities. This Congress is the space to analyze these challenges with rigor and to anticipate them», said Albert Campabadal Blanco, president of CONACEE.
