Available funding in Latvia

Background information

Funding opportunities for upskilling and reskilling to support the digital competences of individuals and organizations are available in form of grants, loans and financial instruments. For the period 2021 – 2026 most of the activities in digital transformation are financed through Recovery and Resilience facility but also as activities in Horizon, Erasmus+, Interreg and EEA grant schemes. You may find more information on the EC page of Latvian Recovery and Resilience Plan.

When it comes to digital skills and digital transformation, the lines of action are outlined in the Digital transformation Guidelines 2021-2027. Related funding opportunities are channeled throughout EU schemes, the RRF and other National funding schemes.

In Latvia, 188 million from EU funds are allocated for digital skills, including 79 million from the national RRF, in the period 2021-2027:

• 30 million for digital basic skills
• 106 million for above-basic-medium skills
• 49 million for advanced digital skills

Funding is available to support the actions in the following domains:

• Impact focused investment
• The place of Digital competences in education and training systems
• The role of industry, social partners and other stakeholders
• Advanced digital skills for Labour force
• Governance of digital skills and education policies

The funds of the RRF can be combined with other forms of European funds, such as the 2021-2027 EC Social funds, Regional Development funds, and other forms of partnership.

Recovery and resilience facility

The Latvian Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has foreseen € 361.5 million to support digitalization, including the deployment of infrastructures and support to businesses. Provisions for digital skills amount to €79 million.

Latvia’s recovery and resilience plan supports the digital transition thanks to investments in the digitalisation of public administration and public services (€129 million) and by supporting the digital transformation of businesses and by creating a better environment for research and innovation with measures to improve the digitalisation of small and medium sized enterprises (€125 million). The plan includes measures to deploy high-speed broadband that should help further improve digital infrastructure (€12.5 million) and reforms in favour of digital upskilling, such as improving the basic and advanced digital skills of citizens, enterprises and public administration (€95 million).

Calls for tenders and other funding opportunities related to the RRF can be found on the home page of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency of the Republic of Latvia

National funding

The main instruments used by the National Government in support of the digital transition, and the uptake of digital skills to bridge the digital divide are targeted to different audiences:

Digital skills and digital transformation support for businesses: this support is coordinated by Ministry of Economy of Latvia in cooperation with Central Finance and Contracting Agency

The Digital competences development for Adults life long learning activity is coordinated by Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia, and it includes different digital competence development  programs which are mapped to Digital Competence Framework levels 1-6.

Funding allocated to digital competence development programs by State Employment agency. These programs are developed to enhance the competitiveness and promote the labor market integration of individuals who are unemployed, job seekers, and those at risk of unemployment (hereinafter referred to as the target group). As part of the allocated funding, the State Employment Agency will provide career counseling, retraining, and upskilling programs for the unemployed. Additionally, they will assess the professional competences acquired outside the formal education system.

Other funding options

Industry financed and co-financed digital skills development programs for youth  and adults. There are several initiatives supporting digital skills training and upskilling in Latvia, which are financed by industry partner, such as Baltic Virtual Internships, Learn to code for free, Accenture Bootcamp,  Smart Latvia, Riga Tech Girls and other.

Different funding options are also available on the Latvian Digital Skills and Jobs platform, you may find a listing on this link.