The article concerns the issue of social economy and social employment as one of its forms. Social employment is represented as a modern method of combating social exclusion. It is part of the principles of an active social policy, based above all on voluntary participation, collaboration and concentrating resources on the support of people fit to work, but engulfed by poverty. The author presents the various forms and functions of social employment, the groups of people who are encompassed by such aid, and the methods of reintegration in the social environment and the job market. Statistical data and the opinions of participants in these courses are used to present the results achieved by the spread of social employment schemes in the past few years.