Starting Monday, tourism companies that provide services in the restaurant, entertainment and accommodation sectors will be able to apply for the Vocational Training Programme (PVP) established by the Regional Government of the Azores to advance the qualifications of workers in periods of low seasonal economic activity.

This programme, especially designed to prevent negative repercussions in the labour market that result from instability factors that originate abroad anticipates that the Social Security System will pay, during the during training period, 70% of the incomes of participants. The remaining 30% are to be paid by the companies for whom the participants work when not undertaking vocational training.

In order to apply to the programme, companies will have to present an improvements plan where training initiatives for permanent workers are delineated and their pertinence dully explained.

The Government of Carlos César justified this programme by saying that “the economic activities that generate employment and wealth can sometimes, for reasons that have to do with seasonality, be negatively affected and put in risk the normal functioning of the labour market and the economy.”

He said that in such a situation “ it is important to reinforce the ambience of labour security and stability and implement policies that promote the increased qualification of human resources, through the divulgation of good entrepreneurial practices and the concretisation of inter-company and specific training programmes .