The Government of the Azores announced on Thursday the creation of two new programmes with the purpose of improving the employability conditions and promoting professional qualification in the archipelago.
The L+ Programme (reconversion, monitoring and recovery programme for Azorean youngsters with a Bachelor or a Master’s Degree) and FIOS Programme (Training, Integration and Social Occupation Programme) are the newly created programmes announced by the Secretary of the Presidency when presenting the press release concerning the meeting of the Council of the Government on Wednesday.
As he explained on the occasion, the L+ Programme “aims to improve the employability conditions of young graduates with academic qualifications, through the funding of courses to reconvert unemployed graduates, training grants for postgraduate courses in shortage areas, the establishment of a monitoring system for graduates, and the awarding of a prize for good business practices in the professional integration of graduates, among other measures.”
Therefore, the Government intends “to facilitate the access of young Azoreans to the areas and sectors of increasing employability, with positive impacts on youth employment and benefits for the regional business sector,” stated André Bradford.
In turn, the FIOS Programme aims “to promote employability as well as vocational and occupational skills of Social Integration Income beneficiaries who are currently unemployed.”
This programme is addressed at working population aged between 18 and 55 year “with specific problems in accessing the labour market due to the lack of compulsory education or low professional qualification levels.”
With this initiative the Government, “through adequate interventions to the specific needs of the target groups,” intends “to provide tools to promote their integration in the labour market or their participation in activities that meet social, community or environmental needs,” stated the Regional Secretary.