The Vice-President of the Government revealed this morning that a total of 832 professional traineeships for young university graduates or youngsters who have completed vocational training were approved under the "Estagiar" programme.

Trainees, of whom 395 are university graduates and 437 hold a vocational training diploma, will be informed their acceptance into the traineeship. "Estagiar" traineeships start on October 1, being an operation that represents a governmental investment of 5.5 million Euros.

This is a programme developed by the Government of the Azores with the aim of supporting Azorean youngsters in their contact with the labour world by providing them with the opportunity of undertaking a traineeship in companies and public or private entities with a duration of two years on smaller islands and a year on the remaining islands.  

This first experience in the labour world will allow youngsters "to acquire skills and gain experience so that they can enhance their integration in the labour market," said Sérgio Ávila.

With regard to the integration of youngsters in the labour market, the government official stressed that the Government of the Azores has developed a series of new programmes.

"The Regional Government has also created a programme to support the integration of trainees. Under this new programme, the Government will be able to further subsidise, at a later phase, the entities wishing to hire trainees after the completion of the traineeship programme," reminded the government official.

"Integra" and "Integra StartUp" are other complementary measures "that will also allow companies to benefit from additional funding in the case of hiring trainees after the training period," added the Vice-president of the Government.