The Vice-President of the Government stated on Terceira Island that the Regional Government has created a new programme designated as "Innovate" for young people without vocational or higher education to promote their integration into the labour market.
 
Sérgio Ávila stressed that this initiative, published today in the Official Journal, was created to provide regional companies and entities with the opportunity to recruit young people up to 30 years who have only completed secondary education (12th form) or less, through a Regional Government's support programme.
 
“As the 'Estagiar' programme supports young people with vocational or higher education, we have created a new programme that does not require higher or vocational education. The registration period begins today and runs throughout October, so that traineeships may start in December,” said the Vice-President.
 
“With these measures, we are enabling all young people, regardless of their education, to have the opportunity to benefit from a labour market support programme, thereby widening the scope of support offered to young people,” stated the government official.
 
The Innovate programme took into account the challenges of promoting youth employability, reducing unemployment, increasing jobs offers and adjusting the supply and demand for job skills.
 
This programme is aimed at unemployed young people up to the age of 30, who have been enrolled for at least 100 consecutive days at the Regional Employment Agencies or at the Azores Youth Guarantee at the beginning of the application period; their level of qualification should be equal or below level 3 under the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
 
The creation of a measure for young people with qualifications at level 3 or below under the NQF, who have lower employability skills, contributes to the occupational and social inclusion of the Azoreans while consolidating the employment promotion strategy in the Azores.