The Regional Director for Labour, Professional Qualification and Consumer Defence and the General Secretary of the Eurodyssey programme welcomed, on behalf of the Regional Secretariat for Labour and Social Solidarity, the second group of trainees under the 2009 Eurodyssey.
In a brief speech, Rui Bettencourt highlighted the Regions’ assets, talking about the importance of the 2009 Eurodyssey programme, for the reason that it differs from other exchange programmes, “where youngsters learn Azorean History as well as Geography for a month.”
The 30 European youngsters will now join the remaining 20 who have already started their traineeship in the Region since February, thus rising to 50 the number of trainees under the aforementioned programme.
The second group is composed by youngsters from the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Valencian Community and Murcia, from the French regions of Burgundy, Champagne-Ardenne, Poitou-Charentes, Picardie and Rhône-Alpes, from the Romanian region of Harghita and from the Belgium region of Brussels, the second group will start a six month traineeship, staying in the Azores until December 15.
More than 400 youngsters have come to the Azores under the Eurodyssey programme, of which 80 have remained in the Region. According to Rui Bettencourt, the arrival of these youngsters to the Azores “is an asset,” having in mind that they “bring new work methods and they promote the Autonomous Region in their native countries.”
This well-known programme of the Assembly of the European Regions, which is lead by the Azores, intends to provide youngsters with the opportunity to benefit from a qualified professional experience in a European region. Those who will now start their traineeship will have Portuguese, Azorean History as well as Geography classes for a month at the University of the Azores.