The Regional Director for Youth stressed today the importance of the project "Entrepreneurial Education: The Path to Success" as an actual response not only to the needs of youngsters, but also to the challenges launched by the European Commission.

"In recent years, the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for Youth, has privileged entrepreneurship as of its main priorities in the definition and implementation of youth policies," said Pilar Damião at the opening of the 4th Ideaçores Regional Competition.

The Regional Director for Youth mentioned several initiatives promoted by the Government: "Entrepreneurial Education: The Path to Success," the Incentive Programme for Youth Social Entrepreneurship - "Jovens+," the Incentive Programme for Cultural Entrepreneurship - "Labjovem" and the Incentive Programme for Youth Associations. According to her, these programmes evidence the Government's proactive attitude in this area by encouraging and development youth entrepreneurship in its different aspects."

In her speech, Pilar Damião stressed that, recently, the EU Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport stressed the importance of including entrepreneurial education at various school levels.

In this context, the Regional Director mentioned the need to congregate and raise the awareness of several realities (schools, companies and youth associations) for this subject, the relevance of providing students with a business experience at school and the importance of coping with failure situations. According to her, these aspects are fundamental to the European Union with regard to the implementation of entrepreneurship at schools.
 
This year, the Ideaçores Regional Competition will be held over two days. A total of 35 students from schools across the archipelago will participate in this initiative.

Today, middle school and junior high school students will present 18 business ideas while secondary and vocational training school students will present 17 projects on Friday.

The winners will be announced on Friday at a prize delivery ceremony. The event will be attended by the Regional Director for Youth, Pilar Damião, the Regional Directorate for Education, Graça Teixeira, and the Regional Director for Support to the Investment and Competitiveness, Ricardo Medeiros.

The Ideiaçores Regional Competition takes place under the programme "Entrepreneurial Education: The Path to Success." An initiative of the Government of the Azores, the competition is organised by the Regional Directorates for Youth and Education as well as by the Society for the Business Development of the Azores (SDEA) and the Entrepreneurship Centre of the University of the Azores.