The Vice-President of the Government pointed out in Praia da Vitória the "investment" of the Government in vocational training, which resulted in an annual average of about 3,000 young people enrolled in vocational training courses.
 
Sérgio Ávila spoke Friday at the closing of the Regional Skills Championship, revealing that this "winning strategy" represented an investment over 86 million Euros in the last seven years.
 
"Even before the entry into force of the new Community framework, the Government of the Azores assured that, contrary to what happens in the rest of the country, vocational training continued without any hindrance. The Government has ensured the necessary funding, together with regional vocational training schools, in order to assume the respective financial burden, an investment of 36.8 million Euros," said the government official.
 
For the Vice-President, "the partnership with vocational training schools is extremely important and essential in the development of any project," such as the case of "the adequate response in the training" of professionals working in the tourism sector, whose significant growth has brought new challenges.
 
"In the future, we will be faced with new opportunities, certainly in other sectors, and we can only seize them if we can rely on a highly skilled population", Sérgio Ávila said, adding that the Azores want to be "a more productive, a more competitive and more modern region" and "they have the indispensable resources for that."
 
In his speech, the Vice-President recalled that, after training, young people have at their disposal a number of programmes created by the Regional Government to help their entry into the labour market, such as the "Estagiar T"; the latter represents an annual investment of 3.6 million Euros.
 
"This programmed has supported the transition of young people who completed their vocational training to the labour world," Sérgio Ávila, adding that this first response provided by the Regional Government has already allowed "the integration of 6,680 Azorean youngsters into the labour market. "
 
The Vice-President also alluded to the Professional Integration Programme of "Estagiar L" and "Estagiar T" (PIIE), an initiative intended to support the transition of young people who are completing their traineeships to the labour market.
 
The programme provides financial support to employers who hire trainees who completed the "Estagiar L" and "Estagiar T" programme for fixed-term contracts or contracts of unspecified duration. Under this initiative, "1,094 young trainees have already signed employment contracts," revealed the government official.
 
Sérgio Ávila congratulated the winners of the regional edition, wishing them good luck for the National Championship, which takes place in Coimbra in May. In this context, he recalled that Azorean competitors have already won 96 medals in national and international competitions.
 
However, the Vice-President stressed that "winning medals is not the purpose of vocational training."
 
According to him, the ultimate goal is "to provide young people with skills to become the best possible in their professional area in the near future." In this context, the government official added that nothing more is required from the champions who will represent the Azores in Coimbra than to show "their effort, loyalty and professionalism."
 
"This is enough to make the Azores proud of their young professionals," noted the Vice-President of the Government.