Azorean Government promotes new measures to create stable employment and improve qualification of workers
The Regional Director for Employment and Vocational Training stressed in Maia, São Miguel, the new measures to create stable employment in the Azores and to improve the qualification of employed workers; both measures will be implemented next year.
"I believe our efforts to create increasingly stable, better qualified and better paid jobs is quite evident. However, we are aware of the challenges that we still have to overcome," said Paula Andrade. She spoke Thursday at the opening session that marked the beginning of the course on Recognition, Validation and Certification of Skills (RVCC) - secondary level, covering 40 adults.
On the occasion, a collaboration agreement was also signed between the "Casa do Povo" of Maia (community centre) in the municipality of Ribeira Grande and the “Valorizar” Network. The latter certified this year 350 adults with secondary education skills.
According to Paula Andrade, "the fight against long-term unemployment" is one of the challenges that the Government considers strategic.
In this context, the Azorean Government will implement next year the "'IncluEmprego' programme with the aim of encouraging companies to hire the unemployed aged 30 or over, who have been registered at regional Employment Agencies for more than 12 months."
Also, in 2019, the Government will implement a specific programme for self-employment, designated as "MY Job." It aims to promote the installation of Azoreans that no longer receiving any type of unemployment benefit on a self-employment scheme.
"Next year, we also intend to further reinforce the employability of our young people with the creation of the "Innovating" programme," said the Regional Director. In this regard, she added that the measure is designed to ensure that all young unemployed will have the possibility to undergo training in a working context and in important sectors for the development of the Regions.
Moreover, the Government will implement an innovative programme, designated as "MOVEMPREGO," with the aim of contributing to the internal mobility of human resources, territorial cohesion and increased competitiveness of all companies throughout the archipelago.
"With the growth of the economy and the increase of job offers, the Azoreans participating in socio-occupational integration programmes, usually known as occupational programmes, will have the possibility of being hired by companies, cooperatives or non-profit organisations," added Paula Andrade.
"In order to speed up this integration, we will implement a Continuous Integration Traineeship Plan with the purpose of complementing and improving specific skills for each occupation and activity sector, thus facilitating the integration of these Azoreans into companies," stressed the government official.
The Regional Director for Employment and Vocational Training considered that these measures, along with others already implemented such as the "Estagiar" traineeships, ELP Professional Conversion, ELP Hiring or the Premium CPE programme, will consolidate the current economy development cycle in the Azores.