The Regional Director for Employment and Vocational Training welcomed a group of 25 young Eurodyssey trainees in Ponta Delgada, highlighting the importance of this programme. The initiative aims to provide young people with "more professional experience in a real work context," while giving them the opportunity to "learn a foreign language and improve their knowledge of it, in this case, the Portuguese language."
Paula Andrade pointed out the advantages arising from a closer contact with other professional and socio-cultural realities, adding that, since 2011, more than 400 young people from other European countries have "chosen the Azores for their traineeship."
While welcoming 25 new trainees, the Regional Director also stated that the Eurodyssey programme has already allowed "260 young Azoreans to undertake their traineeships in various European regions."
In the coming months, the Regional Government through the Vice-Presidency, will provide these 25 young people with a monthly scholarship, fully funded by the Region, a Portuguese Language and Culture course, and a practical traineeship at a regional entity.
The trainees come from the regions of Murcia, Valencian Community and Catalonia (Spain), Brussels and Wallonia (Belgium) and Istria (Croatia).
These young people, whose average age stands at 26, will undertake their traineeships on the islands of Faial, Terceira and São Miguel, in companies, associations or in public entities, such as the University of the Azores.
Eurodyssey is a bilateral traineeship exchange programme of the Assembly of European Regions (AER), which the Azores have joined over 30 years ago. This initiative offers traineeships abroad for a period of three to seven months to young people aged between 18 and 30 who are looking for a job.