The Regional Director for Labour, Vocational Training and Consumer Defence, stressed on Sunday the importance of organising the National Skills Championship in the Azores as it will “prove to the Azorean society and to the Portuguese that vocation training is an asset.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the opening of the National Skills Championship, which he presided over on behalf of the Regional Secretary for Labour and Social Solidarity, Ana Paula Marques, Rui Bettencourt stated that this event is “a showcase” of good professionalism in Portugal.
According to the Regional Director, “the young winners of previous championships have fully integrated into the labour market.”
The National Skills Championship brings together the best contestants of each Portuguese region, who will compete among themselves to represent Portugal in the next Worldskills International to be held in London (United Kingdom) in October 2011.
The event, which is taking place in Ponta Delgada at the Cultural and Congress Centre – Teatro Micaelense until May 6, features 31 skills in competition and a total of 600 participants.
The Azorean application for the organisation of this initiative was formalised by the Regional Secretary for Labour and Social Solidarity, Ana Paula Marques, among the Employment and Vocational Training Institute during the National Skills Championship held in Santarém in March 2009.