Regional Qualifications Passport creates digital ecosystem for training, skills and recruitment - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Juventude, Habitação e Emprego

The new Regional Qualifications Passport (PRQ) has been created - at prq.azores.gov.pt - bringing together workers, certified training entities and companies in a digital ecosystem for training, skills and recruitment.

Presented today by the Regional Secretary for Youth, Housing and Employment, Maria João Carreiro, at the “Skills Network” seminar, held at the Luís de Camões Auditorium in Ponta Delgada, registration in the PRQ is free. It will be available for use from November 24 in computer and smartphone formats.

With this new public training and employment service, users will be able to compile certificates from their training history and access training and qualification courses aligned with their current or future career path, with a focus on ongoing training. 

“The Regional Qualifications Passport is a window of opportunity for workers, certified training entities and employers. It provides ongoing skills development and guidance for lifelong learning pathways,” explained the Regional Secretary.

This ecosystem of skilled workers connected to training entities and companies will bring benefits not only for the digital transformation of public administration services and access to documents and records, but also for bringing together talent, skills and the goals of workers and companies.

In her speech, Maria João Carreiro stressed that the main problem in the regional labour market today is not unemployment, as it was in November 2019, the pre-pandemic reference year, when the region registered 10,800 unemployed, but rather the recruitment of more and better-trained workers.

Last September, the Region registered 3,962 people looking for their first or a new job.

With unemployment at a low and the employed population at a high, which is reflected in improvements in the lives of Azorean workers, families and businesses, "there is still a challenge in terms of valuing training, lifelong learning and occupations," she noted.

For this reason, Maria João Carreiro defended the need for the Region to "move forward with even greater determination to instill the importance of lifelong learning and training in the Azores," pointing out that existing regional and EU financial resources are available and should be used.

The Regional Qualifications Passport was created under the Regional Agenda for Vocational Training – Enhancing the Azoreans. This is an unprecedented initiative in the Region aimed, among other goals, at promoting greater alignment of vocational training and qualifications with market needs and greater social recognition of occupations.

The speakers participating in the first panel of the "Skills Network" seminar, dedicated to the "Challenges of Entity Certification and Training," were Anabela Solano, Director of Quality Services and Accreditation at DGERT- Directorate-General for Employment and Labour Relations; João Lourenço, Coordinator of the National Centre for Trainer Qualification at IEFP-Employment and Vocational Training Institute; and Renato Medeiros, Regional Director for Vocational Training and Employment.

The second panel, focusing on "The role of companies in enhancing and qualifying assets," featured speakers Paula Stone, Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ponta Delgada; Pedro Santos, Director of Norma Açores; and Sofia Mota, Director of Human Resources at the Bensaude Group.

This public reflection brought together public decision-makers, workers, employers, training entity leaders, and representatives of civil society organisations and institutions.