Speech delivered by the Regional Secretary for Youth, Vocational Training and Employment - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Juventude, Qualificação Profissional e Emprego

Full text of the speech delivered today by the Regional Secretary for Youth, Vocational Training and Employment, Maria João Carreiro,  in Horta, during the discussion of the Plan and Budget for 2023:

"The Investment Plan for 2023 of the Regional Secretariat for Youth, Vocational Training and Employment continues to comply with the policies for the qualification of the Azoreans in the labour market, according to the Programme of the XIII Government of the Azores.

With an allocation of more than 65 million Euros, this is a realistic plan based on social, political and budget responsibility and a response to the challenges of the present and the future in the areas that fall under the responsibility of this department.

In 2023, more than 63.5 million Euros will be invested in Vocational Training and Employment to enhance the skills and increase the employability levels of Azoreans, i.e. to promote their integration into the labour market, namely young people, unemployed with low skills or long-term unemployed.

Therefore, the Investment Plan reaffirms our ambition, our commitment and our political responsibility to improve the labour situation of the Azoreans, following a path that is already having a positive impact on the life of the working population of our Region.

Let us see:

• Since May, the Azores is recording the lowest unemployment figures in the last 12 years, a period when the Region was considered to be at full employment. In October this year, 5,620 Azoreans were registered at the Employment and Qualification Centres, 1,387 fewer unemployed than in the same month in 2019;

• Never as now have so many unemployed people been placed in job vacancies: from January to October this year 2,254 unemployed people were placed in the labour market, 37% more than in the same period of 2019, the reference year of the pre-pandemic period;

• Youth unemployment reached historic lows last October, a month when 777 young people were unemployed, 25% less than in October 2019;

• The number of people h enrolled in occupation programmes has been falling to the same extent as the number of unemployed is falling. Between January and October 2019, 3,269 unemployed people were placed in occupational programmes and in the same period of the current year 2,390 people were placed, which means a variation of 28% less. 

• Through the CONTRATAR and TURIS.ESTÁVEL measures, we have already supported the hiring of more than 3,700 unemployed people. Between January and October 31 this year, 2,425 unemployed benefited from hiring support measures, 43% more than in the same period of 2019.

These are the positive effects of policies that counter the idea of unemployment as inevitable; labour precariousness as the alternative to unemployment; the right and access to social support as a life project, and for life, of the working-age population, wasting resources, wasting talents and limiting dreams. 

These are indicators that reinforce the credibility of this Plan and the confidence of the Azoreans in this new generation of qualification and employment policies that are bearing results, which increases our responsibility to face the challenges of the present firmly and to look to the future with confidence.

In the coming year, we will continue to encourage the stability of employment contracts and the reduction of labour instability, through measures to support qualification and hiring. They aimed not only but especially at the unemployed who have not yet managed to enter the labour market due to their low skills - despite the increase in job vacancies - and with whom we will continue to work so that they can improve their situation. 

The 2023 Plan ensures the conditions for more Azoreans to have training and employment opportunities. Training for employment is definitely our commitment. In this regard, the new Vocational and Professional Guidance Office (GOVP) will be implemented by the end of this year. The GOVP will be a new and ambitious individualised response to young people who are not studying, working or attending training, as well as to the long-term or socially fragile unemployed, with a view to training and retraining them for the sectors that are currently recruiting.

With the aim of bringing the unemployed closer to companies, we can already anticipate that a measure will be launched in the first quarter of 2023 to provide unemployed people over 30 years with reduced employability with the opportunity to acquire social and professional skills in the private sector. This will enable their professional retraining and integration into the labour market.

We can also mention that Azores Digital has just been created, a new financial support measure for the training of excellence - and with international certification - in the area of technology and digital resources. For the implementation of this measure, 400 thousand Euros will be available next year. It will be another instrument to invest in the employability of the working population, given the growing demand for human resources in the areas of cybersecurity, programming language, data analysis or business intelligence.

The best assurance that the Azoreans will not be left without a response in terms of training and employment is the investment in qualification adjusted to the needs of companies, through measures such as FORM.AÇORES, Qualifica.In and Azores Digital. They reinforce the importance of vocational training schools and training entities in this process of training for employment. 

Training and empowering Azoreans are two assumptions underpinning all areas that fall under the responsibility and competences of this Regional Secretariat. In Youth, more than 1.5 million euros will be invested in this area. About 40% of this investment will be implemented in the areas of Youth Occupation, Entrepreneurship and Employability, through the Entrepreneurial Academy or MOOV. These programmes mobilise a network of partners such as Vocational Training Schools and Regular Schools, Private Social Solidarity Institutions or companies, which are all working together to prepare young people for adult life. In 2023, we will create the Support for Training and Vocational Activities for Young People at Risk in the Context of Adapted Educational Programmes - RE(AGE) as well as the Support for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Young Talent - AECT, two programmes aimed at stimulating youth inclusion and creation.

Citizenship and youth training are priorities of this Government. With the Azorean Youth Observatory, we will lay the foundations of what will be the Regional Plan for Youth Literacy and Democratic Participation, to be presented in 2023, so as to boost youth participation in public life through actions, measures and training programmes. In regard to Handicrafts, we are working to create, next year, new opportunities for professional and certified qualifications in this area. They intend to raise young people's awareness of the importance and knowledge of the Region's traditional arts and crafts, enabling them to promote our handicraft production as a contemporary and innovative activity - through SIDART; the Azores Handicraft Fair, which brings artisans closer to consumers; the future Azores Craft Lab - the new Technology Centre for Arts and Crafts, which we want to implement next year; or the new digital platform for Azorean Handicrafts, whose project is being finalised and which will promote the dissemination and marketing of handicraft products, we will continue our strategy and our focus on the cultural and economic development of Azorean Handicrafts.

In short: This Plan is a Plan that invests in the promotion of Azorean Handicrafts to other levels of production, recognition and marketing. This is a Plan that encourages youth mobility within and outside the Region, encourages the social and professional occupation rates of young people, and boosts youth associations and creativity. This is a Plan that invests in the promotion of the best of each Azorean: their talent, their skills, their work and their irreplaceable contribution to the productivity of our companies and to the growth of our economy. We will remain committed to ensuring that more Azoreans can benefit from professional enhancement opportunities and confirming that it is possible to make a different policy in Vocational Training, Employment or Youth."