The training that was previously given in scattered rooms borrowed from the Parish Council of Portimão now uses the spaces of the new Employment and Vocational Training Center in the Barlavento Algarve. But here, training goes even further, for example with regard to cooking and table service, as the new Center has its own spacious and modern facilities to receive all trainees in these areas.
In the green spaces surrounding the new Centre, planted with Mediterranean species to save water, the trainees in gardening at the Polo de Silves are in charge of maintenance, under the watchful eye of their trainer.
However, the Barlavento Employment and Vocational Training Centre, located in the Caldeira do Moinho area, near Portimão Arena, will not stop there. Underneath the multi-sport, in the space that was initially designed to be a parking lot, training workshops will be created in technical areas such as electricity and electronics, hydraulics and plumbing, pneumatics, automation, air conditioning and refrigeration, among others.
The announcement was made on Friday by the president of the Employment and Vocational Training Institute, at the inauguration of the Employment and Vocational Training Centre, which also brought the Secretary of State for Employment Pedro Silva Martins to Portimão.
During the visit to the facilities that followed the official inauguration, Madalena Feu, director of the Center, also revealed that a land located at the back of the complex, currently unused, will soon be prepared to host training for agricultural operators in the field of horticulture and fruit growing. «This course will be launched later this year», he revealed.
Whoops and screams received secretary of state
The official inauguration of the Barlavento Employment and Professional Training Centre, which had been in operation since the end of November last year, was marked by the cheers launched by about a dozen demonstrators to the Secretary of State for Employment.
"A different policy is urgently needed" and "End the tolls on Via do Infante" were the phrases written on the posters held by the protesters, who received Secretary of State Pedro Martins with the cries of "thieves", "thieves".
Away from the demonstrators, kept by the PSP on the other side of the street, a woman standing right at the entrance to the Job Center loudly expressed her displeasure with the inauguration apparatus. “Unemployment is huge and then all these people come here, with good cars, drivers. To inaugurate this it was not necessary this amount of people. It doesn't come out of their pockets,” shouted the lady, a former merchant with a shop in the center of Portimão.
The Secretary of State arrived and did not even cross paths with the protesters, as the car in which he was traveling was directly entered into the premises of the new Job Centre. But he did not fail to hear the cheers and screams of the protesters, having limited himself to commenting "they are already normal situations".
At the short opening ceremony, which was attended by mayors from Portimão and other municipalities covered by this Employment Centre, such as Monchique and Lagos, as well as the regional directors of Economy, Education, and the Regional Social Security Center , among other local and regional officials, the mayor Manuel da Luz recalled that the Center was built on land symbolically ceded for one euro by this municipality, being therefore an «example of a partnership that worked, between the central administration and local".
Manuel da Luz also recalled that that place, before the construction of the equipment, was "a complicated area, marked by social conflict", occupied by Roma families whose removal from the site and subsequent relocation was not an easy task, as the councilor later recalled Isabel Warrior.
"The construction of these facilities here ended up working as a redevelopment work in the area, as a good example of urban regeneration," added the mayor.
As for the new multi-sport, which is part of the Employment and Professional Training Center complex, and is intended, according to Madalena Feu, "to allow physical activity for employees and trainees", there is also a protocol with the local authority that will allow this playing field “at the service of the community”.
Algarve Training Program includes 300 people
The Barlavento Employment and Vocational Training Centre, which has been open since the end of November last year, already has 400 young people in apprenticeship courses, 1000 adults in adult education courses and 1000 other unemployed people undergoing training in the field. of the Vida Ativa program, as revealed by Secretary of State Pedro Martins.
But the highlight goes to the Algarve Training Programme, created by the Government to «respond to the specific problems» of the region, presented last September but launched in the field only in November, which currently has «300 people undergoing training», revealed the Secretary of State for Employment.
With this program, which lasts until May or June of this year, the government official guaranteed, these people are receiving training, "prolonging the links to their companies".
In a universe of 34 unemployed registered at the Algarve Employment Centers, which is the region in the country with the highest unemployment rate, the 300 trainees included in that program seem to be just a drop in the ocean.
Later, on the sidelines of the inauguration and speaking to journalists, Pedro Martins admitted: "We would like it to go more, but the program has just started." "If this program had not been implemented, these 300 people would be unemployed," he added.
Novo Centro serves seven Barlavento municipalities
The new Employment and Vocational Training Center in Barlavento has as its intervention area the municipalities of Aljezur, Lagoa, Lagos, Monchique, Silves, Vila do Bispo and Portimão, the latter being the one with the highest population density and highest unemployment rate.
The new buildings of the Portimão Employment and Vocational Training public service, located in Sítio da Abicada, in Caldeira do Moinho, represent an investment of around 5,5 million euros, construction having started in 2010.
This investment includes the construction, equipment and even the exterior repairs of the entire complex.
The main building is intended for the Employment Center and is distributed over two floors, consisting of two distinct wings. It has an area of 1563 square meters and will be reserved for the installation of offices for IEFP technicians aimed at serving the public, as well as having a media library and complementary support spaces.
The second building, referring to training, is also spread over two different floors, and it is in this space that the training activities will take place, with multipurpose workshops and theoretical training rooms for this purpose.
The project also includes a multi-sport field, which will be open to the community, occupying a total area of 7.000 square meters, on land provided for that purpose by the Municipality of Portimão for a period of 70 years.
Veja here all the photos da inauguration and new building of the Employment and Professional Training Center of Barlavento.
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