«Today, the best resource that any company can have is talent and people», said Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labor, in statements to the Sul Informação, during his visit this afternoon to the National Professions Championship, which was taking place at the Portimão Arena.
«We have 350 young people competing in 54 professions here. In 2022, Portugal had the best result ever in terms of world champions of the professions. This clearly shows the importance of investing more and more in qualification and training», added the minister, after taking a long time to visit all the places where the tests were taking place.
To encourage young people to participate in these championships, which, in essence, reward their personal commitment to training, «we decided to start giving a prize to our young people who win, either the European Championship or the World Championship», revealed Ana Mendes Godinho . This year, in Portimão, some of the young people who were world champions and vice champions in 2022 are now part of the jury in their areas of specialization. One of these cases is the Algarve Seomara Cabrita.
The minister considers that «all of this also gives new perspectives to these young people, who are investing in their training to transform their lives».
In the case of the Algarve, which competes with 13 young people, the big bet has been on training in areas linked to hotels and restaurants, but there are more and more needs at other levels, such as agriculture or even geriatric care.
The Minister of Labor underlined that «we have sought to make an increasingly close connection between the entities that provide training and the needs of the territories, ensuring that the more we manage to have this reading of training needs at a regional level, the greater the ability to respond and build training tailored to needs».
The official added that there are "several projects that are happening across the country and here in the Algarve as well, in fact joint training projects, with companies, in which they identify exactly what are the needs for human resources and qualifications in the coming years . The IEFP, tailor-made, designs these courses so that we can increasingly make this connection between the needs of the offer and also what exists from the training point of view, increasingly seeking that training transforms lives».
Ana Mendes Godinho also referred to the need for, through training, «people to be valued in the job market», even as a way of «guaranteeing an improvement in wages. This is our great investment as a society and it has to be our commitment as a society».
But this is not always the case, so that many of the young people trained, for example, in the Algarve's hotel and tourism schools, end up going abroad, where they find better wages and working conditions.
«That's why we have the Decent Work Agenda, which really assumes this great priority of being able to value young people in the labor market. And we value young people by giving them the skills that the market values. That is our total commitment: to provide skills that add value, that transform and that guarantee that people are indispensable in organizations», considered the minister.
“Today, the best resource any company can have is talent and people. We are here dealing with the biggest engine of our national economy, which are people and workers», considered Ana Mendes Godinho, who, before visiting the event, had herself been Guinea pig of the table service competition, whose competitors served the VIP guests at lunch.
The winners of this 45th edition of the National Professions Championship will be announced in Lagoa, in the tent set up in Parque da Fatacil, on Sunday the 12th at 10 am. Today, Saturday, the judges are dedicating themselves to the difficult task of classifying, while the young competitors rest, with a series of cultural and sports activities prepared for them. Fortunately, São Pedro gave a truce and sun is expected.
These winners will represent Portugal in the 8th edition of the European Skills Championship, which will take place in September in Gdánsk, Poland, and in the 46th edition of the World Skills Championship, which will take place in Lyon, France, in September 2024 .
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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