Praia, Aug. 23, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's Institute for Employment and Professional Training (IEFP) wants to deepen its relationship with Cabo Verde and help with professional training in order to guarantee better quality training in the archipelago, an official source said on Friday.
‘Cabo Verde can draw on [Portugal] to deepen the co-operation that already exists, to support the training that is developed to respond to the needs of people and companies, to accompany and improve, and to help train trainers so that training is of a higher quality,’ said the director of the training department of Portugal's IEFP, Luís Manuel Ribeiro, in Praia.
Speaking at the international forum `perspectives and the future', as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Cabo Verde's IEFP, Luís Manuel Ribeiro emphasised that the “cooperation between the two countries is consolidated” and that there is an intention to “further deepen” the partnership.
‘It's essential that this [consolidated relationship] also exists between Cabo Verdean public organisations, employers‘ confederations and trade unions, because it's only by building the answers together that we find the most efficient way to achieve the objectives,’ he said.
For his part, the president of the board of directors of Cabo Verde's Institute of Employment and Professional Training, Paulo Santos, emphasised that the institution's ‘greatest milestone’ is that it has ‘benefited thousands of young people’ in Cabo Verde through training.
However, he pointed out that the institution has a ‘great challenge’ which is to provide the centres with good conditions in the workshop areas so that young people have decent spaces, similar to Europe and elsewhere" and so that the country can also train with quality and keep up with new technologies.
‘We have a vision of making Cabo Verde a vocational training hub and taking advantage of the opportunities in our sub-region,’ he said, adding that the country has already signed an agreement with the Portuguese government to create specialised centres.
The agreement, signed in October 2022 by the two governments, aims above all to strengthen the partnership in the field of vocational training, hoping to turn the archipelago into a `hub' in the sector and make operational the free movement of people and goods in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
The director of the IEFP, asked to speak about how he sees the labour migration of Cabo Verdeans to Portugal, said that it is "a normal process", that people have always left the archipelago to look for new opportunities and that the country "has no way of controlling it".
‘Now the number has increased because the laws in Portugal have been made more flexible, the entry of work-seeker visas, it's a normal process. What we have to do is create the conditions in the tourism sector to retain our staff, our good assets,’ he said.
‘We are playing our part, which is to train. We train 6,000 to 7,000 young people a year. We are creating the conditions for young people to take advantage of funding instruments. Cabo Verde is a country of potential, it still has room for potential, for growth, now we can't stop people from looking for new opportunities,’ he said.
In January, Cabo Verdean deputy prime minister Olavo Correia said that the country currently had around 12,000 young people in apprenticeships and vocational training, following an investment of almost €8 million over four years.
The IEFP is the main public institution responsible for promoting employment and developing professional skills in Cabo Verde and currently has 12 employment and vocational training centres.
ROZS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
