If it wasn’t enough to hear that there are only three vacancies for every 100 people trying to break into the labour market, a new study has revealed that Portugal’s school-leavers are not adequately prepared for jobs that could be waiting for them.
Prepared by business think-tank BSCD Portugal, the study compiled answers and information from 47 companies which hope to create as many as 11,200 jobs between 2017 and 2020.
Their masterplan, however, is being thwarted by the “lack of preparedness” of pupils leaving secondary education after the 12th grade.
According to reports in today’s national media, 80% of the companies taking part in the study thought young people were not being adequately prepared by vocational courses – with “leadership skills” cited as attributes conspicuous for their absence.
Thus today sees the forging of a new protocol between the government (Ministry of Education and Science) and BCSD Portugal in a bid to bring vocational courses more in line with what is needed.
As BCSD secretary general Fernanda Pargana told Lusa: “The study shows how important it is for employment in general and the wellbeing of the country to have the right people making companies grow.”
BSCD highlighted too the areas that most need ‘recruits’. They are: engineering technology, commercial marketing and information communication, economic sciences, operations and logistics and automation.
