On June 28 a protocol was signed between the companies Casais, Mota Engil, Teixeira Duarte and the Portuguese Professional Training Center CICCOPN, for the installation of dormitory containers in CICCOPN’s facilities, in order to accommodate students from PALOP countries who are undergoing training. Young Mozambicans and São Tomense will be the first to have access to the program.
The official ceremony took place at CICCOPN’s facilities, in Maia, northern Portugal, and was attended, among others, by António Carlos Rodrigues (Casais’ CEO), Manuel Teixeira Duarte (President of Teixeira Duarte) Miguel Boavida (Director of Mota-Engil), Manuel Reis Campos (President of AICCOPN), Rui Valente (Director of CICCOPN), Carla Alexandra Vale (IEFP’s Regional Delegate of the North) and Paulo Ramalho (Town Councillor of Maia and Deputy of the Portuguese Parliament).
Currently, the civil construction sector in Portugal lacks 80 thousand qualified workers and, for such, the three companies, all with operations in the African continent, when signing this protocol, committed themselves to supplying dormitory containers to increase the center’s accommodation capacity for students from the various CPLP markets.
Manuel Reis Campos, President of the Association of Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN), reinforces the idea that the Construction sector needs 80 thousand workers, lamenting that there are about 26 thousand unemployed in this segment who are registered at the employment centers “and who are not entering the activity.
Since last year, CICCOPN has already received about 120 young people from PALOP countries, mostly from São Tomé and Príncipe. As of September 2022, more young people are expected, but from Mozambique, for whom the installation of these dormitories will also be very important. The training courses attended by young people last two and a half years and, at the end, they confer the equivalence to the Portuguese 12th grade and a professional qualification in the respective training areas (Electricity, Laboratory Technician, Computer Science, among others).
Rui Valente, CICCOPN’s Director, stated that “we expect more young people to arrive throughout the months. We foresee, between September and October, starting more training actions with more young people, either from São Tomé or Mozambique. There is an intention to promote professional qualification for the construction sector through these young people, who come to Portugal and who can stay in the Portuguese labor market”.
In total, CICCOPN has already trained almost 200.000 professionals in the civil construction sector since its opening, in 1981 and, for António Carlos Rodrigues, Casais’ CEO, “when we talk about the almost 200.000 trainees who have already passed through CICCOPN, it is necessary to multiply the number ‘by ten’ because, in fact, all the workers who left this school went to the work context and trained many other workers”.
The protocol signed between the 3 companies from the Construction sector and the CICCOPN aims at the installation of 2 dormitory blocks that comprise in total about 32 beds. In addition, the protocol also brings training advantages, since the companies that are part of the agreement have committed to receive trainees for practical training in a work context.
Manuel Teixeira Duarte, President of Teixeira Duarte, is keen to emphasize that “the protocol is very relevant because we believe that the future involves improving the conditions of workers in the construction sector. If we want to increase income, we must increase qualifications and skills”.
Lastly, Miguel Boavida, Director of Mota-Engil, explained that “the importance of this protocol is, in fact, that we can elaborate an endless number of credits recognized in the training of young people from the PALOP countries, but who are trained in Portugal, to work in Portugal.
In 2021, when CICCOPN completed 40 years of existence, training actions were provided to about 11,000 people, including courses equivalent to the 12th grade, retraining and updating knowledge.
