UpSkill starts with 500 vacancies in technology

UpSkill an initiative of APDC (Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications), the IEFP (Institute of Employment and Professional Training) and the (Coordinating Council of the Higher Polytechnic Institutes) has started. The objective of this project is to convert three thousand employees and unemployed people into professionals in technological activities in three years. There are already 500 places available. After a training phase, the companies undertake to hire the selected participants with "a minimum remuneration of 1,200 euros".

UpSkill officially kicked off at a ceremony in Lisbon. In this event, 13 companies that need "professionals in the digital areas", digitally signed a protocol to offer these 500 vacancies. 

Altogether, and shortly after the start of this initiative, the program now has 22 companies and "is open to anyone who needs professionals in the digital areas." The campaign for "new members" to the program will run until September, explain the officials in a statement.

UpSkill is aimed "primarily at unemployed people, with secondary education or higher education, who wish to obtain qualifications in the field of digital technologies". Those who join this program have an intensive six-month training "in specific areas covered by technologies information and communication, followed by training in the context of work (3 months) in one of the participating companies”.

According to those responsible for UpSkill, this program "contributes to accelerate the much-needed recovery of the economy, at a time when the importance of the digital transformation of organizations has become even more evident".

In April, the Secretary of State for Digital Transition, André de Aragão Azevedo, said that UpSkill is: "the approach of what we believe to be a requalification of part of our workforce, which in many cases may be either unemployed or underemployed (jobs that fall short of their skills)”. 

We do not only want to train and requalify in the abstract, we want to qualify in line with what the demand of the job market itself is and then also take advantage of our network of polytechnics, which showed great flexibility to incorporate in its training offer and bridge the gap with these companies to actually have an offer directed to the market need, explained Aragão Azevedo in April about UpSkill.

In addition, he explained: "The companies surveyed their recruitment needs and we reached three thousand people within three years, with the expectation that we can anticipate this time horizon of training. But we want to be more ambitious. This protocol of collaboration has already been signed with both APDC and associated companies and others that have joined.” He continued: "We invited companies to get involved in defining curricula and training offers to ensure that they are aligned with the effective needs of companies”.