Secretaria-Geral do Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social

There are four formations: IT technical support, project management, data analysis and user experience design. The course will have 125 hours in total.

Google Portugal announced on Tuesday the distribution of more than 3,000 grants for online training certificates in partnership with the Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications (APDC) and the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP).

"Within our commitment to support the economic recovery and foster the empowerment of all people in this country in an inclusive way, we are announcing more than 3,000 online training certificates in collaboration with APDC and the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training," said Bernardo Correia, regional director of Google Portugal, in a video conference with journalists.

“These trainings are part of Google’s professional certificates and are available at Coursera Platform There are four: IT technical support, project management, data analysis and user experience design“, he added.

Mr Correia pointed out that these courses were created in these areas because they are of “high growth and above average remuneration”.

These are areas that "generally do not require a four-year degree and do not require any prior training or experience", he said, stressing that the APDC and IEFP will select the people “who are most in need of these courses”.

They are people “unemployed on the side of APDC and IEFP and the Youth Foundation with the support of Google.org will focus on people in situations of exclusion and vulnerability“, said the Regional Director for Technology. “We don’t want to leave anyone behind in this digital transition,” he said.

"The idea of these courses is to be at the speed of the trainee, i.e. there is no predefined time here, the course has about 125 hours and we expect people to do between eight and 10 hours a week", explained the regional director of Google, adding that he expects that about eight months "will be the normal deadline" to finish a course of this kind.

This initiative is supported by the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security.

“We have in our hands one of the most powerful tools in the fight against inequalities, digital is one of the most crucial tools at the moment to ensure that people are not left out,” said Labour Minister Ana Mendes Godinho. “And the big challenge is how we make the best use of it and I think this is an example of how we are making the best use of it”, ensuring equal access to opportunity for people, i.e. inclusion, he said.

“Digital skills are absolutely fundamental”, stressed the president of the APDC, Rogério Carapuça, “not only to have more qualified jobs, but above all to have a job”. Today, "initiatives like this are fundamental to people's lives, our role here is to search for people and set up the machine that is needed together with IEFP and Google," he explained.

For his part, the President of IEFP, António Valadas da Silva, expressed his ‘satisfaction to be able to participate’ in this initiative, in partnership with Google and APDC, stressing that it will make it possible to ‘enhance the qualification’ of assets, particularly the unemployed, of digital skills.

"It is decisive and critical to face the multiple challenges that the knowledge society poses to us and with the digital transformation of the economy", that is, "the modification of the relations that this involves", he stressed.

The selection of candidates will include gender equality, i.e. 50% men and the other half women, with a “focus on the unemployed”, said Sandra Almeida, Executive Director of APDC. In addition, 50% of the selected candidates will be from Lisbon and Porto and the remaining 50% from the rest of the country.

"We will monitor the progress of the candidates on the platform", added the official, adding that the expectation is to award the 3,000 certificates by the end of the year.

Applicants may not remain inactive on the platform for more than 15 days under penalty of losing their certificate.

In addition, the Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, will allocate more than 200 certificates to be distributed by the Youth Foundation, with the support of INCO, to people in situations of exclusion and vulnerability.

This initiative "is part of the effort to promote social inclusion and digital literacy in Portugal, a project in which we offer these scholarships, and is part of the commitments of the Memorandum of Understanding" signed between Google and the Portuguese State in October, stressed the Regional Director.

Source: Lusa