Microsoft & CITEVE introduce TII for jobless textile workers
17 Jan '06
4 min read
Microsoft Corp and The Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal (CITEVE) launched the Technology, Innovation and Initiative programme (TII), a pioneering new project to provide workers in Portugal's textile industry with new skills and qualifications to enhance their long-term employability prospects.
The partners were joined at the launch event by the Portuguese Minister for Work and Social Solidarity, Dr Jose Antonio Fonseca Vieira da Silva, the Mayor of Vila Nova de Famalicao, Armindo Costa and the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Dr Vladimir Spidla, who welcomed the TII programme as an important contribution to the European Jobs and Growth Partnership Initiative launched by the European Commission in 2005.
The TII project is a three-year initiative to train at least 3,000 workers from Portugal's textile sector, which is being significantly affected by increasing global competition, with an estimated 20,000 already unemployed in the sector. The TII training courses will equip the participants with new skills needed in the local economy; and CITEVE, together with the Instituto do Emprego e Formacao Profissional (The Institute for Employment and Professional Training of the Ministry of Work and Social Solidarity), will also work with local companies and unions to help the trainees find new jobs or start new businesses.
"Boosting employment and access to training and skills for older workers and the young unemployed is one of the European Union's key objectives," said Commissioner Spidla. "The Commission's Growth and Jobs Strategy aims to equip 20 million Europeans with new skills for new and better jobs by 2010. It is vital that the Members States and private companies work together to help make this happen. I'd like to commend CITEVE, Microsoft and the local and national government here in Portugal for this innovative partnership that creates a best-practice example for others."
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