The President of the Government of the Azores, Carlos César, and Alfred Pilon, from the Youth Office of the Government of Quebec, signed in Ponta Delgada an agreement of cooperation establishing a student exchange program under the youth mobility Eurodyssey initiative.
According to the agreement, starting in 2012, students from the Azores will be able apply for scholarships to enroll in traineeship programs in Quebec while students from Quebec will be welcome for traineeship in the Azores.
The Eurodyssey is an exchange program between European Regions, which allows young job seekers aged between 18 and 30 to benefit from a traineeship placement abroad for a period between three to seven months.
Under the agreement, students from both regions will have an opportunity to acquire new professional and language skills in important areas such as geology, marine research, volcanology and tourism.
For Carlos César, who has been the president and chair of the Eurodyssey program for the last five years, the agreement offers an international perspective in the context of Euro-Canadian cooperation.
At the occasion of the signing of the agreement, the President of the Government of the Azores announced he had accepted the invitation by the Government of Quebec to visit the province, where many Azorean have settled.
Eurodyssey, created in 1985, aims to promote mobility and employability of youngsters from twenty-nine European participating regions. Quebec is the first region outside the European Union to join the Eurodyssey program.