The College of Economics and Management of the University of the Azores recently held a lecture at the IX Amphitheatre of the University of the Azores in Ponta Delgada, entitled “Education, Employment & Development,” with Rui Bettencourt as the speaker.
The event was attended by the Dean of the Collete of Economics and Management, João Teixeira. It included an open forum for debate with the participation of students, teachers, and members of the academic community.
During the lecture and meeting, Rui Bettencourt shared with the students of the University of the Azores the importance of education in employment and development in general and, in particular, in the Azores.
The speaker drew on data from Eurostat, the OECD, and the European Center for Vocational Training, which indicate that “those who are qualified, those who have a higher level of education, are much more employable.”
In Portugal, for example, said Rui Bettencourt, the employment rate for the qualified is around 85%. At the same time, for the unqualified, it is much lower, just over 50%, and “the salaries are higher at the moment for those who are qualified”.
Concerning these conclusions, the speaker stressed that “we have some issues to resolve in the Azores. We have to have more education better adjusted to the needs of the business fabric and our economy.”
“It’s been proven,” he said, adding that education “that is well adjusted to the needs of the business fabric and of economic and social development is fundamental in a region.” And, he said, “in the Azores we have to act on this adjustment of education to needs, but also more education. We need to have a greater number of graduates, more adults with higher education and vocational education, but in areas that are increasingly closer to what is needed by our business fabric.”
Rui Bettencourt spoke of innovation, new products, new raw materials, new markets, new customers, and new manufacturing processes and procedures, as well as new working methods, with new leadership and new skills.
“We have to be aware,” said Rui Bettencourt, that classification “must also trigger innovation in the way we work. Our economy will increasingly depend on this innovation, not just technological, but above all new markets, new customers and new products.”

“What seems difficult is easy.”

As the speaker pointed out, “There are several innovations happening in the economy that trigger a change in skills that education has to rectify. ” This sounds like a big job, but it’s not very difficult. We are small. We’re a region with 250,000 inhabitants, so we can almost accompany each person in this process of heavy investment in education.
As Rui Bettencourt pointed out, “we have very limited problems. We know where what is happening, what the problems are, in just a few geographical areas, so we can compare. For example, I can think of European regions that, despite having a different level of development, are more complex in dealing with these problems. We have an easier time of it,” he said
“We have to act on education because, at the end of the day, in this issue of employment and development, it’s one of the few factors we can act on directly. For example, the interest rate that has influenced our economy and our employment is not a problem that we can deal with directly. The price of oil and other illusory factors are outside the region and we have no hand in them.”
“On the contrary,” he continued, on the issue of “relevant education we have a hand and we can act directly. And this is very important. If the issue is to solve education, development and employment in the region, if these are problems that are within us, the solutions must also be within us,” he said.
In addition, he added, “It is also important to convey that, in this need to invest in education, to have more people with more education and more adjusted, there must also be a vision of unleashing innovation and development in the Azores, to adjust training throughout life. Every young person entering the job market now is likely to change professions four or five times in their 40-year career. It is, therefore, necessary to adjust the skills that may emerge. Because of all these challenges, it’s important to share with young people that the University of the Azores is at the center, at the confluence, of all the problems, issues, and solutions.”

“We must have a vision.”

For Rui Bettencourt, “we have to have a vision. Looking at 2030, a horizon of almost a decade, is the horizon that young people who are graduating from the University of the Azores today have, for integration into the world of work and in the Azores. We have to aim for 2030, not only to improve our qualifications, our education in relation to the past, but we also have to look at how we should be in relation to others.”
For the speaker, the Azores 2030 “will not be in competition with the Azores 2023. They will be in competition with the other regions of the world 2030. We have to look and have a goal, getting very close to the other regions in 2030. There is a very strong trajectory to be made. We are fragile. We have some weaknesses in the region. We’re small, we have accessibility costs. But because we’re fragile, we can’t fool ourselves here,” he said.
The education issues that “lead to competitiveness, job creation and development are issues and investments in education that are some of the few we can have a hand in. It’s a bit of a transitional spirit, but one of action, because we need to act, not just reflect on the issue. We have to start from paths of action, which we can improve by increasing our education. It’s not a fatality, quite the opposite.”
“We are a small region and we could act with great pertinence and obtain good results,” he concluded.

“More education, much more…”

In objective terms, Rui Bettencourt clarified at the University of the Azores that “more education is needed for regional development- much more, and better qualifications- much more.”
In his opinion, education “is one of the few factors in our development that is not imposed on us from outside. And if the problems are within us, so are the solutions.”
He believes “we shouldn’t be content with comparing ourselves with the past. We have to compare ourselves with others. The Azores of 2030 will not compete with the Azores of 2023 or 2010 but with the rest of the world of 2030.”
He also stressed that “in terms of changing skills, what is happening all over the world is also happening here. We’re just more fragile. And because we’re more fragile, we can’t make mistakes,” he added.
In his opinion, “it’s not true that it’s more difficult here. We’re small, we’re few, and the problems are well defined.”
In conclusion, he stressed that higher education, with the University of the Azores, “must play a fundamental role in this process” in the coming years.
Rui Bettencourt was Assistant Regional Secretary for External Relations in the XII Government of the Azores, Regional Director for Employment and Training, and Manager of the European Social Fund. He was also the Territorial Director for the Vocational Training Plan in the Government of the Paris region, as well as a guest lecturer at the CNAM of the University of Paris on territorial training policies.
He was also Secretary General of the Eurodyssée Program of the Assembly of European Regions. He holds a master’s degree in Education Sciences and postgraduate degrees in Adult Training and Foresight and Strategy.

From journalist Carlota Pimentel, in Correio dos Açores-Natalino Vivieiros, director.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.

Editor’s Note: Rui Bettencourt was at Fresno State in February of 2019, as PBBI was officially inaugurated by the then President of the Government, Vasco Cordeiro. Rui Bettencourt was a member of the government at the time he was at Fresno State.