“Employment is the foundation on which we base our lives. Employment opens the doors to emancipation and with it comes the possibility of leading the life we want. That is why, in this term of office, in which the Basque economy is clearly recovering and jobs are being created, we feel that it is up to us to demand more and better jobs for everyone. Covering the needs of companies is what we are about. Every day that we hear that a company cannot find professionals, this worries and concerns us. Our objective is to train those people who are currently unable to find a job so that they are ready for the time when such an offer arises”, said the Deputy Minister for Employment and Youth of the Basque Government, Marcos Muro, at the opening of the WORKinn Forum.

He was accompanied by Susana González Rómulo, Employment Director of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia; Vicente Reyes, subdelegate of the Government in the Basque Country; Maria Ruiz de Lopetedi, from AFM Cluster, and Xabier Basañez, CEO of BEC, among others. Muro explained the large audience attending the WORKinn Employment and Training Forum that the target audience are primarily professionals in the industrial sector, who are either active and intend changing jobs or unemployed and seeking to rejoin the labour market. It also includes training and career guidance so as to bring the market and job offers in the industrial sector closer to students in their future recruitment by companies. As he stated: “Our goal is for the jobs that are created to be quality jobs. Currently, job vacancies that require vocational training outnumber those that require university degrees. Therefore, we need to continue to develop an educational system that is more connected to business, both in terms of acquiring skills and easing the transition from the educational to the professional stage. And this fair is an example of that.”