Brazil Post signs up to support social apprenticeship programme

Brazil’s Post and Telegraph Company (ECT) has signed an agreement on Tuesday to work with a social development nonprofit group to help young people out of poverty. ECT will work with the Social Service for Industry (SESI) group as part of its ViraVida programme, which seeks to improve self esteem and employment prospects for those aged 16 to 21 through basic education, professional training and business guidance.

The agreement signed at ECT’s headquarters in Brasilia initiated a new postal Youth Apprentice programme,
in which high school students will receive training and an opportunity to work in the national postal service from next year.

ECT said the programme would see more than 3,000 young people gaining experience in administrative work and in post offices within 16 cities, as well as taking classes at the SESI’s sister group, the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI).

Jair Meneguelli, the president of SESI, said the broad capabilities of Brazil’s postal service would help to expand the range of the ViraVida programme, and represented a “major breakthrough” in the employment side of the programme.

“The SESI is celebrating this latest partnership, which will provide a unique opportunity for these young people to work in this great institution,” he said.

ECT president Wagner Pinheiro de Oliveira, said the postal service was “proud” to be part of the programme, and that its involvement fit with its social development role under the Rousseff government in Brazil.

“As a public company, we are in the service of the Brazilian population, supporting such initiatives contributes to building a fair and inclusive society, which has been the main aim for the federal government over the past nine years,” he said.