'A country’s development depends on its capacity to leverage the wealth generated' Prime Minister notes launch of Portugal’s Aeronautical Academy and agreement between OGMA and[...]

The Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa claimed that "a country's development depends on its capacity to leverage the wealth generated", during the launch of Portugal's Aeronautical Academy at OGMA - Portugal Aeronautical Industry.

In Alverca, during an event where an agreement was signed between OGMA and Pratt & Whitney for the maintenance of GTF engines for Embraer aircraft, to an investment of 80 million euros, the Prime Minister noted that development is directly associated with qualifying more citizens increasingly and pointed to the synergies between academia and industry as a pathway to the future.

"A country's development depends on its capacity to leverage the wealth generated. And the wealth it generates represents further investment and the production of higher added value goods and services", he said.

António Costa underlined that the country will only be able to attract investment in the future by boosting qualifications, which "are truly one of the drivers of development", adding the importance of investing in additional training.

"If we can imagine that nowadays, among the people between the ages of 30 and 40 we have four times more graduates that 20 years ago, at the start of the 21st century, we realise the massive leap taken by the country", he noted, adding that "there is a long road ahead yet".

Portugal's target is to reach the end of the decade with 50% of the population aged 30 to 34 with full higher education mainly in the field of engineering, technology, arts and mathematics.

The Recovery and Resilience Plan envisages a programme that is "specifically to increase by 10% the number of young graduates in these fields from now until 2026", stated António Costa.

The agreement signed between OGMA and Pratt & Whitney is "a good example of how it is possible for a company that is over one hundred years old to continue to increase the wealth generated". The agreement for the next 30 years envisages an 80-million-euro investment and a return of around 15 billion euros.

"This means trebling OGMA's turnover, it means creating 500 new jobs in the coming years, and it means increasing Portugal's exports to the world", he claimed, adding that "none of this would be possible without investment, without the talent and skills in Portugal that enabled this project".

The aeronautical academy will support the qualification of the Aeronautical and Defence Cluster and is set to start operating in the first half of 2022 with an initial starting capacity of 100 students. It will respond to OGMA's needs for the coming years and will train qualified labour for the Portuguese aeronautical and defence cluster.