Brussels, 12/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The "Objective 3 Single Programming Document" (SDP) for the Aland Islands (autonomous Swedish-speaking Finnish province with a population of 25,000) was signed on Thursday 12 October by the European Commissioner for Social Affairs Anna Diamantopuolou. This SPD, the general goal of which is to create full employment on these Islands, has a budget of 10.1 million euro, 3.9 million of which from the national public sector, 3.6 million from private sources, and 2.6 million from the European Union. In addition, 4.5% of the budget is earmarked for technical assistance, including monitoring and assessment. It will contribute to promoting education, training and employment on the islands between 2000 and 2006.
In order to take up the different challenges (bottlenecks in the services sector and information technologies sector following strong economic growth, variation in demand for labour in the tourism sector depending on the seasons, low level of education and qualifications especially among the elderly workers), the SPD will essentially by focussed on skills development and life-long learning. This will take the form of three distinct measures: 1) improving and increasing education and training opportunities for young people and adults; 2) helping workers upgrade and acquire new skills to meet companies' needs; 3) helping the unemployed back to work through, for example, training and councelling schemes.