A new program offering 10,000 positions for young people in tourism, with training and placement at businesses, was presented last week by Labour, Social Insurance and Welfare Minister Yiannis Vroutsis, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni, and president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) Andreas Andreadis.
According to the state news agency, the program is part of a larger project targeting a total of 62,000 young people, from 18 to 29 years of age, a part of which - for 42,000 positions - is already open to applications by interested parties.
Of the 10,000 positions, 2,000 are for graduates of universities and technical schools while the rest are open to all who have completed at least gradeschool-level studies.
During training, all accepted candidates will be given a 400-euro stipend (gross), while during their placement at businesses related directly or indirectly to tourism they will be paid a total of 2,000-2,300 euros (gross), depending on their educational level.
The program will run to October 30, 2014 and will cost 39 million euros. It is jointly funded by Greece and the EU's European Social Fund.
Vroutsis said additional programmes totalling about 1 billion euros are offering job opportunities to over 250,000 unemployed of all ages. The Ministry's goal is to use every possible source "to bring unemployed youth, women and older adults closer to the labour market," he said.
"Tourism is a national interest and a motivating force to exit the crisis," Kefalogianni said, while Andreadis thanked the ministries "for their initiative to help the effort of the [tourism] sector with 10,000 trained young men and women."(AMNA)