As part of the European STEAMigPOWER project, coordinated by the School of Engineering at the University of Minho, a training programme was held in Gualtar from 12 to 19 July, comprising courses in the areas of the environment, climate change and sustainable development, as well as an introductory programme in social inclusion and digital storytelling.
The researcher responsible for the project, Sofia Barbosa Pereira, explained to Rádio Universitária do Minho that the training is aimed at migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the region. “This project came about because we believe that universities have a strong role to play in the socio-economic integration of migrants and asylum-seeking refugees who have arrived in Europe in recent years, especially since 2015, since the migratory crisis that has been taking place,” she explained.
Candidates were selected in order of enrolment, with priority given to women and secondary school students. “We gave priority to women because they are more marginalised in steam areas, so it’s a way of trying to attract them to areas that end up being more employable in the labour market,” she explained.
With regard to young people, the researcher hopes to show them “what they can do with the different steam courses, and try to attract them to higher education later on, considering the topics of the areas covered”.
This is the first edition of the programme and Sofia Barbosa hopes that the fifty places available will be filled. The help of the Red Cross of Braga and Guimarães, as well as the city councils of the two cities, will make it possible to reach the target audience, “since the university has no contacts or databases on migrants” who live here, she admitted. “It’s something we should all work on together,” he warned, calling for the initiative to be promoted by these different institutions.
There are six partners working together to develop this programme: UMinho (Portugal), Università degli Studi di Perugia (Italy), Fundació Solidaritat – Università de Barcelona (Spain), SEAL Cyprus (Cyprus), Middle East Technical University (Turkey) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) – with the support of funding from the European Union, through the ERASMUS+ programme.
SOURCE: RUM
