The Erasmus+ project DREAAM (Development of Regional Employment and Airport Areas Manpower) is looking at best practices on vocational education and training (VET) in airport areas. Based on these best practices, the project aims to facilitate the recruitment process for regions and airport platforms, and to create more training and employment opportunities for the local communities.
Regions and airports around the world work together to improve the quality of life of citizens, through initiatives on several fields, such as environment, mobility and employment. As Quinto International Airport proves, airports play a considerable role in economic development and are much more than places to catch planes, do shopping or attend in-transit business meetings. Airports are generators of employment as well.
Quito International Airport or in short Quiport, an airport in Ecuador, has been continuously growing, making it possible for business opportunities to increase as well. The airport frequently organizes public consultations to ensure a fair and trustful relationship with the local communities. Thanks to these consultations, the airport found out that communities were interested in the business opportunities generated by the airport. As a response, the airport launched in 2007 a project that focuses on community engagement and training: Community Enterprise Training. This is a programme meant to train local community members in establishing and managing businesses that could provide goods and services to the airport. Thanks to this programme, by 2014, three companies were formed which nowadays provide services to the airport: SERVILIMP (interior cleaning services), PIMIENTA GOURMET (catering services for the workers), and GREPCOMAP (maintenance and cleaning services).
Another outcome of the public consultation is related to the fact that local communities are unaware of the employment opportunities offered by the airport. To enhance their communication and transparency about airport jobs, the airport built an employment database in 2013. This database is a tool to channel supply and demand for employment at the airport. It gathers the profiles of the jobseekers living in the airport area and it makes them available to the companies that operate at the airport itself. By 2015, over 1200 people were registered in the database and 65% of them filled vacancies posted by the 120 companies that operate at the airport.
Employment best practices like the ones used by Quiport showcase great corporate social responsibility that contributes to the sustainable development of communities surrounding airports.
Comments