EPRALIMA_Escola Profissional do Alto Lima, C.I.P.R.L. (Vocational Training School)
The Ministry of Education homologated EPRALIMA in 1999, as a private non-profit organization that provides vocational training at various European levels (level II, IV and V). It is based on a cooperative regime, which has the Lima Valley defined as its geographical area of influence, and includes promoting institutions that are deeply solidified within the social, economic, cultural and local levels.
Epralima is composed of three branches: the head-office in Arcos de Valdevez, a branch in Ponte da Barca and a branch in Ponte de Lima; a Skills Assessment Centre which recognizes, validates and certifies different school levels, and a Technical Centre which elaborates transnational and communitarian projects.
Its sustainability is linked to the dynamics of the Upper Lima Region, with the supreme mission of overcoming regional and sectorial needs through training. On this basis, the principles that guide the foundation of EPRALIMA, and which have constituted unavoidable alliances increasing its credibility, are based on the central assumption of the entrepreneurial tissue in the pursuit of competitiveness, striving for the improvement of performance and productivity, as a condition of modern standards and well-being.
The pressing need to qualify human capital, is rooted in a closer connection between the system and the system that produces skills and the one that takes advantage of these skills (companies), thus depending on the dynamics and effectiveness of the following objectives:
- Placement of the youth and adult population within the school’s area of influence;
- Training and optimization of management at the intermediary level, which are required for local development;
- Enhancement of the endogenous potential;
- Revitalization of the social tissue, through equal opportunities.
All this effort, that includes specific training activities and an important set of social intervention, education and business initiatives and projects, has found its natural counterpart within the receptivity that we have enjoyed, in finding that our actions have benefited, in an exemplary manner, in recent years, an increasing demand for Epralima’s services.
Epralima has based its developmental strategy on preparing youths and adults for the exercise of qualified professions, by developing mechanisms that create closer ties between schools and economic institutions, as well as professional and cultural associations, within the social tissue, in the name of achieving an integrated and entrepreneurial qualified training project, which meets the integrated developmental needs of the country, particularly at the regional and local levels.