Secretary of State praises protocol for Olympics and school support

The Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Correia, praised, this Tuesday, the creation of a protocol between the Association of Portuguese Olympic Athletes (AAOP) and the school performance support units (UAARE).

“We are facing an innovative project that will make a school in Portugal and in the world”, defined the government official in his speech, which preceded the official signing of the protocol involving the UAARE and the AAOP, in a ceremony that took place at the latter’s headquarters, in Bicesse, Cascais.

João Paulo Correia indicated his full support for the protocol link between Olympism and the support structure for high competition athletes of school age, which he considers natural due to the success that the UAARE are having in the country, covering a thousand athletes.

“Many of these young people who are on the international podiums in many sports would not be because their parents would have been forced to make a choice about their career, and rightly so”, noted the politician.

To reinforce the sustainability of this idea, João Paulo Correia recalled the relevance of the most recently implemented government measures for school support for high-performance athletes.

“All the measures that Social Security and the Employment Institute (IEFP) have at the service of young people looking for their first job are made available to high-performance athletes after the end of their careers”, he recalled.

The objective, adds the person in charge of Sport in Portugal, is to enable high-performance athletes to be “equated with young people looking for their first job” when they join the job market.