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Symi is one of the communities chosen to take part in a
Euro-funded, national Greek scheme to combat unemployment, and forty-five local people
have just completed courses here on the Island to give them new skills and provide them
with better job opportunities.
Instructors from Symi and Athens have been taking three separate, six-hour-a-day classes
over a two-month period in such diverse subjects as eco-tourism, wood-carving and the
production of tourism-related arts and crafts.At the end of each course, as well as being
placed on a data-base programme available to prospective employers, the students are being
encouraged to set up their own businesses.
Says local co-ordinator Dimitris Antonoglou:'This will be an on-going scheme for at least
the next four years, and it should do a lot towards solving one of the major problems
here.The eco-tourism course is particularly important in that it is part of one of the
Island's long-term concerns and,if nothing else, will instil a more harmonious
understanding with the views of most of our visitors.
'The programme will include a guided walk over the mountains to give them an idea of the
local ecology and the problems that could be caused by thoughtless usage and
unsupervised development .
'As for the other courses, the woodworking speaks for itself in that while we will
encourage people to try to specialise in things like repairing icons and church screens
and the artistic side, there is also plenty of the more basic but essential |
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