Porto, Portugal, Feb. 18, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's University of Porto wants 70% of secondary school pupils in its catchment area to enter university, to help attract "more advanced industries" to the North of the country and increase average salaries.
"If we can get our young people to leave university with qualifications that enable them to take up positions in innovative companies, in companies linked to digital technology and new technologies, we will be able to attract investors, because often the problem with investors is that they would like to set up some more advanced industries here in Portugal, but then they give up because we don't have the capacity to provide them with the workforce they need, which is a skilled workforce," António Sousa Pereira, dean of the University of Porto (UP), explained to Lusa.
Secondary school pupils, especially those in their final year, will be the focus of attention from Thursday to Sunday at the institution, which is organising the University of Porto Exhibition at the Multipurpose Pavilion in Gondomar.
For Sousa Pereira, the "more educated population" will enable the region to "attract more differentiated investments and companies, which will then be able to recruit skilled labour" locally, in an area with "very low income levels".
The goal of the institution, which this year broke its record for the number of places available for a single academic year, with 7,064 for 2026/27, is that 70% of secondary school leavers in the region will be able to enter higher education by 2027, which they hope will lead to an increase in the average salary in the region.
"We need to invest at all levels, we need to recruit high value-added companies to come and set up here in the region, but we also have to prepare the staff to work in these companies, because they won't come here if they don't have anyone to work for them," he added.
Bringing together more than 350 courses offered by its 15 faculties, the free event showcases the educational opportunities available, as well as hosting conferences, interactive experiences and other opportunities for researchers, teachers and students to meet.
"There are two types of students: those who are sure of what they want, for whom the exhibition is of little use, giving them more information about the options they will choose. The other type of students are those who want to go to higher education but are not quite sure what they want," comments the rector.
Here, the aim is to show "different options, different career paths", conversations with people who are in the desired field of work, which can help reduce "the number of students who, after enrolling, want to change courses".
"The Exhibition also has this objective, which is to make pupils, first, aware of options that they may not even have thought of, and second, to make informed choices," he said.
Seeking also to attract young people who had not considered higher education, Sousa Pereira associates this choice with a time when the country "is experiencing full employment" and when a young person with a 12th grade education "can find work if they want to".
"We should have the ambition to seek to provide skilled jobs for our young people. One of the ambitions associated with the Exhibition is to bring young people into higher education who might not even be thinking about going to higher education," he pointed out.
In short, as "more training means better salaries," it is important to make young people "see higher education as a social elevator."
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