Brazil is experiencing a period of massive public and private infrastructure investment. And when the country hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics, those two major international sporting events will increase the demand for projects and services. For engineering and construction companies, which play a key role in this context, the biggest challenge is grooming a skilled workforce big enough to meet the nation’s needs.

Odebrecht is doing its part to prioritize professional education at its construction sites. This issue of OdebrechtInforma highlights one of the Organization’s initiatives in this area: in the states of Pernambuco and Piauí, where its teams are building the Transnordestina Railway, Acreditar, the professional education program born at the Santo Antônio hydropower plant construction project in Rondônia, is once again proving its effectiveness. Introduced at Transnordestina in March 2010, the program will produce 1,800 skilled workers, including production and earthmoving assistants, steelfixers, carpenters, bricklayers, heavy equipment mechanics, truck drivers, and excavator, grader, tractor and crawler tractor operators. By late May, 766 had already graduated. These are people who now have more than a job; they have achieved a profession.

The bioenergy sector is also hard at work in this area. In Goiás, a Brazilian state where ETH is present, the Odebrechtcompany that produces ethanol, sugar and electricity is carrying out a professional education program for farm machine operators. The selection process took place in December 2009, and 37 of the 40 participants who started the program completed it in June. Thirty-four of them are already operating sugarcane harvesters in the fields near the company’s Rio Claro Unit.

The subject of the cover story of this issue of OdebrechtInforma, the training and qualification of Odebrecht’s teams is a daily task for the Organization’s leaders in Brazil and all the other countries where they are present. In Angola, for the first time the Young Partners program has reached major universities in the capital and interior of the country. In Mexico, support for Organization members’ development has garnered acclaim for Odebrecht as a benchmark in that country. In Angola, Mexico and Brazil, the future is being built through the transmission of knowledge, confidence in people’s ability and desire to develop, and a crucial emphasis on the spirit of service.

Full understanding and shared experience of these principles form the basis of the alliance between three Organization companies on the Aquapolo Project, which will supply recycled water for industrial use in São Paulo State. The synergistic work of these companies is making an important contribution to Brazilian industry. It is an example of harmonious entrepreneurial operations in the service of Brazil.