Born in Cantabria, José Mª Pérez, Peridis, moved to Aguilar de Campo when he was three. Here he came into contact with and developed a passion for Romanesque art and also drawing. In 1959 he went to Madrid to study architecture.

Now 67, Peridis has carved out an extraordinary career. As an architect, he’s shown, from his first building, that his projects will stand the test of time. He’s put his master touch to dozens of buildings and has stimulated and supported young creative talent. He’s been the driving force behind the new wave of craft schools, one of the first people to understand the need to bring back lost skills.

The jury has awarded Peridis the Novia Salcedo Prize in recognition of his extraordinary, innovative, wide-ranging and diverse contribution to the professional integration of young people – which has had an international impact. This well-known caricaturist and architect has been behind the resurgence of craft schools, which have revitalised skills in danger of extinction or already lost: (e.g. quarrying, marble cutting, glass-working….)

This initiative, as well as contributing to our historical heritage, especially in Romanesque art, has led to the creation of 50,000 jobs for young people. The idea has been so successful that it’s taken root in countries in Latin America

Ega Master was awarded the prize for the originality and quality of its efforts in integrating young people into the work force. Outstanding was its commitment to gender equality and its capacity to carve out work niches responding to the personal profiles of new workers it takes on.
This Vitorian firm, which manufactures industrial hand tools, has developed a prize-winning human resources policy, committed to bringing young people, and particularly women, into the workforce

Erasmus Erasmus is the path breaking European programme in the tertiary education sector. It promotes student and professorial mobility between universities in the European Union, thereby increasing cultural and linguistic interchange.

Although its mission goal is closer European integration, ERASMUS achieves much more, since according to an opinion poll “four out of five employers confirm that studies abroad often increased the possibilities of obtaining a good job”.

Also “More than 50% of employers also declare that Erasmus students have more possibility than less mobile students of obtaining a job appropriate to their level of studies.” 54% of ex-Erasmus students themselves maintain that their studies abroad helped them get their first job.

Currently 31 countries take part in the Erasmus initiative. In the academic year 1998-1999, twelve candidate countries to the European Union joined the scheme. (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Rumania).

The Erasmus program deserves the prize for its exemplary action in promoting excellence in the professional integration of young people, Europe-wide and internationally, both in the labour market and at a personal level.