Professional Education Reform Programme

Project BRA/98/020 -- Start Year: 1998; Approved Budget: US$50,732,650; End Year: 2003; Implementing Agent: NEX (National Execution Related Projects); Executing Agent: Ministry of Education.

Project background and rationale:It was possible for the Brazilian economy to grow, in the past, with a manual labor force with a low level of schooling and a low salary, this is no longer true within the context of an open economy. The necessity to create comparative advantages in the national productive sector demands the definition of educational policies that set as a priority the development and growth of the quality of education. Therefore, the new Brazilian law for National Education assumes that knowledge has become the main factor of production and that the capacity to learn is a fundamental skill for the inclusion of an individual in a society in constant change. Within this framework, vocational education is treated as part of the education system, with the objective, not only of shaping technicians at the high school level but also of training, retraining and turning workers of all educational levels into professionals and constantly updating their technological knowledge in order to guarantee their employability.

Project development goal: This project aims to establish a vocational educational system open to the technological changes imposed by the economic globalization process, which would contribute to the social and economic development of the country and its inclusion, under favorable conditions, in the international market. This vocational education system should be adjusted to the job market in order to guarantee employment to young graduates.

Project immediate objectives and expected outputs: In order to attain this goal, this project adopts a three-pronged strategy:

1. It provides assistance to the establishment of 200 Vocational Education Centers located in the whole country which function is to provide the necessary vocational courses;

2. It supports the national policy for the improvement and the expansion of vocational education, through joint action and communication between federal, state and municipal governments and federal, state and community vocational schools.

3. It fosters the elaboration of proposals concerning high school education reform through debates held by specialists, educational administrators, professional representative organizations

Contact details:Ministério da Educação Secretaria de Educação Média e Tecnológica Programa de Expansão da Educação Profissional Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco L'Anexo II - 1º andar - sala 137 70.047-900 Brasília, DF Brazil