Política de educação profissional e tecnológica: análise da modalidade Pronatec Brasil Maior na perspectiva de seus implementadores

Abstract

The Public Policy of Professional and Technological Education has been considered strategic for social inclusion and scientific and technological development processes of Brazil, both in developed economies and in emerging countries. In Brazil, until recently, these policies were not successful in meeting the demands of productive sectors, especially the industry, though there was an important change in the beginning of this century. This work aims to investigate the policy for professional and technological education—more specifically, the National Program for Access to Technical Education and Employment [Programa Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Técnico e Emprego (PRONATEC)], and to describe the implementation process of its modality named “PRONATEC Brasil Maior” (PRONATEC/BM) [PRONATEC Bigger Brazil], which aims to meet the needs for skilled labor of main productive sectors encompassed by the Bigger Brazil Plan. When analyzing how institutional arrangements are constituted for the coordination and implementation of this policy, in addition to its partial results, we assessed to what extent has been efficient this proposed arrangement, which innovates by predicting the mapping of demands for professional qualification to define the offer of courses, through direct contact with the corporate sector. Since this is a very recent initiative and given the scarce literature on the subject, we opted for a research approach of exploratory character based on: analysis of available literature and of official documents; observation of a few indicators of enforcement of PRONATEC/BM; and holding interviews with the main players that enforce the Program. This work was aimed at widening the comprehension of the recent experience in implementing PRONATEC/BM, and offering information that can in the future support more encompassing analyses of this important professional qualification program.