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Guilherme Lichand — Foto: Thays Bittar/Divulgação
The advancement of vocational education to 40% or 50% of the places offered in high schools, from 10% now, is a strategy that can contribute to the country’s development, with increased productivity, reduced inequality, and increased opportunities for young people, experts say. Considered “revolutionary” by some, this path requires time and needs to be on the country’s agenda, with the participation of leaders from the public sector and also from companies.
Guilherme Lichand, a professor of economics at the University of Zurich, believes that it is necessary to change the way vocational education is seen in Brazil.
“There is a vision in Brazil that vocational education is inferior. People desire higher education, and see the vocational education as something for those who didn’t get there. This is not the case in Europe, where more than half of population choose vocational education and only 20% or 30% go to the university,” he said.
Brazil follows the U.S. model, in which only higher education seems suitable, he said. “This is not desirable. There are no jobs for that. Just look at the enormous student loan debt that [U.S. President Joe] Biden had to forgive. In Brazil, we will have a similar problem in 10 years.”
The view that vocational education is subservient to industry and geared exclusively to training labor is mistaken, said Olavo Nogueira Filho, the executive director of NGO Todos pela Educação.
“The key is to do it with quality. Offering vocational and technological education makes it possible to raise the quality of high school, which, besides facilitating the insertion of young people into productive activities, also makes it possible for them to continue their studies throughout their lives. It is not a second-choice option.”
For him, the data from developed European countries show this. In countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on average 40% of high school places are connected to vocational and technological education, said Mr. Nogueira Filho. In Brazil, he compares, this rate is around 11%, and in Latin America, 20%.
Expanding the share of vocational education in the country is a strategy that can be carried out together with more investments in higher education, he added.
Examples show that vocational and technological education integrated to high school becomes much more effective when it comes to the students’ interest. He says that one challenge of high school is precisely to be attractive to young people, with an education suited to their reality.
Mr. Lichand, who has a PhD in political economy from Harvard University, points out that there are great challenges to migrate from a system that offers vocational education to 10% of high school students to one that offers it 50% of students. It is necessary, he says, to discuss how to do this on the necessary scale and how to aim for the right country model.
Since 80% of the students in Brazil’s basic education are in public schools, certainly the public sector will have a huge challenge and will need to decide what vocational education will be, whether there will be purchases of vocational education systems, Mr. Lichand.
“But we need more. It is necessary to define a country agenda and make a pact involving the public and private sectors.” In the European model, Mr. Lichand said, vocational education includes theoretical classes and also practical experience in industrial companies. “You need experience in the field and that’s why you need to partner with companies. You need to expand with quality even if the private sector accounts for part of it. The key is to understand how to certify, monitor and evaluate to ensure high-quality training, not cheap labor.”
The fields and curricula, argues Mr. Lichand, must be defined together with the companies. For the professor, the ideal time to build this would be 10 years, with companies committing to finance it in some way.
There are two major challenges in this process, he points out. Convincing the business community that the student is not cheap labor and convincing the school that the curriculum must be discussed according to the companies’ needs. “If this pact can be built, it could be the best of all worlds. There will be people trained who fit perfectly with what the industry needs. Today we have situations where there are unemployed people and companies that can’t fill vacancies.”
The private sector, says the professor, is not organized for this because it doesn’t see that it also needs to lead this process. It is not just a problem for public education. For him, it is necessary to have a national leadership in the public sector shared with business leadership as well. Without a pact, it will not work, he said, as shown by European experiences. It is a process that must involve society as a whole, with multiple leaderships.
“It could be revolutionary. Cash-transfer policies have already helped improve inequality indicators in some periods in Brazil. But low productivity is something that seems insoluble in the country. Vocational education could improve these indicators.”
Source: Valor International