Recognition and certification policies for professional knowledge: Brazil and Portugal in contrast
Keywords: Public policy. Internationalization of Professional Education. Professional certification. Competence. Professional Knowledge.
Abstract
This qualitative study aimed to carry out a contrastive analysis between two programs linked to public policies for professional certification of knowledge acquired through the experience developed in Brazil and Portugal: the CERTIFIC Network in Brazil and the Recognition, Validation and Certification of Competences (RVCC), in Portugal. Therefore, supported by materialist, historical, dialectical epistemology, we sought to interpret and contextualize these programs developed in the last two decades, debating how the socioeconomic conditions of the countries in question were identified, identifying their geostrategic positions as a backdrop for the adoption of the aforementioned programs. Data were collected from documents, laws, decrees, reports, specific events, among other sources, as well as interviews were conducted semi-structured interviews with configured characters who were involved with the conception and execution of the programs in both countries. The research aimed to characterize these programs, identify the consequences of the process of internationalization of professional education policies present in their formulations and unveil the contrasts between programs in Brazil and Portugal, through the symmetries and contradictions between them. For the face-to-face interviews, two field stages were carried out: the first in Portugal, Faro and Lisbon and the second in Brazil, Natal/RN. The study revealed significant similarities in the socio-educational problems faced by the two countries, especially with regard to the illiteracy rate of their populations, poverty, school dropout, unemployment, underemployment, precariousness of work, among other indicators, subject to the appropriate proportions, taking into account the different dimensions of the two countries. The study also identified important similarities between the two programs studied, especially that both are the product of a specific historical moment of capitalism, characterized by a structural crisis that reflected in unemployment or underemployment. Thus, the programs mentioned contributed to the certification of simple work, given that the long-term structural crisis prevents the absorption of the workforce of all those who may be certified to carry out the complex work. Such certification policies and their respective programs occur at a given historical moment, as a product of solutions designed in each country, based on internal political and ideological disputes well hegemonic international propositions, externally articulated in view of the need to adopt palliative measures to compensate for the damage caused to important segments of workers in the world with great difficulties in accessing professional qualification.