A formação da juventude no programa de aprendizagem profissional em Curitiba: uma escola do trabalho

Abstract

The Professional Learning Program is a public policy aimed at including adolescents and young people, aged 14 to 24, in the labor market. Its operation depends heavily on partnerships between educational institutions and companies, inserting the program into the dynamics of the capitalist system. Once education is an essential lever for social change, such relationship can direct young people’s formation to predominantly serve commercial interests, without promoting full education that goes beyond the strictly professional scope. In this sense, this study aims to understand to what extent young people’s formation in the Professional Learning Program in Curitiba enables students to enter the labor market without limiting their integral formation. In order to do so, qualitative research was carried out, using bibliographic and documentary procedures, based on the legislations that underpin this policy, such as the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), The Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), the Law No. 10,097/2000 and the Decree No. 9,579/2018. In addition to that, guidelines proposed by multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, in relation to the formation of young people were analyzed. The analysis was guided by the epistemological assumptions of the historical-dialectical materialism, which help to understand the transformations of history and human societies. The results indicate that the formation of young workers included in the Professional Learning Program is strongly focused on the development of skills related to the immediate demands of the labor market. Therefore, the knowledge and skills developed in the courses do not offer a real possibility of an integral formation, in which participants critically understand their role in society and act in a conscious and transformative way. As a contribution, the study sought to provide discussions that offer support for the deepening of all those involved with this policy, promoting a critical understanding of the challenges, limitations and potential of the Professional Learning Program at national and regional levels.