2022 Census
IBGE begins training 180 thousand enumerators two weeks before start of Census data collection
July 18, 2022 10h00 AM | Last Updated: July 19, 2022 01h56 AM
The face-to-face step of the training course for the 180 thousand future IBGE enumerators starts today (18). Training will take place in about five thousand training facilities and in 10 thousand classrooms spread all over the Brazilian states. The course will last five days with an eight-hour shift each, up to Friday. The professionals who will collect data from traditional peoples and communities, such indigenous peoples and quilombolas, will have one more day of training, Monday 25th.
Census agents for telephone surveys (ACT) will also start this week, with classes from Tuesday (19) up to July 27th. Being responsible for the activities at the Census Support Center (CA), these agentes will be split into two groups and have the chance of choosing their favorite shift. The ACTs will work in the Census and help clear doubts of informants who choose to fill in the questionnaire on the Internet or by telephone.
“We have started the face-to-face step of the enumerators’ training, but they have been doing that for long,” the manager of Census Training, Cynthia Damasceno, highlights. “We prepared a distance learning course with fundamental census concepts and that was part of the admission test. The enumerators have algo gone through a self instructional test with prior reading of the Enumerator’s Manual and Interview Manual, available at the 2022 Census website. Training started long before they came into class,” she adds.
“This training is being conducted closer to the start of data collection so that the knowledge acquired by the enumerator will be ‘fresh’ in their minds,” the deputy manager for Census Training, Miguel Montenegro, adds.
The IBGE uses the successful cascaded training, which was also applied in previous operations, which consists of training people to train other people. “It is a process, a sequence, a wave. That is the method that we use, considering a group of IBGE specialists on census issues, to prepare a bigger number of servants each day so that they can work and technicians and multipliers of knowledge. This group encompassed coordinators and technicians from state branches, subarea census coordinators (CCS), municipal census agents (ACM) and supervising census agents (ACS), who are the last multiplier in the sequence and responsible for training the 180 plus thousand enumerators,” Ms. Damasceno explains.
Syllabus
During the training period, the future enumerators reinforce their learning about several topics related to the Census and the IBGE, for example:
- The definition of enumeration area and how to cover the area selected;
- Address list and capture of coordinates;
- Basic and sample questionnaire and their respective questions;
- Ethics and integrity in enumeration;
- Behavior and approach techniques of the enumerator;
- Practical activities and simulations using the mobile data collection device (DMC).
The enumerators will also count on a number of materials elaborated by the Operational Coordination for the Census (COC). Besides manuals and printed maps, there are also products in digital formats: manuals, slides, protocols, among other instructional resources. There will also be many applications, such as the training application where thay can have practical activities with the DMC and a learning assessment at the end of the training period. There is also the application of data collection (with training inputs, which presents a simulation of the enumerator’s field work, and the class application, used by instructors to teach the content, with all the training slides and videos that instructors show as part of a synchronized program in all the classrooms.
“It was our choice to reduce the quantity of printed materka and have most of it on the DMCs, tablets and laptops.”
Ready for data collection
There is a positive expectation for the training week and, after the learning assessments, applicants will be prepared for the enumerating work. “I trust in the technical team and thei good job they’ve been doing. We provide guidance for supervisors in the beginning of data collection in the field, together with the enumerators, where all the training really takes place,” Ms Damascenao adds.
The main duty of an enumerator is to interview residents during data collection. Their work shift is of at least 25 hours per week. As they are paid per interview, compensation may vary according to the enumerator’s dedication to work and the level of difficulty in approaching the housing units. This simulator presents an estimate of earnings.
