More than 40 million persons were interested in taking professional qualification courses, in 2014; however, just 2.2% of persons aged 15 or over (3.4 million persons) attended these courses and 15.6% had attended before (24.7 million persons). Professional qualification is the most accessible educational modality since it does not require specific schooling as a prerequisite. Besides professional qualification courses, professional education comprises higher education in technology and technical secondary education. The search for professional education qualification used to appeal to the youngsters (45.4% of the persons were between 15 and 29) and to those with high level of schooling (48.1% had 11 or more years of schooling), of which 54.7% were women, 59.6% of them black or brown, and 68.7% were employed persons.

In 2014, just 6.6% of university students took higher degree courses in technology (short-term courses), which represented in absolute numbers around 477 thousand persons. This percentage was higher among men (8.6%) than among women (5.0%), as well as among the employed (7.6%) rather than the unemployed (4.6%). It should be highlighted that 75.9% of the technology undergraduates worked and studied at the same time, 78.0% took courses in the private education system and 77.0% took classes in the nigh shift.

 The survey shows that 1.2 million persons before 2014 took technology university courses, which corresponds to 5.8% of the total persons that had already attended universities. The private network was responsible for 81.1% of the courses taken and for 85.0% of the graduation of those attending this educational modality. Among those who had not finished the course, 31.9% reported financial difficulties and 25.7%, difficulty to cope with the course's time-table. Among those who finished the technology graduation course, 68.8% worked or had worked in the area in which they graduated. Among those who had never worked, 33.3% claimed that there was lack of jobs in the area.

In terms of secondary education, the percentage of students taking a technical course reached 9.0% (812 thousand students) in 2014, with predominance in the public network (55.1%) and students fully dedicated to their studies (71.4% were not employed). Students of technical high schools in Brazil had a higher per capita household income (R$ 822) than those of the non-technical high school courses (R$ 763). Among the persons that had previously attended secondary education, 9.3 million had taken the technical modality (12.3%), 93.1% finished the course and 40.3% had never worked in the area in which they studied.

This and further information integrating the PNAD 2014 supplement Professional Education and Qualification, carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Education and with the Ministry of Agricultural and Social Development, are available here.

Just 3.4 million attended professional qualification courses

The survey pointed out that, in 2014, just 2.2% of the persons aged 15 or over (3.4 million) were attending professional qualification courses, the most accessible educational modality to the population, since many of them do not require specific schooling as a prerequisite. The participation in these courses was of 2.3%, among women, and 2.1% among men. Among black and brown persons, it was 2.2% and among white ones, 2.1%.

40.1 million persons were interested in taking some professional qualification course. The prevalence was of youngsters aged 15 to 29 years old (45.4%), 54.7% were women, 59.6% were self-declared blacks or browns and 68.7% were employed in the week of reference. In terms of years of schooling, 48.1% of the persons interested in taking a professional qualification had 11 or more years of study, 24.8% had between 8 and 10 and the others had less than 8 years of schooling.

In the group of 3.4 million persons that attended the courses, there was a greater participation in professional qualification courses among the employed (2.3%), in comparison with the non-employed (1.9%). The percentage of persons in courses of such professional nature was higher among younger persons, 15 to 29 (3.7%) and among those with more years of schooling, with 11 or more years of study (3.3%).

The survey also showed that 2.1% of the students attending courses in beneficent or philanthropic institutions, 5.1% had professional formation in the area they worked on, 19.1% attended public schools, 24.7% were in courses linked to the S System (Senac, Sesi, Sesc, Sebrae, others)  and 49.0% were in other private institutions.

94.5% of the students took face-to-face qualification. On the other hand, the distance modality was more important among the employed persons, 7.1%, than among the non-employed, 2.3% of the students. Among the face-to-face learners, night courses presented the highest percentage among the employed students (42.8%), whereas the non-employed students were concentrated in the day shift (67.4%).

15.2% of the employed students and 14.4% of the non-employed claimed some difficulty preventing them from attending the course. The main ones were financial, reported by 5.6% of the non-employed students and 3.5% of the employed, as well as the difficulty to get to the course, respectively, 5.1% and 4.1%. The difficulty to cope with the course timetable was also relevant among the group of employed students, totaling 4.0%.

The average per capita household income of the persons attending qualification courses was of R$1,203, whereas among those who did not attend them, the value was of R$1,104). A small difference in relation to the income average for the total persons (R$1,106).

24.7 million persons had previously attended professional qualification courses in Brazil

In the group of 24.7 million people that had previously taken a professional qualification course, 15.7 million (9.9%) had initiated the course before 2010 and 9.0 million had begun in the period from 2011 to 2014. In those last 4 years, the number of persons that took professional courses corresponded to almost 60% of those that took the modality up to 2010.

For the persons attending the modality after 2011, just 7.1% did not finish the course for two main reasons: difficulty to follow the timetable (24.7%) and financial difficulty (21.1%).

The survey showed that more than half of the persons (52.3%) that finished the course worked, at some point, in the area that studied. And of the total persons, 39.8% were working in the area. Among men, 59.6% had carried out some work in the area, with 46.7% still employed in the area they studied.

47.7% of the persons who finished professional qualification courses never worked in the area of formation, and among the women this percentage was even higher, 54.8%. According to color or race, persons who are self-declared blacks or browns presented a higher percentage of not working in the area they studied (53.3%) than the white persons (40.7%). Job length in the area studied in the course was higher among the whites, 47.7%, than among blacks and browns, 33.5%.

Among the 4 million persons that finished the course but never worked in the area, 31.1% claimed lack of jobs in the area as the main reason and 16.2% reported having gotten a job in another area. Lack of interest was claimed by 15.3%, and 13.2% of the persons who never worked in the area said they decided to keep on studying.

6.6% of higher degree students took technology university courses

In 2014, of the 7.3 million students of higher degree in Brazil, 477 thousand (6.6%) were taking a technology graduation. This percentage was higher among men (8.6%) than among women (5.0%), as well as among the employed (7.6%) than the non-employed (4.6%). It should be highlighted that 75.9% of the technology undergraduates worked and studied at the same time, 78.0% took courses in the private education system and 77.0% took classes in the nigh shift.

The attendance in the technology graduation courses was concentrated in the private network (78.0% of the persons), and the others (22.0%) were in the public network, whereas the face-to-face learning course was chosen by 82.2%. Among the students surveyed, 20.4% claimed to have some difficulty taking those courses. They declared financial difficulties (27.9%), difficulty to get to the course's facilities (25.9%) and to follow the course timetable (25.0%) as the main reasons.

There was a slight predominance of students of technology graduation courses in the ranges of 1 to 5 minimum wages as per capita household income, whereas in the non-technology courses, the students belonged to income ranges below 1 minimum wages or ranges of household income above 5 minimum wages per capita.

Financial reason was the main cause of evasion from technology graduation

The survey shows that 1.2 million persons had taken technology graduation courses before, which corresponds to 5.8% of the total persons that had already attended universities.

The private network was responsible for 81.1% of the courses taken and for 85.0% of the graduates of this educational modality. Among those who had not finished the course, 31.9% reported financial difficulties and 25.7%, difficulty to cope with the course timetable. Among those who finished the technology graduation course, 688% worked or had worked in the area in which they graduated in. Among those who had never worked, 33.3% claimed lack of jobs in the area as the main reason, 29.9% declared to have found a job in another area and 11.8% reported lack of interest in the area.

It is observed that technology graduates had, in 2014, a per capita household income lower than non technology graduates (bachelors or teachers), respectively R$2,294 and R$2,933.

9.0% of the students from high school take technical courses

In 2014, of the 9.0 million students in secondary education, 812 thousand attended a technical course in high school (9.0%). Despite the possibility of distance learning, the modality was little used in 2014 (1.1%). Regarding shifts, 58.9% of the non-employed students took courses fully during the day and 51.4% of the employed took courses fully at the night shift.

In the group of students of technical high school, 71.4% were not employed in the week of reference. Of this percentage, 60.8% took technical courses offered by the public network and 39.2% in the private network. Among the employed, the private network prevailed (59.1%). The courses linked to the S System (Senac, Sesi, Sesc, Sebrae, others) represented 20.7% of the employed students and 17.8% of the non-employed. The attendances of the other private institutions, according to the employment situation, were, respectively, 37.5% and 20.8%.

Among the persons attending this educational modality, 67.2% were not related to the National Program for Access to Technical Education and Employment (Pronatec), 20.5% were and 12.3% did not know.

Students of technical high schools lived in households whose per capita income was higher (R$822) than those of the non-technical high school courses (R$763).

59.7% of the persons attending technical high schools had worked in their area of study

Of the 75.4 million persons that fulfilled the minimum requisites to take a technical high school and that were neither taking regular secondary education nor technical courses in any of their three modalities, 9.3 million had previously taken that modality (12.3%). Of this total, 93.1% had successfully concluded the course. Among those who had not concluded the course, 23.3% claimed difficulties to follow the course timetable, 19.5%, lack of time to study and 18%, financial difficulties.

Of the total persons that had attended a technical course before 2014, 77.7% were employed in the week of reference, 59.7% of the approved ones in the modality had already worked in their area of studies and 35.0% were working in the area. Of the persons that, at some moment, worked in their area of professional qualification, 48.2% reported that the lessons learned were crucial to finding a job in their area of formation and 28.0% said that the course diploma made it possible. Among those who never worked in the area of formation (40.3%), 26.6% declared to have gotten a job in another area, 25.4% declared lack of jobs to work in the area, 20.4% said they had no interest and 9.8% decided to keep on studying.

On average, persons previously attending a technical secondary education, in 2014, had a per capitahousehold income of R$1,841, whereas those who did not had a per capita household income of R$ 1.537.

11.5% of the persons attending technical high schools, between 2011 and 2014, were part of Pronatec

The survey aimed at finding if the technical course previously taken had started before the implementation of Pronatec in 2011, or took place before the normatization of the Program. It was observed that 63.0% of the persons who had previously taken technical courses of secondary level, attended them up to 2006; 18.1%, between 2007 and 2010; and 18.9%, between 2011 and 2014. Regarding the four years before the Program started, there was a slight growth of the percentage of persons that took this modality of professional education. Of the persons taking technical high schools between 2011 and 2014, 78.9% were not part of Pronatec, 11.5% reported to be part of it and 9.6% did not know about it.