Educação profissional: o Projeto Juventude Cidadã e seus efeitos sobre a escolaridade e empregabilidade de jovens em Uberaba-MG

Abstract

This work is linked to the line of Policy and Management in Education in the Master's Program of the Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (FACED-UFU) and is based on research conducted through means of primary and secondary sources on the results of increasing employability and educational achievements of the youngsters who accomplished the Projeto Juventude Cidadã (PJC), developed by the Federal Government in conjunction with the municipal level in Uberaba-MG, in 2006 and 2007. The research covered two stages of development: bibliographical analysis and empirical reality. In the context of this project, we consider two fundamental issues: its inclusion in the total body of youth policies developed by the federal government and its links with the educational issue, once, not only in the PJC, but in all similar projects, the education of young people is addressed as a requirement. To establish the context of the PJC, this text describes a framework of federal public policies for professional education and social inclusion. Entrepreneurship and community participation, strong components of the normative documents that ruled the PJC, are understood as important elements in preparing young people for entering the labor market. At the end of the research we realized that, despite the social framework in the country demand the adoption and implementation of systemic long term policies, and, even though the interviewed accomplishing students have made a positive assessment, there is to be observed the fragmentary and occasional outline of the actions carried on by the Federal Government. The PJC did not escape this condition, having shown operational difficulties relating to the various stages of its execution. Considering the young students, it is argued not to be possible to impute solely to them full responsibility for their employment, after the training process provided for in projects linked to public policies. There is need to provide political action that lead the youngsters to finding a first job position and ensuring the maintenance of this condition.