Projeto Trilhas de Futuro: entre o discurso da empregabilidade e a privatização de recursos da educação pública mineira

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the first two years of implementation of the Trilhas de Futuro Project, a professional education policy created by the Government of the State of Minas Gerais in 2021, which transferred resources from the education budget to private institutions to offer professional technical courses.The investigation is based on the understanding that vocational training, far from being neutral, is historically linked to the social division of labor and to the maintenance of structural inequalities in the Brazilian educational system. It begins with a theoretical discussion of educational dualism, grounded in the determinations of capitalist social formation and the ways in which vocational education has historically been aimed at subordinate sectors, operating under the logic of adaptation and economic functionality. The study then contextualizes the rise of neoliberalism as the guiding rationality behind educational reforms and the redefinition of the state's role, particularly in the expansion of privatization mechanisms, both through the introduction of managerial logics in public administration and through the direct transfer of responsibilities to private entities. The research examines the political and ideological context of the management of the State of Minas Gerais during the first administration of the Romeu Zema Government (2019-2022), highlighting the deepening of neoliberal policies, the retraction of state action in strategic areas and the adherence to management models guided by so-called public-private “partnerships”. In analyzing the Trilhas de Futuro Project, the thesis discusses the legal and operational foundations of the policy, its contracts, the relationship with the private sector, and the financial impacts on the state public school network. Developed through documentary analysis, the study examines official data on employment and income generation in order to assess the contradictions between the discourse of employability and the actual conditions for youth entry into the labor market. It discusses how the policy reaffirms educational dualism by offering technical training devoid of critical depth, reinforcing individual accountability for structural unemployment and renewing forms of social exclusion. The thesis concludes that, rather than promoting a comprehensive and socially grounded education, the Project contributes to consolidating a model that turns the right to education into a service tailored to the demands of the market. As a counterpoint, it advocates for the strengthening of public initiatives focused on the omnilateral education of youth—integrating work, science, and culture—and committed to transforming concrete social conditions.