As instituições integrantes da Rede Federal (38 Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia; 2 Centros Federais de Educação Tecnológica e o Colégio Pedro II), apoiadas por seus docentes, técnicos-administrativos, alunos e demais voluntários, uniram suas habilidades e conhecimentos científicos e tecnológicas a sua sensibilidade e responsabilidade diante do drama social e da necessidade de enfrentar o maior problema de saúde pública deste século, a fim de minimizar seus impactos nocivos à vida humana nos diferentes e peculiares territórios de seu âmbito institucional. Nosso excelente modelo de educação gratuito, público e socialmente referenciado vem realizando uma miríade de iniciativas, tanto com recursos públicos quanto com doações privadas, produzindo e desenvolvendo dispositivos tecnológicos para ajudar e apoiar a população brasileira no combate à COVID-19, além de implementar um conjunto de ações sociais solidárias. Em grandes e pequenas cidades, bem como em lugares remotos onde os governos federal, estadual e municipal muitas vezes não chegam, as instituições da Rede Federal cumpriram seu papel, para que os profissionais de saúde fizessem seu trabalho, os pequenos produtores rurais pudessem comercializar seus produtos, e os alunos e suas famílias não morressem de fome. Este livro digital “Rede Federal de Educação Profissional, Científica e Tecnológica no Combate à COVID-19” detalha diversas atividades realizadas entre março e maio, como a produção de álcool 70%, a fabricação de Equipamentos de Proteção Individual (EPIs), além de consertos de ventiladores mecânicos e o desenvolvimento de aplicativos para monitorar a evolução da pandemia. Apesar das dificuldades e incertezas dos últimos quatro meses, podemos afirmar que os investimentos em educação, ciência e tecnologia são essenciais para as transformações estruturais de um país, em benefício de suas instituições e de sua população.

Skills and Jobs in Brazil: An Agenda for Youth is a new report focusing on the challenge of economic engagement among the Brazilian youth. In the context of a fast aging population, Brazil’s greatest economic opportunity is to increase its labor productivity, especially that of youth. This report documents important new facts about the extent of the youth economic disengagement, while at school and at work. Today, close to half of the Brazilian youth aged 15-29 years old is not fully economically engaged, because they are neither working nor studying, are studying in schools of poor quality, or are working in informal and precarious jobs. The report shows how the youth prospects in the labor market are dimmed by policies favoring existing workers over new entrants; in addition, it shows how youth are often ill equipped to meet an increasingly challenging labor market. The report suggests new education, skills, and jobs policy changes that Brazil could prioritize moving forward, so that it can take advantage of the last wave of its demographic transition. The report discusses in particular depth policies aiming to increase learning and reduce school dropouts in upper secondary education, and labor market policies that aim to support more effective and faster youth transitions from school to work.

This book provides insight into the history and current status of teaching in technical and vocational education across a broad range of countries. It contains studies of the profiles of teachers and lecturers and their educational practices. An overarching introduction embeds the content of the book into the current global context of Technical and Vocational Education and Training. This is the first substantial volume on the topic in 30 years.

"The texts in this book do not compose a mere selection: the questions that guide the chapters form a cohesively and coherently structured totality which expresses the movement of construction of what the authors understand to be a new problematic in the education field in Brazil and in the world. The book addresses basic, professional and undergraduate education from perspectives that highlight different aspects of privatization, commercialization and commodification, as well as the presence of the business community in the definition of educational policies. These levels and modalities of teaching are analysed in articulation both with science, technology and so-called technological innovation policies and with the modus operandi of the state. “This is a book that should be read by teachers, administrators and all global citizens who have a stake in the future of the planet. Unlike many books by authors from the United States who attack poverty and economic inequality without critiquing capitalism, this book has the courage to challenge capitalism at its very roots. Capitalism connects us all and it will require all of us to dismantle capitalism and replace it with a socialist alternative. Commodifying Education reveals how education in Brazil is inextricably entangled in the logic and practice of economic fascism, which goes under many names, such as austerity capitalism and neoliberal capitalism. I urge educators everywhere to engage the lucid arguments presented in this important work.” – Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Chapman University, and author of Pedagogy of Insurrection"

This edited volume presents a structured approach to a new lean education curriculum, implemented for the education of engineers, managers, administrators as well as human resources developers. The authorship comprises professors and lecturers, trainers and practitioners who educate future professionals in Lean Thinking principles and tools. This edited book provides a platform for authors to share their efforts in building a Body of Knowledge (BoK) for Lean Education. The topical spectrum is state-of-the-art in this field, but the book also includes a glimpse into future developments. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing valuable insight for scholars with an interest in Lean Education.

Continued social and economic progress in Brazil will depend on high employment, sustained labor productivity and income growth, and opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged to upgrade their own productivity and convert it into sustainable incomes.