TVET in Brazil: Integrated Education, Rapid Expansion and the Challenge of Quality Work
CERE TrendWatch: Volume 2026, Issue 4
CERE TrendWatch is a series publishing concise analytical notes with infographics on key themes in education and skills development across emerging economies. Each issue spotlights major trends and policy insights to inform research and decision-making.
CERE TrendWatch is a series publishing concise analytical notes with infographics on key themes in education and skills development across emerging economies. Each issue spotlights major trends and policy insights to inform research and decision-making.
Authors:
Marise Ramos, Professor at the Faculty of Education and the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ)
Cézar Steinhorst, doctoral candidate in the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
Marise Ramos, Professor at the Faculty of Education and the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ); Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ)
Cézar Steinhorst, doctoral candidate in the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
Expansion, Fragmentation and Reintegration
Brazilian TVET has developed through recurring cycles of expansion, fragmentation and reintegration. Its institutional foundations were laid in 1909, when President Nilo Peçanha created nineteen Schools of Apprentices and Artificers for disadvantaged young people. During industrialization, sectoral employer-led provision became an important second pillar: the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (Senai) was created in 1942 and the National Commercial Apprenticeship Service (Senac) in 1946. By the early 1960s, federal technical schools had gained greater institutional autonomy and their graduates had acquired access to higher education.
The relationship between general and vocational education has since been the principal source of policy conflict. In 1971, vocational qualification became compulsory in upper-secondary education, but the policy proved unworkable and was abandoned in 1982. The result was a more sharply divided system: academic education was associated with progression to university, while vocational education was associated with labour-market entry.
The post-democratization period revived the debate in a new institutional form. The 1996 National Education Law reorganized the education system, but Decree No. 2,208/1997 prohibited integrated provision, separating initial qualification, secondary-level technical education and technological higher education. The restriction was strongly contested and reversed by Decree No. 5,154/2004, which restored integrated provision alongside concomitant and subsequent routes.
The Workers’ Party governments then expanded federal provision and, in 2008, created the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology. These multi-campus institutions combine secondary technical education, higher education, applied research and technological extension. Later upper-secondary reforms reframed technical education as a curricular pathway, while the current Lula administration retained this architecture, increased the possible technical workload and announced a further federal expansion plan for underserved regions.
Brazilian TVET has developed through recurring cycles of expansion, fragmentation and reintegration. Its institutional foundations were laid in 1909, when President Nilo Peçanha created nineteen Schools of Apprentices and Artificers for disadvantaged young people. During industrialization, sectoral employer-led provision became an important second pillar: the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (Senai) was created in 1942 and the National Commercial Apprenticeship Service (Senac) in 1946. By the early 1960s, federal technical schools had gained greater institutional autonomy and their graduates had acquired access to higher education.
The relationship between general and vocational education has since been the principal source of policy conflict. In 1971, vocational qualification became compulsory in upper-secondary education, but the policy proved unworkable and was abandoned in 1982. The result was a more sharply divided system: academic education was associated with progression to university, while vocational education was associated with labour-market entry.
The post-democratization period revived the debate in a new institutional form. The 1996 National Education Law reorganized the education system, but Decree No. 2,208/1997 prohibited integrated provision, separating initial qualification, secondary-level technical education and technological higher education. The restriction was strongly contested and reversed by Decree No. 5,154/2004, which restored integrated provision alongside concomitant and subsequent routes.
The Workers’ Party governments then expanded federal provision and, in 2008, created the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology. These multi-campus institutions combine secondary technical education, higher education, applied research and technological extension. Later upper-secondary reforms reframed technical education as a curricular pathway, while the current Lula administration retained this architecture, increased the possible technical workload and announced a further federal expansion plan for underserved regions.
The importance of this history is not merely institutional. Brazilian TVET has long reflected a social duality: academic secondary education has generally been the preferred route for higher-income students seeking university places, while vocational education has often been directed towards the labour-market preparation of working-class students. The continuing debate over integration is therefore also a debate over the purposes of education, social inclusion and development.
A Decentralized System Moving Towards National Quality
Brazilian TVET operates through a decentralized regulatory architecture. The Ministry of Education (MEC), through the Secretariat of Secondary and Technological Education (SETEC) and the National Council of Education (CNE), establishes national parameters for educational provision. These include the National Curriculum Guidelines for Professional and Technological Education and the National Catalogue of Technical Courses, which organizes provision into thirteen technological axes and specifies nationally recognized technical course titles, profiles and minimum workloads.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) performs a related but distinct function through the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO). The CBO describes occupations and levels of competence in the labour market, while the National Catalogue links technical course profiles to associated occupations. Coordination between education and labour authorities is therefore functional rather than strongly institutionalized: the CBO informs course design and revision, but no standing interministerial body routinely governs curriculum approval or provision.
Implementation differs by provider and level of government. Federal Institutes are linked to MEC but have substantial administrative and pedagogical autonomy. State technical schools operate within their respective state education systems, while private secondary-level providers are generally authorized and supervised at state level. National rules define the framework; providers and subnational systems make many operational decisions concerning courses, curricula, staffing, funding and location.
For much of its history, quality assurance has been similarly decentralized. Authorization and supervision have generally depended on state and municipal procedures, including reviews of curricula, staff, facilities and internship arrangements. Brazil is now moving towards a more national framework. Law No. 14,645/2023 assigned the Union, in cooperation with education systems, responsibility for a national evaluation process covering TVET institutions and courses. Decree No. 12,603/2025 subsequently established the National System for the Evaluation of Professional and Technological Education (SINAEPT). Further regulatory work is under way within MEC and SETEC.
Brazil should therefore be understood as moving towards national TVET quality assurance rather than as already operating a fully mature national system. The transition could become important as enrolment grows and as state networks assume a larger role in provision.
Qualifications and Pathways
Brazilian TVET runs alongside mainstream education at several levels. The same secondary-level technical diploma may be reached through three routes: integrated, concomitant and subsequent provision.
The integrated route begins after lower secondary education and combines general and technical education in a single curriculum and pedagogical project, usually lasting at least three years. The concomitant route allows students to study technical education alongside general upper-secondary education, either in the same institution or in separate institutions. The subsequent route is open to learners who have already completed upper-secondary education. These are different routes to the same technical qualification rather than separate qualification levels. A technical diploma is awarded once learners have completed both the technical programme and upper-secondary education.
Initial and continuing training forms a more flexible branch of the system. It provides shorter occupational-qualification, upskilling and reskilling courses for learners with diverse levels of prior education. FIC generally leads to a certificate rather than a technical diploma.
At higher-education level, Higher Education Technology Courses are undergraduate degrees. Graduates receive the title of technologist and can progress to postgraduate education. These programmes are usually shorter and more occupationally focused than bachelor’s degrees, commonly lasting two to three years.
A secondary technical diploma does not formally restrict progression to higher education. Graduates of integrated, concomitant and subsequent programmes apply to universities under the same admission rules as other upper-secondary graduates. The policy challenge is therefore less formal blockage than unequal preparation and unequal access to high-quality programmes.
A Decentralized System Moving Towards National Quality
Brazilian TVET operates through a decentralized regulatory architecture. The Ministry of Education (MEC), through the Secretariat of Secondary and Technological Education (SETEC) and the National Council of Education (CNE), establishes national parameters for educational provision. These include the National Curriculum Guidelines for Professional and Technological Education and the National Catalogue of Technical Courses, which organizes provision into thirteen technological axes and specifies nationally recognized technical course titles, profiles and minimum workloads.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) performs a related but distinct function through the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO). The CBO describes occupations and levels of competence in the labour market, while the National Catalogue links technical course profiles to associated occupations. Coordination between education and labour authorities is therefore functional rather than strongly institutionalized: the CBO informs course design and revision, but no standing interministerial body routinely governs curriculum approval or provision.
Implementation differs by provider and level of government. Federal Institutes are linked to MEC but have substantial administrative and pedagogical autonomy. State technical schools operate within their respective state education systems, while private secondary-level providers are generally authorized and supervised at state level. National rules define the framework; providers and subnational systems make many operational decisions concerning courses, curricula, staffing, funding and location.
For much of its history, quality assurance has been similarly decentralized. Authorization and supervision have generally depended on state and municipal procedures, including reviews of curricula, staff, facilities and internship arrangements. Brazil is now moving towards a more national framework. Law No. 14,645/2023 assigned the Union, in cooperation with education systems, responsibility for a national evaluation process covering TVET institutions and courses. Decree No. 12,603/2025 subsequently established the National System for the Evaluation of Professional and Technological Education (SINAEPT). Further regulatory work is under way within MEC and SETEC.
Brazil should therefore be understood as moving towards national TVET quality assurance rather than as already operating a fully mature national system. The transition could become important as enrolment grows and as state networks assume a larger role in provision.
Qualifications and Pathways
Brazilian TVET runs alongside mainstream education at several levels. The same secondary-level technical diploma may be reached through three routes: integrated, concomitant and subsequent provision.
The integrated route begins after lower secondary education and combines general and technical education in a single curriculum and pedagogical project, usually lasting at least three years. The concomitant route allows students to study technical education alongside general upper-secondary education, either in the same institution or in separate institutions. The subsequent route is open to learners who have already completed upper-secondary education. These are different routes to the same technical qualification rather than separate qualification levels. A technical diploma is awarded once learners have completed both the technical programme and upper-secondary education.
Initial and continuing training forms a more flexible branch of the system. It provides shorter occupational-qualification, upskilling and reskilling courses for learners with diverse levels of prior education. FIC generally leads to a certificate rather than a technical diploma.
At higher-education level, Higher Education Technology Courses are undergraduate degrees. Graduates receive the title of technologist and can progress to postgraduate education. These programmes are usually shorter and more occupationally focused than bachelor’s degrees, commonly lasting two to three years.
A secondary technical diploma does not formally restrict progression to higher education. Graduates of integrated, concomitant and subsequent programmes apply to universities under the same admission rules as other upper-secondary graduates. The policy challenge is therefore less formal blockage than unequal preparation and unequal access to high-quality programmes.
The fourth issue of CERE TrendWatch turns to Brazil, home to one of the largest and most institutionally distinctive systems of technical and vocational education and training in the Global South — known nationally as Professional and Technological Education (EPT). The issue traces the historical formation of Brazilian TVET, maps its regulatory architecture and the institutions that deliver it, documents a remarkable post-pandemic expansion of enrollment, and examines the evidence on where graduates land in a labour market marked by persistent precarity.
Two Major Pillars of Provision
The public Federal Network is a central reference point for Brazilian TVET. It includes 38 Federal Institutes, two Federal Centers for Technological Education, one technological university, technical schools linked to federal universities and Pedro II College. Reporting for 2025 on 2024 data, the Nilo Peçanha Platform records 661 units, 11,721 courses and 2,386,825 enrolments across the Network’s levels and modalities of professional and technological education.
The Network reaches every federative unit and combines technical education with applied research, technological extension and partnerships with regional productive sectors. Its territorial expansion has been designed as a regional-development strategy, particularly through campuses in medium-sized cities and historically underserved areas. The Federal Institutes are also closely associated with the integrated model, which they have treated as a core educational commitment rather than simply a means of occupational preparation.
Alongside the public system stands the employer-led S System, one of the largest vocational-training networks in the world. Its principal TVET actors are Senai, linked to industry, and Senac, linked to commerce. These institutions are private-law entities financed in significant part through compulsory payroll contributions and administered by employer confederations.
Senai operates fixed and mobile units throughout Brazil and provides large-scale industrial training across initial and continuing training, apprenticeship, upskilling, specialisation and technical programmes. Its transparency portal records more than 1.5 million free enrolments in 2025. Senac maintains a similarly extensive national footprint and, in 2024, recorded more than 1.13 million enrolments, with regulated upper-secondary technical provision concentrated primarily in full technical programmes.
The S System’s financing and accountability have long been contested. A 2008 agreement with MEC committed the institutions to direct up to two-thirds of net revenue from compulsory contributions to free places, and public reporting requirements have increased transparency. Questions remain, however, about the extent to which free-provision commitments are consistently met.
The School Census includes accredited S System institutions within private provision. As a result, private enrolment figures include regulated technical education delivered by Senai, Senac and related providers. They do not capture the large volume of shorter, non-formal training delivered outside the regulated education system. Headline figures on technical enrolment should therefore not be interpreted as a measure of all vocational training in Brazil.
A Post-Pandemic Enrolment Take-Off
After nearly a decade of stagnation at approximately 1.8–1.9 million students, enrolment in regulated technical education began to rise sharply in 2022. It reached 2.5 million in 2025, an increase of around one-third in four years. Public enrolment has driven this expansion, reaching 1.64 million in 2025, while private enrolment has declined from its 2023 peak.
Two developments explain the change. First, integrated provision has expanded rapidly. Enrolment in the integrated route has tripled since 2015 and overtook subsequent provision in 2023–2024. Second, state school networks have become the principal engine of growth. Their enrolment doubled over the decade to approximately 1.3 million students, while the federal network remained broadly stable and municipal provision continued to play a limited role.
The public Federal Network is a central reference point for Brazilian TVET. It includes 38 Federal Institutes, two Federal Centers for Technological Education, one technological university, technical schools linked to federal universities and Pedro II College. Reporting for 2025 on 2024 data, the Nilo Peçanha Platform records 661 units, 11,721 courses and 2,386,825 enrolments across the Network’s levels and modalities of professional and technological education.
The Network reaches every federative unit and combines technical education with applied research, technological extension and partnerships with regional productive sectors. Its territorial expansion has been designed as a regional-development strategy, particularly through campuses in medium-sized cities and historically underserved areas. The Federal Institutes are also closely associated with the integrated model, which they have treated as a core educational commitment rather than simply a means of occupational preparation.
Alongside the public system stands the employer-led S System, one of the largest vocational-training networks in the world. Its principal TVET actors are Senai, linked to industry, and Senac, linked to commerce. These institutions are private-law entities financed in significant part through compulsory payroll contributions and administered by employer confederations.
Senai operates fixed and mobile units throughout Brazil and provides large-scale industrial training across initial and continuing training, apprenticeship, upskilling, specialisation and technical programmes. Its transparency portal records more than 1.5 million free enrolments in 2025. Senac maintains a similarly extensive national footprint and, in 2024, recorded more than 1.13 million enrolments, with regulated upper-secondary technical provision concentrated primarily in full technical programmes.
The S System’s financing and accountability have long been contested. A 2008 agreement with MEC committed the institutions to direct up to two-thirds of net revenue from compulsory contributions to free places, and public reporting requirements have increased transparency. Questions remain, however, about the extent to which free-provision commitments are consistently met.
The School Census includes accredited S System institutions within private provision. As a result, private enrolment figures include regulated technical education delivered by Senai, Senac and related providers. They do not capture the large volume of shorter, non-formal training delivered outside the regulated education system. Headline figures on technical enrolment should therefore not be interpreted as a measure of all vocational training in Brazil.
A Post-Pandemic Enrolment Take-Off
After nearly a decade of stagnation at approximately 1.8–1.9 million students, enrolment in regulated technical education began to rise sharply in 2022. It reached 2.5 million in 2025, an increase of around one-third in four years. Public enrolment has driven this expansion, reaching 1.64 million in 2025, while private enrolment has declined from its 2023 peak.
Two developments explain the change. First, integrated provision has expanded rapidly. Enrolment in the integrated route has tripled since 2015 and overtook subsequent provision in 2023–2024. Second, state school networks have become the principal engine of growth. Their enrolment doubled over the decade to approximately 1.3 million students, while the federal network remained broadly stable and municipal provision continued to play a limited role.
This state-led expansion is particularly consequential because states are primarily responsible for upper-secondary education rather than for TVET as a distinct sector. It suggests that technical education is increasingly being adopted as a pathway within upper-secondary schooling, potentially through partnerships with federal and private providers. The mechanisms and quality implications of this expansion require further investigation.
The Significance of Integrated Provision
The integrated route is the most distinctive element of Brazilian TVET. Rather than placing vocational education alongside or after general schooling, it is organized around a single curriculum and pedagogical project intended to link scientific knowledge, humanities, technology and professional practice.
Its rationale extends beyond immediate labour-market preparation. The model is grounded in the articulation of work, science, culture and technology and aims at the comprehensive development of students. Long central to the Federal Institutes, this conception has increasingly shaped state-level provision over the past decade. Its quantitative predominance is therefore not only an enrolment trend but also an indication of a renewed educational philosophy.
The model does not, however, automatically resolve inequalities. Entry to high-quality integrated programmes remains uneven, particularly where admissions are selective. Students from lower-income households, rural areas and historically marginalized groups may face greater barriers to accessing the strongest institutions and programmes. Expansion must therefore be accompanied by measures that address unequal prior educational opportunities, regional disparities and the conditions that shape completion.
The Significance of Integrated Provision
The integrated route is the most distinctive element of Brazilian TVET. Rather than placing vocational education alongside or after general schooling, it is organized around a single curriculum and pedagogical project intended to link scientific knowledge, humanities, technology and professional practice.
Its rationale extends beyond immediate labour-market preparation. The model is grounded in the articulation of work, science, culture and technology and aims at the comprehensive development of students. Long central to the Federal Institutes, this conception has increasingly shaped state-level provision over the past decade. Its quantitative predominance is therefore not only an enrolment trend but also an indication of a renewed educational philosophy.
The model does not, however, automatically resolve inequalities. Entry to high-quality integrated programmes remains uneven, particularly where admissions are selective. Students from lower-income households, rural areas and historically marginalized groups may face greater barriers to accessing the strongest institutions and programmes. Expansion must therefore be accompanied by measures that address unequal prior educational opportunities, regional disparities and the conditions that shape completion.
Fields of Study and Participation
Technical enrolment is concentrated in service-oriented fields. Management and Business was the largest technological axis in 2025, followed by Environment and Health. Information and Communication has been the fastest-growing major axis since 2019, while Industrial Control and Processes and Natural Resources complete the leading group. The Federal Network broadly follows national demand but has retained a relatively stronger industrial orientation than the system as a whole.
Household-survey evidence indicates that vocational learning often occurs later than policy expectations imply. In 2022, 13.5% of the eligible population—19.7 million people—were attending or had completed a vocational qualification course. A further 17.5% of eligible individuals—10.9 million people—were attending or had completed an upper-secondary technical programme.
Technical enrolment is concentrated in service-oriented fields. Management and Business was the largest technological axis in 2025, followed by Environment and Health. Information and Communication has been the fastest-growing major axis since 2019, while Industrial Control and Processes and Natural Resources complete the leading group. The Federal Network broadly follows national demand but has retained a relatively stronger industrial orientation than the system as a whole.
Household-survey evidence indicates that vocational learning often occurs later than policy expectations imply. In 2022, 13.5% of the eligible population—19.7 million people—were attending or had completed a vocational qualification course. A further 17.5% of eligible individuals—10.9 million people—were attending or had completed an upper-secondary technical programme.
Around one-third of participants in both forms of provision were aged 30–49. Only 15.4% of technical students were aged 14–17, the age group most directly targeted by integrated upper-secondary provision. This pattern suggests that many Brazilians turn to TVET for reskilling or requalification after entering the labour market, rather than acquiring a formal occupational qualification before their first job.
The late-entry pattern should be interpreted alongside social and regional inequality. Lower-income households, rural communities, and historically marginalized Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous populations continue to face greater barriers to high-quality technical education. Increased enrolment is an important achievement, but it does not by itself guarantee equitable opportunity.
Labour-Market Outcomes: A Premium within Precarity
Completing TVET is associated with improved labour-market outcomes, although its effects are limited by the wider structure of employment. Unemployment among completers of vocational training was 8.9%, and among completers of upper-secondary technical education 8.3%—around two percentage points below comparable non-completers.
For labour-market entrants aged 18–20, unemployment remained high across all groups. It stood at approximately 23–24% for completers, compared with around 26% for non-completers. Technical qualifications therefore offer some protection, but they cannot offset the weakness of youth labour demand.
Labour-Market Outcomes: A Premium within Precarity
Completing TVET is associated with improved labour-market outcomes, although its effects are limited by the wider structure of employment. Unemployment among completers of vocational training was 8.9%, and among completers of upper-secondary technical education 8.3%—around two percentage points below comparable non-completers.
For labour-market entrants aged 18–20, unemployment remained high across all groups. It stood at approximately 23–24% for completers, compared with around 26% for non-completers. Technical qualifications therefore offer some protection, but they cannot offset the weakness of youth labour demand.
Earnings data show a similar pattern. Completion moves workers up the income distribution: the proportion earning up to one minimum wage falls from 45% to 33% among vocational-training completers, and from 37% to 27% among technical-education completers. On average, completers earn approximately 20% more than non-completers.
The absolute value of the premium remains modest. In 2022, average monthly earnings were BRL 2,121 for vocational-training completers and BRL 2,420 for technical-education completers, compared with a minimum wage of BRL 1,212. These figures indicate that positive returns to training operate within a labour market in which low wages remain widespread.
Occupational destinations further illustrate the limits of credential signalling. Eighteen of the 25 occupations most common among technical-course completers also appear among the 25 most common occupations of secondary graduates without technical training. Much employment remains concentrated in commerce and services, where jobs often do not formally require a technical credential.
The strongest alignment between training and work appears in health and industrial-technical occupations. Mid-level nursing professionals are the most common occupational destination among technical completers, followed by mechanical engineering technicians, electronics and electrotechnical technicians, community health workers, and computer-network and systems technicians. These fields offer clearer examples of the link that TVET policy seeks to create between formal preparation and occupational practice.
Challenges and Outlook
Brazilian TVET enters the second half of the 2020s with substantial momentum. Enrolment is at a historic high, integrated provision has regained political and quantitative importance, and a new federal expansion plan aims to extend provision into underserved regions. The creation of SINAEPT also offers an opportunity to develop more coherent national evidence on participation, completion, learning, labour-market insertion and institutional quality.
Yet the central contradictions remain. Participation is still limited and often occurs late in working lives. Many young people enter employment without formal occupational preparation. Access to high-quality programmes remains unequal across regions and social groups. Finally, the positive returns to TVET are constrained by a low-wage, service-dominated labour market in which credentialed and non-credentialed workers frequently enter similar occupations.
Brazil therefore offers an important international case: a large middle-income country seeking to combine integrated secondary technical education, public investment, social inclusion and regional development. It differs both from dual-apprenticeship systems centred on employer participation and from predominantly market-oriented vocational models. Whether the current expansion can transform institutional capacity into broad-based improvements in access, completion and the quality of work will be the defining question for Brazilian TVET policy in the coming decade.
The absolute value of the premium remains modest. In 2022, average monthly earnings were BRL 2,121 for vocational-training completers and BRL 2,420 for technical-education completers, compared with a minimum wage of BRL 1,212. These figures indicate that positive returns to training operate within a labour market in which low wages remain widespread.
Occupational destinations further illustrate the limits of credential signalling. Eighteen of the 25 occupations most common among technical-course completers also appear among the 25 most common occupations of secondary graduates without technical training. Much employment remains concentrated in commerce and services, where jobs often do not formally require a technical credential.
The strongest alignment between training and work appears in health and industrial-technical occupations. Mid-level nursing professionals are the most common occupational destination among technical completers, followed by mechanical engineering technicians, electronics and electrotechnical technicians, community health workers, and computer-network and systems technicians. These fields offer clearer examples of the link that TVET policy seeks to create between formal preparation and occupational practice.
Challenges and Outlook
Brazilian TVET enters the second half of the 2020s with substantial momentum. Enrolment is at a historic high, integrated provision has regained political and quantitative importance, and a new federal expansion plan aims to extend provision into underserved regions. The creation of SINAEPT also offers an opportunity to develop more coherent national evidence on participation, completion, learning, labour-market insertion and institutional quality.
Yet the central contradictions remain. Participation is still limited and often occurs late in working lives. Many young people enter employment without formal occupational preparation. Access to high-quality programmes remains unequal across regions and social groups. Finally, the positive returns to TVET are constrained by a low-wage, service-dominated labour market in which credentialed and non-credentialed workers frequently enter similar occupations.
Brazil therefore offers an important international case: a large middle-income country seeking to combine integrated secondary technical education, public investment, social inclusion and regional development. It differs both from dual-apprenticeship systems centred on employer participation and from predominantly market-oriented vocational models. Whether the current expansion can transform institutional capacity into broad-based improvements in access, completion and the quality of work will be the defining question for Brazilian TVET policy in the coming decade.
About the authors
Marise Ramos is Professor at the Faculty of Education and the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human
Development at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ).
Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3796863111902233 ·
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5439-3258
Cézar Steinhorst is a doctoral candidate in the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development at the
State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2850666775404064
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7380-6008
Acknowledgements
The authors thank João Gabriel R. P. Leal and Anderson Buonafina (Observatory of Health Technicians, Joaquim Venâncio
Polytechnic School of Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation — OTS/Lateps, EPSJV/Fiocruz) for the preparation and supervision of enrollment statistics, and Osmar Félix for language support.
To know more
IPEA (1996). Mercado de trabalho: conjuntura e análise. Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada / Ministério do Trabalho, v.1, n.0, March 1996. Brasília: Ipea.
Senai transparency portal:
https://www.portaldaindustria.com.br/senai/canais/transparencia/
Senac general report:
https://dn.senac.br/gestao-estrategica/relatorio-geral-do-senac/
IPEA, Desafios do Desenvolvimento: https://www.ipea.gov.br/desafios/
Nilo Peçanha Platform (PNP/SETEC/MEC): https://www.gov.br/mec/pt-br/pnp
Marise Ramos is Professor at the Faculty of Education and the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human
Development at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (FAPERJ).
Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3796863111902233 ·
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5439-3258
Cézar Steinhorst is a doctoral candidate in the Postgraduate Program in Public Policies and Human Development at the
State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2850666775404064
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7380-6008
Acknowledgements
The authors thank João Gabriel R. P. Leal and Anderson Buonafina (Observatory of Health Technicians, Joaquim Venâncio
Polytechnic School of Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation — OTS/Lateps, EPSJV/Fiocruz) for the preparation and supervision of enrollment statistics, and Osmar Félix for language support.
To know more
IPEA (1996). Mercado de trabalho: conjuntura e análise. Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada / Ministério do Trabalho, v.1, n.0, March 1996. Brasília: Ipea.
Senai transparency portal:
https://www.portaldaindustria.com.br/senai/canais/transparencia/
Senac general report:
https://dn.senac.br/gestao-estrategica/relatorio-geral-do-senac/
IPEA, Desafios do Desenvolvimento: https://www.ipea.gov.br/desafios/
Nilo Peçanha Platform (PNP/SETEC/MEC): https://www.gov.br/mec/pt-br/pnp
Please cite this publication as:
Ramos, M. and Steinhorst, C. (2026), 'TVET in Brazil: Integrated Education,
Rapid Expansion and the Challenge of Quality Work'.
CERE TrendWatch, Volume 2026, Issue 4, CERE Observatory.
http://cereobservatory.com/trendwatch_indian_tvet
Ramos, M. and Steinhorst, C. (2026), 'TVET in Brazil: Integrated Education,
Rapid Expansion and the Challenge of Quality Work'.
CERE TrendWatch, Volume 2026, Issue 4, CERE Observatory.
http://cereobservatory.com/trendwatch_indian_tvet
26 June 2026