Os alunos nos cursos vocacionais

: interpretações, motivações e expetativas

Abstract

After four decades of school democratization, school failure and early school leaving assume a prominent place in the concern of the entire education system. In order to present solutions to this reality, and having in mind the different levels of education, the political actors introduced to the Portuguese education system the Vocational Courses. These courses, based upon a formative modality of education that complements the theoretical domain with the practical domain in the school context and, simultaneously, with the business world comply with compulsory schooling, allow the pursuit of studies and empower young people in all scientific, cultural, technical, professional and practical levels. The present research, student-centred and having in mind the framework of the vocational courses of Basic Education, intends to understand the interpretations, identify the motivations and characterize the expectations of vocational courses students. This study is going to be developed, through a quantitative methodology, in two Portuguese schools of different typology, but having in common the same characteristic of integrating vocational courses, not for comparison of the two schools but for a process of complementarity. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire built for the effect and devoted to a sample constituted by 60 students. The obtained results reveal retention, which is due to multiple factors, as a key element for entering vocational courses. Students identify their friends, colleagues, neighbours, and family as determinants in both the dissemination and the influence on choosing this training offer instead of pointing out educational agents, psychologists, class directors and teachers. They characterize current practises and behaviours, evidencing improvements in both social and cognitive domains, and reflect high levels of satisfaction within course attendance. They point out the school's recovery of young people, highlighting as projects for their future the continuation of their formative development.

Date of Award	2 Oct 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Célia Ribeiro (Supervisor)