The authors perform a critical review of Brazilian labour force professional training, analyse the current training system's stage and take into consideration a prospective view. Brazil's current educational standard prevents labour training programmes from reaching satisfactory improvement over time; that being so, the actual qualitative results of such programmes contradict the country's published data on professional training. Also, qualified labour remains scarce and restrictions to an adequate functioning of education as means of fostering occupational insertion of labour force are key questions. Improvements in education quality and redesigning of training policies condition economic growth goals; adversely, there is no evidence of effective actions aimed at such objectives, which instead makes the country bound to face - on a medium term basis - restrictions to productivity and competitiveness gains. Should such a panorama prevail, improvement in economic growth rate will remain limited by scarcity of qualified labour.
Professional qualification; Policies evaluation; Competitiveness; Education; Senai (National System of Industrial Training)
