The ongoing changes in the productive system, which are based on a range of tecnical and organisational innovations, have brought about deep changes in the world of abour, in particular in relation to new demands for qualification. The new production paradigm with a microelectronics basis now requires new knowledge and skills from the part of the workers, who have to be able to adapt to constant changes, deal with more abstract concepts, operate more sophisticated machines and monitor complex processes in the productive system. Thus, the worker's ability to place themselves in the labour market now depends on their qualifications. The paper seeks to discuss the extent to which education in a broad sense as well as professional education in a narrow sense can, in the context of a changing labour market, constitute a helping hand for people to find jobs in the Brazilian context. The paper's conclusion is that qualification alone cannot be accepted as a driving force in workers' efforts to find jobs without a critical assessment of the more structural, existing difficulties in the labour market. This idea would lead to several shortcomings: that the government would be justified in its policies towards the matter; that firms would be released of any social responsibility; that the individual would be attributed sole responsability for their insertion into the labour market.