This article reflects on the National Worker Training Plan (PLANFOR), implemented during the Administration of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. PLANFOR was planned to be a tool to reverse socially consolidated imbalances while also attempting to adapt the country to new challenges introduced by capitalist restructuring. The decentralized and participatory management would be a basic tool in this process, given that it should involve the three levels of government and those interested in the process. The analysis focuses on the management of this policy and is based on the results of an evaluative study undertaken from 1996 - 2002, by researchers in the Group for the Evaluation and Study of Poverty and Policies Aimed at Poverty (GAEPP) of the Federal University at Maranhão. Based on this analysis, it sought to demonstrate that the formulators of PLANFOR did not propose any paradigmatic change, in order to construct democratic management with effective social participation.
labor; education; democracy; decentralization; participation