Analysis of context

Legal framework in Portugal

Portuguese Courses for Speakers of Other Languages – Courses PFOL

Legal Framework:

Ministerial order No. 1262/October 15, 2009

Are intended for non-native adults and the linguistic-communicative profile of output can correspond to the level A2 or B2.

The curriculum organization of Portuguese Courses for Speakers of Other Languages is, for each unit of training, according to the respective training benchmarks listed in the “Catálogo Nacional de Qualificações” (National Catalogue of Qualifications).

3. Completion of Secondary Level of Education

Legal Framework:

Decree-Law No. 357/2007, of October 29, rectified by the rectification Declaration No. 117/2007, of December 28

Are intended for candidates who have attended, without completing, study extinct plans prior to DL 74/2004 (up to six subjects per year).

The curriculum organization of each training unit is in accordance with the respective training benchmarks listed in the “Catálogo Nacional de Qualificações” (National Catalogue of Qualifications).

1. Certified Modular Training – FMC

Legal Framework:

Ordinance No. 230/2008, of March 7, as amended by Ordinance No. 283/October 24, 2011

Are intended for candidates who wish to acquire more school and professional skills, with the view to (re) insert or progress in the labour market.

The curriculum organization of modular training is, for each unit of training, according to the respective training benchmarks listed in the “Catálogo Nacional de Qualificações” (National Catalogue of Qualifications).

5. Process of recognition, validation and certification of competences (secondary level) – RVCC Process NS Schooling

Legal Framework:

Ordinance No. 232/2016, of August 29

The process of recognition and validation of skills aims to certify skills acquired through work experience and adult life, assigning a certificate whenever the validated skills correspond to benchmarks for school certification and the certification of vocational training, adopted in Portugal (ANEFA 2002).

The National System of Recognition, Validation and Certification of Competences is based on benchmarks of key competence, which act as a guiding framework for the whole process, and are based on an organization in various areas that integrate key skills related to technical, scientific and cultural fields (ANQ 2007b).

There are three areas of key competences, in “Referencial de Competências Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário: Cidadania e Profissionalidade - CP (Framework of Key Competencies for the Education and Training of Adults-Secondary Level: Citizenship and Professional Component); Society, Technology and Science (STC); and Culture, Language, Communication (CLC).

The key competences are generated and shown from comprehensive themes, in which eight are specific to the Area Citizenship and Professional Component and seven common to Society, Technology and Science and Culture, Language, Communication, in a total of 22 Units.

As the operationalization of the various key competences takes place in the context of private, professional, institutional contexts, and macrotexture for each, there are 88 key competences that underpin the entire benchmark.

The RVCC process NS Schooling develops along a set of individual sessions and in small groups, during which the students, supported by a techno-pedagogical team, identify, evaluate and reflect on their experiences of life and their relevance for the learning they provided. They collect evidence to prove these learnings and organize a portfolio that is confronted with the benchmark of key skills, through the application of the instruments related with the process, a privileged evaluation instrument of the trainee.

Skills profile: Citizenship and Professional Component

It is intended that the adult who obtains secondary-level certification in this area can demonstrate ability to act in different life contexts, in an informed and critical way, evidencing a consciousness and an heritage of fundamental rights and duties, in conjunction with the primacy of common good, assuming at the same time a framework of lifelong learning, open to the complexity and initiative as life references.

(in Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 47))

Key Competences

To Recognise the fundamental rights and duties in different contexts: personal, national, labour and global;
To understood oneself within a framework of training/learning of continuous and permanent overcoming personal and professional competencies acquired, recognizing the complexity and change as features of life;
To be aware of themselves and the world, assuming detachment and ability to question prejudices and stereotypes in different scales;
To adopt principles of loyalty and belonging, in open dialogue with the difference;
To identify complex moral dilemmas in the different contexts of experience, and be able to make choices with insight and courage, with respect for the common heritage rule;
To understand pluralism and tolerance as crucial challenges to a healthy community insertion;
To intervene actively in institutions and deliberative mechanisms, calibrating argumentation with the accommodation of divergent views;
To have programming capability of personal and professional goals, mobilizing resources and knowledge, in contexts of uncertainty.

In Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 47)

Skills profile: Society, Technology and Science

It is intended that an adult who has obtained secondary-level certification, demonstrates capacity to act in this area in its different life contexts, so informed and critical, incorporating in its practice validated knowledge about Society, Technology and Science.

(in Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 62))

Key Competences

To Recognize, in his current life, multiplicity and interconnection of social, technological and scientific elements;
To act systematically, based on reasonings that include scientific and technological validated knowledge;
To operate in everyday life with current technologies, mastering their technical principles as well as the impacts (positive or negative) in environmental and social settings;
To search for technical and scientific information, interpreting and applying it in problem solving or optimization of solutions;
To plan their own actions, in time and space, predicting and analyzing causal links between processes and/or phenomena, as well as using experimental methods logically oriented;
To devise their own practices simultaneously such as, product and producer of specific social phenomena, liable to a scientific approach;
To know how to explain some of the scientific and technological knowledge applied to current life, through basic level abstract languages;
To understand science as a natural process of production and validation of appropriate knowledge to the real world, but also as social practice in constant transformation, including broad areas of uncertainty.

In Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 62)

Skills profile: Culture, Language, Communication

It is intended that an adult who has obtained secondary-level certification, interacts on CLC Area in different communication domains, demonstrating various skills in order to act appropriately with critical spirit, responsibility and autonomy, distinct contexts designed and defined for this benchmark. …the certificate adult must demonstrate competencies that go through reading, comprehension and production of texts of different types and supports, with utilitarian purposes, recreational and aesthetic training, subject to degrees of varied complexity of procedures depending these degrees on greater or lesser familiarity the individual has with the know-how in CLC. Should also demonstrate skills for understanding culture as a field of production, enjoyment and social relationship; and yet, understand the different models of communication, in particular, the predominant role of the media content in contemporary society.

(in Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 78))

Key Competences

To interact in Portuguese language, with clarity and correctness, highlighting critical spirit, responsibility and autonomy.
To understand long texts in Portuguese language and/or foreign language, recognizing their implicit meanings, their typologies and related functionality.
To reflect on the functioning of the Portuguese language, enjoying it while aesthetic object and preferred means of expression of other cultures.
To understand the main ideas of texts in foreign language and express themselves orally and in writing with ease on different themes.
To show knowledge of various languages, on different media, in order to understand the different socio-cultural, sociolinguistic and scientific-technical to create awareness of its own identity and the other.
To understand the functioning mechanisms of content production in mass media, positioning themselves critically about them.
To highlight intercultural competencies that will provide greater openness and acceptance of new linguistic and cultural experiences.
To have a broad understanding of culture, recognizing in this concept, from designated areas and erudition to new languages and integrative forms of expressions of popular culture.
To put in perspective the dimension of Culture has pivoting sector with other spheres of intervention.
To recognize that individual access, from young ages, to awareness-raising activities of culture and arts is a significant condition for citizens active participation in Culture.
To recognize the impact of new communication technologies in emphasizing some characteristic features (flexibility, pluriactivity) on the organization of the cultural work.
To understand the emergence of new occupations and professions in the cultural sector as a result, among other factors, of the growing emphasis on the diffusion process in the existence of cultural and artistic goods.

in Guia de Operacionalização do Referencial de Competências-Chave para a Educação e Formação de Adultos - Nível Secundário (Gomes et al, 2006b: 78)