INTRODUCTION

The Brazilian educational system is divided into levels, stages, phases, courses, and teaching modalities. According to the Law of Directives and Bases of National Education (LDB- Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional), nº 9.394/96, Art. 39, Vocational Education is considered a teaching modality, integrated with different forms of education, work, science, and technology, leading to the permanent development of personal and professional skills and productive life in the labor market.

In this way, Vocational and Technological Education (VTE) is characterized by the process of teaching differentiated technical knowledge for professional training and performance. Consequently, it can significantly contribute to the cultural, social, and economic development of the country. This type of education has social adherence and the possibility of meeting the desires and expectations of those interested in obtaining full training focused on citizenship. It has also the prospect of technically qualifying the workforce for the job market, providing alternatives that increase the potential for entrepreneurship, promoting the economic dynamism of companies and different economic sectors.

Professional training must be epistemologically imbued with reflections, actions, and preparation for citizenship and work. Thus, it must also develop the ability to do or transform thinking and knowledge into practice or professional activities that are carried out daily in the course of life of people who opt for Vocational and Technological Education. Or, also, make the labor act productive and developed for innovative and transformative actions in the world of work.

The teaching modality of Vocational and Technological Education is distinguished from other teaching modalities due to the attributes of investments in stimuli in the development of competences and skills in training for work. The techniques and methods studied during the training course of Vocational Education qualify the student as a future professional to intervene in society, production, and/or work.

In this way, this article intends to analyze the data related to access to Vocational and Technological Education in the municipalities of the Association of Municipalities of the Planalto Norte Catarinense (Amplanorte) and, more specifically, in the municipality of Canoinhas-SC, linking them with the Development Goals Sustainable Development (ODS) proposed by the United Nations (UN) and, propose alternatives to encourage young people to access this type of education.

VOCATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION (VTE)

In general, Vocational Education, also called Vocational and Technological Education (VTE) has a strategic role and importance, especially in Brazil, which still presents worrying educational and social statistical data, and the disparity in income distribution (^{IFSC, 2020}).

The central idea of VTE is training for work, allowing human beings to produce their existence, not only focusing on economic, but social and cultural aspects (^{IFSC, 2020}). Within this perspective, according to ^{Barato (2004}), the technique configures another type of knowledge, the know-how, that is, the knowledge that focuses more on processes than on explanations and that is systematized by technology.

In Brazil, considering the educational situation, there is a lack of contextualization and the link between education and the reality where students live, so, in many cases, they end up influencing school dropout rates. Also, most formal knowledge learned at school has little meaning in personal and productive life, as well as in social relationships and ethical values (^{IFSC, 2020}).

In the article by ^{Barbosa and Moura (2013}) the type of VTE we want is questioned and the authors note the importance of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Brazilian education. The idea is to favor the intensive use of intelligence resources, solving problems, and conducting projects in different segments. The authors also note that VTE “must be increasingly distant from traditional learning, based on the power of the verb, theoretical and dependent on the intensive use of memory” (^{BARBOSA; MOURA, 2013}, p. 52).

When comparing basic education and work, ^{Saviani (2006}, p.14) cites the following:

[...] if in elementary school the relationship is implicit and indirect, in high school the relationship between education and work, between knowledge and practical activity should be dealt with explicitly and directly. Knowledge has relative autonomy in the work process from which it originates. The fundamental role of the secondary school will then be to recover this relationship between knowledge and the practice of work.

When analyzing the history of policies related to VTE in Brazil, ^{Frigotto (2007}) observes that one of the challenges is the universalization of secondary education with theoretical, technical, and political quality. The author also notes that the cost of this is eight to ten times higher than the annually proposed by the Basic Education Maintenance and Development Fund (Fundeb- Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica).

^{Moura (2008}) corroborates the idea of the need for a quality VTE since the world of work presents a demand for autonomous individuals, who act in an environment of knowledge generation through a perspective of social transformation, oriented mainly to meeting the interests and needs of the working classes.

In addition to the acquisition of didactic techniques for the transmission of content by teachers, the formation and qualification of the VTE should privilege training with the perspective of prioritizing the human being, more than just market relations and strengthening the economy (^{MOURA, 2008}).

^{Barbosa and Moura (2013}) share the same perspective that, even if the educational system can train individuals technically prepared for work, human training is essential. For the authors, these aspects are essential in the contemporary world of work, such as ethical conduct, capacity for initiative, creativity, flexibility, self-control, and communication. Another central aspect observed is the need to train teachers in new teaching methods, with active methodologies that can make relevant contributions to VTE.

Regarding the work perspective at VTE, ^{Carvalho and Cavalcanti (2020}, p.3) observe that:

The environment of Vocational and Technological Education, VTE, is part of this perspective of work as an educational principle and the formation of the subject critically and reflectively, reaffirming throughout the composition of societies, in most democratic discourses, the performance of subjects effectively belonging to their environment.

^{Rego, Rosas, and Prados (2021}) guide that the VTE is an alternative for access to the labor market, whether for those workers who are already employed and who need qualifications or for those in the process of reintegration into the aforementioned labor market. The authors also note that the process of hiring new employees requires more and more qualifications, so professionalization is fundamental for the exercise of the profession and economic freedom.

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES

The research was carried out by collecting data from the municipalities of the Association of Municipalities of the Planalto Norte Catarinense (Amplanorte), including numbers and educational subsidies. The consultations were carried out from the database of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE- Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP- Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira), which contains data from the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB- Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica), and from the Canoinhas Municipal Department of Education (SME/Canoinhas-SC- Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Canoinhas).

The methodology used in the research is based on the mixed method, which, according to ^{Sampieri, Collado, and Lucio (2006}), represents a high degree of integration or combination between qualitative and quantitative approaches. Both methods are combined during the process of research, adding complexity to the study project and contemplating the advantages of each one of the approaches. Therefore, quantitative data were collected from the aforementioned databases, and the qualitative analysis was performed by the authors based on an analysis considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015).

In particular, SDG 4 - Quality Education - was analyzed, which defines strategies to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all in Brazil. The focus of this study is especially on strategy 4.3 and 4.4, which stipulates a deadline of 2030, to ensure equal access to free or affordable quality technical, professional, and higher education, promoting skills necessary to seek decent employment with the awakening of student entrepreneurship (^{IPEA, 2018}).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EDUCATION IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CANOINHAS, SC

The municipality of Canoinhas is located in the Southern Region of Brazil, in the North of the State of Santa Catarina, and is part of the Planalto Norte Catarinense mesoregion (Figure 1). Its area is 1,145.83 km². In the territorial division of the municipality, the rural area covers the largest extension with 1,115 km², represented by 97.37%, while the urban area has only 30 km², and represents 2.63% of the municipality in the territorial division, (^{IBGE, 2010} ).

According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) (²⁰¹⁰), the municipality of Canoinhas has a total of 52,775 inhabitants. Of these, 39,283 (74.44%) are concentrated in urban areas and 13,492 (25.56%) in rural areas. According to the IBGE population estimate (2020), Canoinhas has 54,480 inhabitants, considering population growth of 3.2% over 10 years.

Figure 1 Geographical location of the municipalities that constitute the area called Planalto Norte Catarinense 

The Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM- Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano Municipal) of the municipality of Canoinhas-SC is 0.757 (^{IBGE, 2010}). The dimension that most contributes to the MHDI is Longevity, with an index of 0.874, followed by Income, with an index of 0.717, and Education, with an index of 0.692.

According to data from IBGE Cidades (2018), the average monthly salary of formal workers in the municipality is 2.2 minimum wages. In the State of Santa Catarina, it is in 118th place, and among the municipalities in the immediate geographic region, it is in 5th place.

In recent years, the extractivism of the remaining yerba mate and extensive livestock farming show signs of weakening with the development of new diversified economic activities, such as agriculture (dairy cattle, swine, and others), and agricultural production of corn, beans, soy, tobacco, forestry, horticulture, and fruit growing.

According to the Planalto Norte Catarinense Regional Development Plan (2016), the composition of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the municipality's income comes mainly from four sources: 54.9% from services, 26.3% from industry, 9.2% from taxes and 9.6% from agricultural production (AMPLANORTE, 2016).

Relevant data from the State Department of Finance (SEF/SC- Secretaria Estadual da Fazenda) (2017) is highlighted, that family farming in Santa Catarina contributes 50.7% of annual economic revenue. There are 183,000 rural properties and 502,000 people in Santa Catarina. The State occupies 9th place with the highest revenue in the country in the agricultural sector (^{SANTA CATARINA, 2018}).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following data present the Basic Education Development Index (IDEB- Secretaria Estadual da Fazenda), described by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (INEP, 2020), which makes annual analyzes of the situation of Brazilian education.

Table 1, below, shows that in all the municipalities where the data for the final years are included, the projected goals were not achieved. Regarding High School, the data are promising, since, of the eight municipalities in which the data are fully or partially, four had rates equal to or greater than the goals projected for 2019, still reaching the target projected for 2021.

From the data presented, we understood that there is a relationship with Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan with the eradication of poverty as one of its central objectives, based on a sustainable perspective. The proposal is the elaboration of transformative and necessary measures, acting from the perspective of sustainability and resilience (ONU, 2015).

This new Agenda defines 17 (seventeen) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also called Global Goals, with 169 (one hundred and sixty-nine) goals. The perspectives are elaborated in an integrated and indivisible way, considering the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental (ONU, 2015).

The history of the creation of the SDGs is based on the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (ONU, 2000), which were created to reduce extreme poverty, reached in 2015. For the SDGs, emerging themes were included, among them: climate change, economic inequalities, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace, justice, among others. The interconnection of objectives is also highlighted since the success of one is associated with the possibility of achieving other objectives (ONU, 2015b).

Also according to the UN (2015b), the SDGs propose guidelines and goals for countries to adopt, according to their priorities and the planet's environmental challenges, aiming at prosperity, sustainability, and eradication of poverty for the population. The official document, released in 2015, and which came into force in January 2016, sets out objectives and goals that aim to stimulate actions for the next 15 (fifteen) years, of importance to human society and the planet. The orientation is that each country, together with its States, join efforts to implement the Agenda, taking into account regional peculiarities, vulnerabilities, and needs and the different realities, capacities, and levels of national development and respecting national policies and priorities (ONU, 2015b).

Education, and specifically Goal 4 of the SDGs, must be offered free of charge, equitable, inclusive, and for all. Educational quality must be guaranteed at all levels of education - Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Technical Education, Vocational Education, and Higher Education. Individuals must have access and equal opportunities for learning throughout life, aiming to develop knowledge and skills, enabling full participation in society (ONU, 2015).

Among the seven strategies related to Goal 4, some of them present concrete actions for the development of education, including focusing on access to Technical Education, the object of the aforementioned study. Item 4.3 emphasizes that, by 2030, it is intended to guarantee equal access for all women and men to access and quality Technical, Vocational, and Higher Education, including the university. Also, Strategy 4.4 stipulates a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults with relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment and entrepreneurship (ONU, 2015).

Following the guidelines of the 2030 Global Agenda for Sustainable Development, the State and Santa Catarina have an educational history of planning for Development, aiming to provide better economic and social conditions to individuals.

Currently, the Santa Catarina State Educational Development Plan 2018-2030 (PLANO SC 2030) is a new medium and long-term planning guideline for the development of State education. Objectives, indicators, goals, and strategic actions aimed at reducing inequalities and promoting social equity, seeking sustainable regional development, boosting innovative development, and the entrepreneurial capacity of Santa Catarina society were outlined (^{SANTA CATARINA, 2018}).

To carry out the Plano SC 2030, four study dimensions were chosen: economic, social, infrastructure and environment, and public management. The proposal is composed of the areas of action and influence of the State Government. The areas unfold according to the specifics of action: 1) Economic Development: Industry, Services, Science and Technology; Agriculture and Fisheries; Culture, Sport and Tourism; 2) Social Development: Education; Health; Public security; Social Assistance, Work and Housing; 3) Infrastructure and Environment: Infrastructure; Environment; Urban Mobility and 4) Public Management (^{SANTA CATARINA, 2018}).

In the approach taken by ^{Gallo and Setti (2014}, p. 4393), when analyzing the SDG Agenda, they observe that the effectiveness of possible actions to be proposed “[...] will depend on their impact on the territory, on their expression in territorialized agendas, whose governance and strategic management, in particular the evaluation of effectiveness, are the most relevant challenges [...]. From the aforementioned analysis of the authors, the importance of a state diagnosis is perceived, so that the proposals linked to Education, for example, have connections and relations with the SDGs and are worked together, encompassing more objectives in the proposals.

For ^{Gomes, Barbosa, and Oliveira (2020}), when analyzing the 2030 Agenda and its adoption in Brazil, especially when related to overcoming economic inequalities, we observed the following actions to be developed by the State: investments in public works, access for the population financing, encouraging entrepreneurship, reducing taxes on national products, intensifying public policies for the distribution of wealth, improving public services provided to society, guaranteeing the same opportunities for the entire population, among other actions.

The authors also emphasize that the fight against inequalities is already a subject included in Brazilian public policies and that it is not restricted to economic issues, but extends to all possible ramifications, aiming at promoting the development of the population and improving the quality of life (^{GOMES; BARBOSA; OLIVEIRA, 2020}). Access to education is one of the possible objectives that may be related to improving the quality of life, which will allow the appropriation of knowledge that may allow better living conditions for individuals.

^{Furtado (2018}) observes that the transversality of policies focused on specific audiences is one of the points that must be considered to achieve the results of the actions, and strategies must be elaborated from broad debates, involving the government, academia, and civil society, with their different visions for the solution of the same problem.

In the Brazilian context, several authors involved in the construction and definition of public policies discuss three points that can be highlighted for their elaboration: that they are focused, but in combination with the promotion of equality and developed through universal access policies. However, other authors argue that they should be developed based on actions focused on the most vulnerable groups, correcting social injustices, and promoting greater equality. The 2030 Agenda proposes the continuity of development projects, programs, and actions in all sectors. That is, it allows for guidance and induction of national development, as it permeates different governments during the 15 (fifteen) years of a possible implementation, without discontinuity and without privileging specific actions of certain governments (^{FURTADO, 2018}).

Table 2, below, shows the number of enrollments in Regular Vocational Education in the city of Canoinhas-SC. There was an increase of 32.05% in access to Concurrent Technical Education (High School), and 39.8% in Technical Education (Normal/Teaching) when comparing 2019 and 2020. Integrated Technical Education (Integrated High School) and Subsequent Technical Education (High School) fell by 14.05% and 2.55%, respectively.

The municipality of Canoinhas-SC has a historical trajectory of offering Vocational in public, but also private, institutions. There are 06 (six) Teaching Institutions that offer Vocational Education Integrated into High School, concomitantly, subsequently and in the formation of Teaching - Normal High School.

The Brazilian Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB, 1996- Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Brasileira) number 9,394/96 recognizes three forms of relationship between Vocational and Technological Education and High School. In the subsequent modality, professional training is aimed at students who have already completed high school. The concomitant form means that the student will do the Technical Course and High School at the same time but in different institutions. The difficulty and challenge of this option are to ensure curricular integration between contents developed by different schools. In the form of Vocational Education Integrated to High School, the student takes both courses at the same institution (^{BRASIL, 1996}).

According to the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC- Base Nacional Comum Curricular) of High School/2018, the High School curriculum will be composed of the National Common Curricular Base and training itineraries, which should be organized through the offer of different curricular arrangements, according to the relevance for the local context and the possibility of teaching systems: I - Languages and their Technologies; II - Mathematics and its Technologies; III - Natural Sciences and their Technologies; IV - Applied Human and Social Sciences; V - Technical and Professional Training (BRAZIL, 2018)

The Technical Course for Normal High School/Teaching, aimed at training teachers to work at the levels of early childhood education and the initial years of Elementary School, is supported by LDB/1996 - article 62. Although article 87, § 4 of the same Law, provides that, at the end of the decade of Education, in 2006, to work at these levels of education, students must be graduated with a degree course, higher education. Based on the minimum training (and not the desirable training) for teaching in Early Childhood Education and the early years of Elementary School, the Teaching/Normal course is still offered subsequent to High School. The objective is to prepare for insertion in the degree in Pedagogy and other undergraduate courses with training for teaching (^{BRASIL, 1996}).

Vocational Education in the municipality of Canoinhas-SC is aligned with the culture and history of the municipality focused on agricultural development, the predominant economic system in the region, social practices, human formation, and community development. Chart 1, below, shows that Vocational Education is divided into the following institutions.

Source: created by the authors (2021).

Chart 1 - Educação Profissional e breve descrição das instituições do município de Canoinhas-SC 

The National Education Plan (PNE- Plano Nacional de Educação), Law 13,005 of 2014, has goals and strategies to be met over 10 (ten) years (2014-2024). Goal 11 of Vocational and Technological Education (VTE) at the secondary level proposes that enrollments at this level of education be tripled, ensuring the quality of the offer and at least 50% (fifty percent) of expansion in the public segment. However, we observed from the PNE monitoring panel, data from the Basic Education Census/Inep (2013-2019) that in 2013, 1,602,946 enrollments in high school VTE were registered in Brazil, and in 2019 - 1,874. 974 enrollments. The goal is to reach 4,808,838 enrollments by 2024; however, according to the results of enrollments carried out FROM 2013 to 2019, in the first 06 years of monitoring the PNE, there was only a 17% increase in enrollments of this teaching modality (^{BRASIL, 2014}).

Graph 1 Enrollments in Vocational and Technological Education (EPT) between 2013 and 2019 and target for 2024 

The Municipal Education Plan of the municipality of Canoinhas, Law nº 5.591, of June 23, 2015, which also monitors its 20 goals and strategies, found that in 2019, Canoinhas showed an increase in the absolute numbers of enrollments in VTE secondary level, with a sample of 2016 of (1,695 enrollments); 2017 (1,217 enrollments); 2018 (1,581 enrollments); 2019 (1,617 enrollments) and 2020 (1,621 enrollments). These numbers include enrollments in the three education networks: federal, state, and private, integrating enrollments in Vocational and Technological Education (VTE), Technical Course (High School) Integrated to Youth and Adult Education (EJA- Educação de Jovens e Adultos), and Initial and Continuous Training (FIC- Formação Inicial e Continuada), concomitant (^{PREFEITURA MUNICIPAL DE CANOINHAS, 2015}).

We observed in the data mentioned above, corresponding from 2016 to 2020, monitored by the Municipal Department of Education of Canoinhas-SC, is that there is no non-compliance with Goal 11 of Vocational Education for High School, which proposes the expansion of enrollment in Vocational and Technological Education at the secondary level, ensuring the quality of the offer under the terms of the National Education Plan

For ^{Barato (2002}), in addition to expanding enrollments, the Education Plans aim at the population's access to VTE for the process of learning a profession. However, this process should not be focused only on the accumulation of content, but also on the introduction of the student to the culture of communities and practices.

Within this same perspective, ^{Moraes (2016}) assesses that the techniques learned during the VTE should be linked to the world of work, integrated into regional and local culture, and with projects that enable the transformation of local reality and socioeconomic development.

From this perspective, we understood that there is a need to strengthen and expand the formation of Vocational and Technological Education. Therefore, reassessing the didactic-pedagogical processes is considered a strategic action. ^{Allain, Wollinger, and Moraes (2016}) also reaffirm the need to overcome the propagation of scientific knowledge that is markedly theoretical, explanatory, verbal, or discursive. It is necessary to link it to the daily practices of students. In this sense, teachers can be strategic agents in the perspective of readjusting their teaching practices in the teaching-learning process.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The countries prospered politically, economically, and mainly culturally, it is because, possibly, they invested procedurally and with intensity and quality in human training through formal education (Schools, Universities, and Research Centers). This results in individuals with differentiated and intellectually qualified levels, whether with scientific-theoretical or practical knowledge. The cultural, as well as economic, and social levels of the so-called developed countries can also be explained by the massive investments in basic and strategic sectors of society's development, including education.

In Brazil, over the years, policies to encourage education have lost priority. Currently, we have an education of low theoretical and practical quality, also due to low government investments in Education. At the same time, there are also low investments by the private sector in the sense of improving, qualifying, and contributing technically and culturally to the lives of its workers.

Due to this brief study of government plans, such as the Agenda of the 17 SDGs and Education Plans, which have goals and strategies to achieve better rates of access to Vocational Education in our country, there are still actions to improve public policies and new implementations.

Several Brazilian regions need qualified labor with capable professionals who develop specific and quality skills to undertake new economic alternatives. The VTE is one of the possibilities to reach professionalization. However, there is a need for more incentives, with access, permanence, and completion of students in the Professional Education modality to achieve the stipulated goals. However, even so, regionally, it is possible - with some effort - to use the spaces and conditions offered in Schools, Universities, or Technical and Higher Education Centers. If compared to other regions of Brazil, the territory of the Association of Municipalities of the Planalto Norte Catarinense (Amplanorte) presents satisfactory conditions from the point of view of Formal or institutionalized Education - from Basic Education (Schools) to higher education (Universities) and the Graduate level.

Studying is not just preparing or qualifying to meet the interests of the market that demands technical training and the applicability of specific knowledge at work. It implies appropriating the knowledge historically produced by human society in the perspective of collectively building new and better relationships and civilizing conditions of human society with each other, and with natural resources. Thus, to study is to free oneself intellectually from concepts, prejudices, and paradigms, as well as possibilities to overcome traditional practices. It is also to qualify culturally, whether from a social, political, economic, or environmental point of view. It implies training in its entirety, mainly for human emancipation or autonomy, as well as for thinking and acting. In this perspective, the individual who studies formally and goes through the processes of institutionalized formation - Schools and Universities, tends to differentiate qualitatively in all aspects of social, political, professional, and economic life.

This work evaluated the scenario of Vocational Education in the city of Canoinhas-SC. In the current national and regional economic context, Vocational and Technological Education is presented as one of the possibilities for social insertion, training for the workspace, obtaining income, and survival. Despite advances in this area, some aspects can be improved. One of them refers to the increase in the offer of Vocational-Technical courses, as recommended by the PNE (2014) and the PME de Canoinhas (2018), documents analyzed in this research. Also, there is a need to carry out educational actions in partnership with local and regional companies, such as for internships, enabling the creation of new ones and the improvement of the current technical courses offered. In this way, it is intended to meet the expectations of the population and local social, economic, and cultural needs, as a possibility of generating employment for the population.

The study evaluated that there are still many challenges and needs to achieve the minimum training in the area of qualification for work. However, there are also possibilities for both public and private investments, in this sector considered strategic for economic growth and regional development. For this, it seeks to improve people's living conditions, with quality education, job opportunities, income, and social well-being.

Preprint

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.2606