The suffering of Tantulus: policies of vocational training for workers “thirsting” for work

Abstract

This text presents research we carried out between 2001 and 2006 on the topic of employability, through analysis of the objectives and the target population of the National Plan for Training (Plano Nacional de Qualificação (PNQ)) which organizes basic and non-formal vocational training in the form of programs financed by the FAT. Our data was taken from national documents, from the Rio Claro PMQ, from interviews with those responsible at the local level and work plans and reports from partner institutions. Our basic problem involved researching whether basic level vocational training, as prescribed through the LDB, is an educational form used as an instrument to confront the social issue of structural unemployment and restriction of rights. Our hypotheses were: 1) the courses offered can be seen as social welfare policies, directed toward able but redundant workers; 2) this type of public policy has been constituted as a response to the crisis of capitalist society insofar as it must face up to the deepening of social problems. The PNQ was planned based on notions of competence and employability. The proposal was for worker acquisition of skills that would make him/her “employable”, polivalent and competitive. Our conclusion is that workers have been subjected to the need for permanent preparation for a job that takes forever to appear. Thus, the analogy to Tantalus, whose burden was to endure an unquenchable thirst at the edge of a well. In the current conjuncture of capitalist crisis which has caused considerable reduction in job supply, the reflections presented here contribute to a necessary struggle against mystifications that claim a linear relationship between training and getting a job. Keywords: employability, labor and education, education and poverty, social issues, vocational training.