1997 European Union documentation gave the population of Portugal as 9,862,700.

The gross domestic product per capita is 8,272 and the workforce is broken up thus: 18% agriculture, 34% industry and 48% services.

Population	9,862,700
GDP per head	12,336 Ecu

The system of continuing vocational training in Portugal comprises several procedures and types of organisation according to the sector of the economy, region etc.

While offering continuing vocational training activities as part of secondary school and university education, the education system is not representative of the volume of continuing vocational training carried out in recent years.

The system of continuing vocational training is mainly composed of procedures initiated by:

• companies (large and small companies);
• training centres set up following protocols between the State and sectoral associations;
• university /enterprise associations;
• sectoral associations;
• private training bodies.

While initial vocational training aims at the acquisition of a certified vocational qualification and preparation for adult and vocational life, continuing vocational training forms part of the vocational life of the individual and follows his development.

It aims to facilitate adaptation to technological, organisational and other changes; encourage vocational advancement: improve the quality of employment and contribute to cultural, economic and social development.

Government distance training provision

CET/Portugal Telecom

Proprietary distance training provision

Distance teaching university

University level distance education

Objective

Methodology

D

During the self-learning period the participants have the accompaniment and help of trainers-assistants. The first session there is an introduction tot he course, the materials developed and the tutorial system that has been set out. This initiative has a minimum of 4 intermediate sessions, corresponding to the training components (socio-cultural, scientific, technological and practical and the organisational aspect).

The available telemetric network allows the participants and trainers-assistants to do the following:

• Consult the Technical File cards for the modules;
• Put questions and give answers by electronic mail;
• Develop Training Assessment

Consulting technical file-cards on the internet

• The Technical File cards are available as information pages on the Internet;
• To consult these pages, the participants must access the ISQ server in the following way:
• Enter Microsoft Windows;
• In Windows, activate Netscape or equivalent software (Internet navigation software);
• The Technical File cards have the address: http://www.isq.Private Training;
• Select, on the home page, the Technical Training for Trainers Option;
• Choose one of the modules, clicking once one the appropriate name; A box is then presented in which the participant must insert his Username and Password and then click the OK button. This information is made available in the introductory Session;
• If the Password and Username are correct, the participant will have access to the technical file cards chosen (only to those modules for which he has registered).

Questions through the electronic mail (e-mail)

• During the course the participants can put questions to the trainers-assistants by means of electronic mail.
• The trainers w-assistants will, subsequently, sent their replies using the same process.
• The participants may, at any moment, self-assess the development of their learning throughout the Internet. For this purposes, all the questions that have been put by the various participants, and the respective replies given by the trainers-assistants, can be consulted as pages on the Internet.
• The electronic mail address of the trainers-assistants, can be consulted as pages on the Internet.
• The electronic mail address of the trainers-assistants appears in the technical file cards.

Intermediate, traing and distance assessments

Centro de Estudos de Telecomicoês (CET) of the Portugal Telecom Group has an important distance training operation which was originally for in-company training and now enrols students from the public as well. It offers these programmes at a distance:

• Introduction to Data Communications
• Telecommunications Network management
• Law
• Multimedia Systems

Proprietary distance education provision

Its courses quickly won acceptance and were also adopted by a number of companies for their own internal training. Up to 25.4.1974 most of the students were in the 30 to 40 age group and studied professional formation courses in engineering. After 1974 the age group fell to the 15 to 20 age group for basic qualifications. The younger age group had much greater difficult studying on their own.

CIT then changed its focus to using its expertise as a designer of course materials for companies, especially in electronics. Student support services are based on avoiding student drop out and fax and email have replaced the post as the major medium for student support.

CIT has evolved since the early 1960s to become a major publisher of technical magazines which is seen as a natural evolution from its early competence in teaching technical subjects at a distance. It has 16 titles today and this is the central focus of the business, with distance training now a small department with 800 enrolments a year.

CEC (Centro de Ensino por Correspondencia) at Queluz is another proprietary distance training provider but the market is more and more dominated by large Spanish distance training colleges. CEAC from Madrid/Barcelona and CCC from San Sebastian are now major players in the Portuguese distance training industry markets.

Fundectec and INETI are developers of multimedia training software but it is not considered that they would come within the definition of distance training used in the Voctade study.

Distance teaching is understood as the association of means, methods and procedures used to teach a non-present adult population in a self learning system, without time or space restrictions, using multi-medeia didactic materials (written texts, audio, video and computer programs) and the recurrent interaction between the students and the system responsible for the administration of the teaching.

The functions of the Universidade Aberta are, among others:

• To teach university courses in certain subject areas aiming at populations to whom the use of distance teaching is though appropriate, by reasons of number, geographic situation or difficulty of access to traditional universities;
• To collaborate with other institutions of their education, particularly in the scope of in service teacher training;
• To collaborate with other institutions, national or international, in the project and conception of didactic materials, in the production of courses or packages for distance teaching and in activities of professional training;
• To encourage the development of scientific research and services to the community, namely the areas of pedagogy and teaching technology, distance education and training, and also of mullet-media educational training;
• To encourage the development of scientific research and series to the community, namely in the areas of pedagogy and teaching technology, distance education and training, and also of multi-media educational communication;
• To produce and deliver multi-media documents concerning subjects of wide cultural interest aiming in particular at the preservation and spreading of the Portuguese language and culture, in Portugal and abroad, especially in countries where Portuguese is the official language, as well as in those with an established community of Portuguese ascendancy.

Enrolments have shown a rapid increase during the period of the Voctade study:

	Licence	Masters and Doctorate	Other	Total
1995	2356	122	2534	5012
1996	2988	143	2028	5159
1997	8641	138	1891	10670

and it is clear that 1998 figures will be well over the 10,000 mark. The reason for this increase is a new government programme for technological updating of the teaching profession which has been confided to the Open University and which enrols about 5,000 teachers per year.

Dislogo

This specialised open, distance training programme for executives was launched by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in 1994 and endeavours to contribute to the actualisation and deepening of the knowledge of commerce for business people, directors and medium and higher-level managers, in particular from small and medium sized businesses throughout the country.

It is a high quality and advanced programme which does not require the daily trudge to university, being, as it is, compatible with work and professional activity. The programme is developed between the faculties of Science, Economics and Business, Human sciences and Law of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

The Dislogo programme benefits very significantly from internationalisation as there are many types of co-operation and exchange between:

• University of Maryland
• National University (California)
• Open University (UK)
• Southern Denmark Business School
• Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
• London School of Economics and Political Science

The learning materials which are sent to the participant at his place of residence or work are didactic materials of excellent quality ,and a tele-matic system exists which permits continuous communication between the participants of the course and the university instructors.

On Saturdays, fortnightly, there are tutorials at the campus of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa for introductions of modules, expositions of themes, conducting seminars and viewing videos. Some sessions use the videoconference room to facilitate experts from foreign universities.

Recognition and teaching

The staff of this course includes 15 professors and 20 specialists from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and other professors from abroad in the aforementioned institutions.

The didactic package consists of high quality books, an Internet mailbag, the RIF network which gives a 24 hours per day email dialogue between student and teacher from students' home via the Portuguese telephone network, computer charts which are evaluated, speakers corner, videoconferencing, using picture-Tel machine seminars once every 3 months, plus face-to-face compulsory fortnightly 8 hour intensive workshops, for which students receive special rates at hotel and a travel subsidiary. The administrators say that students 'have to see the eyes of the teacher' and that students like to come to Lisbon from all over Portugal 'to buy clothes for their spouses' and do not see the compulsory workshops as a burden.

The programme is entirely self supporting and costs Escudos 58,000 per month for 10 months or just over 2000 Ecu/Euro per year.

1994

1995

1996

1997