00:02Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:34The students at this school are learning skills which are very much in demand in today's job market.
00:40Yet we know that the workplace is changing rapidly with the arrival of AI, the digital and green transitions.
00:46So how is vocational education and training adapting to this new challenge?
00:57Here at the Seor School in Phamalikau, over 400 students are learning everything from how to weld metal to how
01:05to measure blood pressure.
01:07They believe their courses are perfectly adapted to societal trends.
01:11An ageing population needs pharmacists.
01:15A digitised low-carbon economy needs electricians and CMC programmers.
01:19And when it comes to AI, nobody here worries that a robot will take their job.
01:25I think that robots and AI will never be able to replace it.
01:30Even though they can find the problem, they will never be able to explain to clients how the problem came
01:37out and how they can solve the problem.
01:40AI serves as a tool.
01:43For example, I use it many times to acquire a more technical vocabulary.
01:48But at any time I think it will replace the pharmacist.
01:53Portugal's push for skills is nationwide.
01:56The government wants 55% of secondary school students to be enrolled in vocational education and training by 2030,
02:03and nearly 1.5 billion euros from the European Social Fund Plus will go to support that vocational training via
02:11Portugal's Pessoas 2030 economic program.
02:15The director of this school regularly meets employers to be sure that training courses match the skills they require now
02:22and in the future.
02:23And he also stresses that their students should learn to be good employees.
02:27And that requires a whole different set of skills.
02:30We have to look at the training, an integral training of an individual.
02:35And a young or an adult who has soft skills that the market today needs,
02:43to be creative, a cumpridor, competent, communicator, etc.
02:47All these skills are transversal to any professional activity.
02:53Despite the funding efforts, European society as a whole sends mixed messages about vocational training.
03:00According to a recent Eurobarometer survey,
03:03only half of Europeans would actually recommend vocational education and training to young people.
03:09While at the same time, 85% of Europeans agree that such training provides relevant skills for much-in-demand
03:16jobs.
03:18Many governments would like to encourage students to learn valuable, hands-on skills.
03:23So what kinds of policies are needed to better promote vocational training?
03:31Here at the University of Porto's School of Economics and Management,
03:35we met up with Professor Aurora Teixeira.
03:37She argues for higher salaries for new recruits and more investment in innovation within companies
03:43and says governments need to consider the wider economic context.
03:47The educational policy has to be an educational policy combined with an industrial policy and a company's policy.
03:57The professional training is a necessary condition to ensure that the country is more competitive,
04:02and the companies are more competitive.
04:04One of the leading employers in this region of Portugal is German camera and optics company Leica.
04:10They hired former SEOR student Antonio Cruz as a maintenance electrician at age 18.
04:16Now, four years later, he says school might be over,
04:19but the learning continues.
04:21What I would like to learn more would be about building electricity,
04:29but also focus on the issues of machines.
04:34We have also started with robotics,
04:36and this will make a lot of difference for us.
04:43As governments seek to promote vocational education and training more widely,
04:48the future is promising for these students,
04:50with three-quarters of trainees at this school finding work as soon as they finish their studies.
04:55BEGIN HUNTLY
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