Promoting Inclusion and Valuing VET Courses

Short summary

Ferreira Dias Secondary School has 40% of its secondary students enrolled in vocational courses that confer dual certification and, despite its tradition and experience in technical education dating back to the mid-twentieth century, faces several problems that require a solution. These problems are the high failure and dropout rates in some of the vocational courses it offers, in which about 12% of students have special educational needs, sometimes identified late, other students are ill-prepared from the previous level and Portuguese democratic society does not yet value technical education as a formation worthy of being followed. On the other hand, this school serves a migrant population whose difficulty in mastering the Portuguese language and culture puts them at risk of school failure. 

Thus, to tackle these problems, Ferreira Dias Secondary School has developed two intervention projects of its own: one for the promotion and facilitation of the integration of the migrant population and the other for the enhancement of vocational courses, which will be first implemented for a year, but foreseen to be deepen in the following years. 

Ferreira Dias Secondary School has also been involved as a partner in another pioneering project, Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities, which aims to explore all the possibilities of the current educational policy for inclusion, enshrined by Decree-Law 54/2018 of July 6, to improve the results of students of professional courses. Only at the end of this school year will the first data be obtained from the measures taken under these 3 projects, but their design, resources and lines of action are expected to yield very positive results.

Context of good practice

Ferreira Dias Ferreira Dias was an electrical engineer who played a relevant role in the design and implementation of the Estado Novo electrification policy. Thus, one can understand the tribute paid to him by giving the name of Eng. Ferreira Dias, in 1971, to the Industrial and Commercial School of Sintra. When the school building was built, Eng. Ferreira Dias was Minister of Economy and was one of the government officials responsible for the birth of that school.

Secondary School (FDSS) is located in the municipality of Sintra, in the Union of Parishes of Agualva and Mira-Sintra in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. Agualva and Mira-Sintra compose a Parish Union with about 5,980 hectares/ 5.98 km² area and approximately 41,104 inhabitants (2011 census). These places are a synthesis of a rural past and a present dominated both by economic and demographic development and by the requalification of the territory. The area consists of urban landscapes outlined by a modern rail network that translates into the main brand image of the entire city. The establishment of the railway connection between Lisbon and Sintra continues unquestionably to constrain all the periurban vocation that the parish has, as they allow the commuting of its inhabitants, who mostly work outside their area of residence. Agualva and Mira-Sintra is one of the largest population centres in the country, the result of the rapid urban development that has taken place in recent decades.

Created in 1959, as Sintra Industrial and Commercial School, FDSS opens its current building in 1960, within the technical education policy of Estado Novo, the dictatorial regime. Currently, FDSS has 1,900 students enrolled, about 500 of whom (40% of the students enrolled in secondary school) attending three-year vocational courses (10th, 11th and 12th grades) that provide dual certification: school and vocational. Among the students of vocational courses, 11-12% of them have special educational needs (SEN). About 300 students (out of 1,900) are foreigners, coming from 24 different countries, where Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau assume greater preponderance. The staff comprises about 190 teachers and 40 other professionals including a Psychologist. 

FDSS offers vocational courses in the areas of the showcase, tourism, catering, health, information technology (IT) and car mechatronics. Success rates of completion and employability vary by course between 82-50% (tourism),50% (showcase, health and IT),12% (car mechatronics). 

From the causes of success or failure inherent in school and families, there is another set of factors that can translate into causes of success or failure. In the particular case of the Car Mechatronics course, the success rate is strongly conditioned by factors outside the school. The existence of two training centres linked to car manufacturers, in the area covered by the FDSS, means that students who intend to attend these courses must initially enrol in a public school, namely at FDSS. As the start of these courses is not dependent on the school calendar defined by the Ministry of Education, they usually start their activities after, or even considerably after, the beginning of the school year. However, as students covered by compulsory education cannot wait without being enrolled in an educational establishment (of any type),they enrol in a public school, preferably in the intended course, and are waiting to be called and then transferring, which explains a considerable part of failure and drop out of car mechatronics course students. 

Main characteristics of the challenge, description of the target group

In spite of all effort put in place, failure factors have been persistently verified within the scope of the VET courses taught at Ferreira Dias Secondary School. A significant number of those students did not acquire the competences associated with the student profile inherent to the completion of the 3rd cycle of basic education (9th grade). In school jargon "they lack basic knowledge and working methods". Many of the students who are directed to the vocational courses did not take the normal course, but alternative course/courses. As at the end of basic education there are only two alternatives: either student enrols in a scientific/humanistic course or a vocational course. Very often these students have neither the will nor the ability to attend three-year courses whose curricula are difficult to overcome without the foundation they should have acquired. 

Another failure factor pertains to the course choice, although schools through the Psychology and Guidance Services try to orient and refer to choices that fit their profiles, in many cases, the choices are created in the students' imagination, about cars, sports (soccer),computers, etc. But enjoying to listen to music does not mean that we take a music course or have the ability to do so.

Also, important factors of failure are the way families view the education and training of their young, prevailing the lack of responsibility to comply with the rules, need for work and commitment of these young people, as well as their parent monitoring.

Besides those general factors, other more specific ones can be appointed, such as the case of immigrant students, especially those who are new to school, show great difficulties in adapting, especially as they do not yet master the Portuguese language and culture. This reality offers the school new challenges, so one of them necessarily is that the school has to have a better reception capacity, support and good integration of the new students, who in many circumstances find it difficult to adapt to the new school.

Although vocational courses are an option for a considerable number of students, they are still socially undervalued.

Success factors and processes

Step-by-step description of main activities from beginning to end, and conclusions:

1. Preparation: identifying the problem and outlining resolution (necessary tools, etc.) 

In the pursuit of good practices leading to school success, the school participates at various levels in projects and working groups, focusing on the success and inclusion of students in vocational courses, with emphasis on its participation in:

  • Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities - Promoted by the Technical School of Moita, and of which FDSS is a partner.
  • Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council
  • Reception of foreign students
  • Valuing of VET courses

2. Description of main activities; the approach used (necessary tools, timeframe, etc.)

Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities

With the expansion of compulsory schooling to 18 years of age – 12 years of schooling, with the diversity of students (work rates and completion of different modules, some had very mismatched competency levels for the 9th-grade outgoing profile, and others still had SEN),with only 3 years to impact these students, leading them to double certification, made evident that our pedagogical model would have to be oriented towards building a life project for and with each of our students. This sharing of concerns over time with the guardianship and now with the publication of the new Decree-Law 54/2018 of July 6, which establishes the principles for the promotion of inclusive education, led us to the present pilot project –Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities.

The Decree-Law 54/2018 of July 6 has as its central orientation the need for each school to recognize the added value of the diversity of its students, finding ways to deal with this difference, adapting the teaching processes to the individual characteristics and conditions of each student, mobilizing the means at their disposal for all to learn and participate in the life of the educational community. This implies a decisive bet on the autonomy of schools and their professionals, in particular by reinforcing the intervention of special education teachers, as an active part of the educational teams in defining strategies and monitoring curriculum diversification. Aware of the existing professional competences in Portuguese schools, the Government now intends to create conditions for them to raise the quality standards of different education and training offerings. Even where major difficulties in curriculum participation are identified, it is up to each school to define the process in which it identifies the learning barriers facing the student, betting on the diversity of strategies to overcome them to ensure that each student have access to the curriculum and learning, taking every one to the limit of their potential.

The methodological options underlying this Decree-Law are based on the universal design for learning and the multilevel approach to curriculum access. This approach is based on flexible curriculum models, systematic monitoring and monitoring of the effectiveness of the continuum of interventions implemented, teacher dialogue with parents or guardians and the choice of learning support measures organized at different intervention levels, according to the educational responses needed for each student to acquire a common base of competencies, valuing their potential and interests.

The present decree-law thus enshrines an integrated and continuous approach to each student's school career ensuring a quality education throughout compulsory education. For the integrated and continuous vision of the educational approach that is now advocated decisively contributes a learning support assessment process - which considers the student's academic, behavioural, social and emotional aspects, as well as environmental factors -, as this process results in all the sequencing and dynamics of the intervention.

From a holistic view, the roles of multidisciplinary teams are redefined in conducting the process of identifying measures to support learning and inclusion, depending on the characteristics of each student, in monitoring the effectiveness of their application, in particular, same measures reinforcing the involvement of teachers, technicians, parents or guardians and the student himself.

Thus, the Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities project defined the following objectives:

  • Promote the academic success of students enrolled in dual certification modalities, leading to their certification and complying with DL 54/2018;
  • Build and implement a differentiating and innovative public policy monitoring and impact assessment model;
  • Implement a monitoring and evaluation model that is co-built with the guardianship, schools and students and families;
  • Promote an interactive process that ensures greater and better proximity between legislation and guidelines and their effective applicability;
  • Enhance a successful transition into an after-school life for these students.

The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) as a representative of all AML municipalities, where the FDSS is inserted, had earmarked a grant from the Territorial Development and Cohesion Pact for the development of the Metropolitan Educational Project, which intended to reduce school dropout, through the implementation of an Innovative School Failure Fighting Plan.

This pilot project was conceived, in close articulation with different actors of the educational and training context, through a set of initiatives of local inter-municipal scope, that will promote the reinforcement of the support to the students and their academic and professional success, namely through multidisciplinary teams that ensure multilevel responses and that fulfil, in a network, the aims of DL no. 54/2018 in the scope of Inclusive Education. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure territorial representation of different municipalities of AML - Moita, Lisbon, Amadora and Sintra, but also of different types of schools in the project and school communities, covering all the modalities of double certification.

Cooperating schools were identified by the tutelage, based on the following criteria:

  1. Guaranteed coverage of all existing dual certification offerings;
  2. Diversity in the typology and initiative of schools (public and private, grouped / ungrouped, vocational schools and art schools);
  3. Schools located in economically and socially disadvantaged territories, marked by poverty and social exclusion, covered by the TEIP program (priority intervention educational territories);
  4. Schools with adequate physical resources and schools in need of urgent intervention.

The network of cooperating schools consists of:

  • Moita Professional Technical School, Moita (which is both the beneficiary entity and project coordinator)
  • Ferreira Dias Secondary School, Agualva, Sintra
  • Seomara Costa Primo Secondary School | Amadora Oeste School Group, Amadora
  • António Arroio Secondary School, Lisbon

Activity 1 – Design of the methodology for implementation and evaluation of the Pilot Project(July 2018 to December 31, 2018)

Objectives:

  • Design and co-build a DL 54/2018 application implementation and evaluation model in a very collaborative and participatory way, with different actors and realities;
  • Promote an interactive process that ensures greater and better proximity between legislation, guidelines, and their effective applicability, promoting the school success of students in cooperating schools.

Actions to develop:

1.1: Focus group preparatory working meeting with schools;

1.2: Focus group session with schools;

1.3: Working meeting to systematize the implementation model.

Activity 2 – Implementation of the model for monitoring the operationalization of Inclusive Education in dual certification modalities (January 01, 2019 to August 31, 2021)

Objectives:

  • Design and apply a periodic monitoring model of DL 54/2018, in the dual certification modalities;
  • Train the multidisciplinary teams responsible for the operationalization of Inclusive Education in double certification modalities, in actions of exchange and sharing of good practices, as well as points to improve / constraints;
  • Listening and codifying the contributions of direct and indirect beneficiaries on the implementation of the strategies designed in this operation;
  • Bring multidisciplinary teams closer to the beneficiary students.

Actions to develop:

2.1: Preparatory working meetings for the Reflection-Action Workshop;

2.2: Reflection-Action Workshop Sessions on the implementation of DL 54/2018 with the 4 schools;

2.3: Training actions;

2.4: Contribution systematization working meetings for the construction of the Guide;

2.5: Focus Group aimed at companies;

2.6: Focus Group addressed to parents or guardians;

2.7: Focus Group addressed to the students of the 4 Schools;

2.8: Focus Group addressed to network operators and beneficiaries (vocational guidance system);

2.9: Evaluation / review meetings.

Activity 3 – Design of the Guide to support the implementation of Inclusive Education in dual certification modalities (January 01 2019, to July 31, 2021)

Objectives:

  • Design a useful, practical and sufficiently comprehensive tool for the application of pedagogical strategies at the universal, selective and additional levels, taking into account the specificities of dual certification modalities and the individual character of each student for national use by all operators. . These modalities should be spelt out in language accessible to students, parents and educators and with alternative support resources that promote equal access to information;
  • Define a training plan for senior education technicians (namely teachers and educational psychologists) regarding the knowledge and mobilization of good practices and pedagogical strategies tailored to each student.

Actions to develop:

3.1: Working meetings codifying the basic structure of the Support Guide;

3.2: Working meetings to prepare, review and update the Support Guide;

3.3: Evaluation/analysis working meetings;

3.4: Design of a training plan.

Activity 4 - Evaluation of the Inclusive Education Pilot Project (May 01 2019, to August 31, 2021)

Objectives:

  • Measure the impact of the Inclusive Education pilot project in qualitative and quantitative terms on school achievement (notably: dropout rate, absenteeism, achievement rate, employability rate, pursuit rate).

Actions to develop:

4.1: Production of intermediate evaluation reports;

4.2: Production of the final report.

Activity 5 – Promotion and dissemination of the Inclusive Education pilot project (September 01, 2018, to July 31, 2021)

Objectives:

  • Disseminate the pilot project of Inclusive Education with the different actors of the 18 municipalities of AML;
  • Share and disseminate technical guidelines for the national network of dual certification modalities;
  • Sensitize the local and regional economic fabric and other stakeholders to adopt inclusive practices in their organizations.

Actions to develop:

5.1: Design, production and dissemination of communication media, namely: Practice Support Guide, Website, videos, brochure, reports, etc .;

5.2: Launch of the Pilot Project;

5.3. Conference on Inclusive Education;

5.4. Workshop.

1.) Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Reception of foreign students

Today's goal is an inclusive school that promotes better learning for all students and builds on skills that enable them to exercise active and informed citizenship throughout their lives (Decree-Law 55/2018). As such, schools seek to have an educational offer that enables students to access a wide range of opportunities across different subjects, projects and educational pathways. This is particularly important in the case of immigrants as they have greater difficulties in achieving good school outcomes (OECD, 2006 & 2010),due to linguistic and cultural issues and low socio-economic status (PISA, 2016).

Therefore the program for the reception of foreign students envisages to achieve the following goals:

  • Empower teachers to support and facilitate the inclusion of foreign students in school through appropriate strategies and tools;
  • Promote an intercultural and inclusive education at school that enables foreign students to integrate faster and more easily into their school success;
  • Reinforce the learning of the Portuguese Language and Culture in a facilitating context and adapted to the described population.

Those objectives will be pursued in the belief that is needed to promote time-sustained practices, to involve the entire education community for the integration of immigrant students, and directly support shall be given to the team that will develop the Intercultural Education Program, namely 7th and 10th-grade class principals and language teachers, namely those of Portuguese non-native language.

  • Action 1 – Preparation and Capacity Building, including Launching and Capacity Building for Teachers to Intervene with Immigrant Audiences (November 2019);
  • Action 2 – Design of an Intercultural Education Program, with support for the creation of an Intercultural Education Program (from December 2019 to February 2020);
  • Action 3 – Monitoring and Follow-up of the intercultural education program promotion sessions (from December 2019 to June 2020);
  • Action 4 – Project Evaluation, Project Review and Project Preparation for next year. (June 2020)

2.) Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Valuing of VET courses

As 40% of Ferreira Dias secondary school students attend vocational education it is needed to redefine the strategic offer of vocational education, with more attractive and more employable courses, as well as improve the communication and dissemination of this offer, internally to the students of the 3rd cycle and create dissemination materials of the courses outside the school.

Therefore, the program for valuing VET courses envisages to achieve the following objectives:

  • Define the strategic areas of vocational education provision
  • Improve communication (internal and external) of school vocational education offerings
  • Enhance vocational education as a valid and successful path
  • Decrease school dropout and failure of vocational students

Four actions will be developed:

  • Action 1 – Brainstorming – there will be 3 working sessions with the teachers, to identify the opportunities and weaknesses of the professional courses that are taught and the students' profile, to identify professional courses that may be strategic and attractive to these students. (from November to December 2019)
  • Action 2 – Communication Plan – a communication plan (materials, participation in fairs, debriefing sessions) will be developed in conjunction with different teachers, aimed at the promotion of vocational courses among 9th-grade students, both internal and external to the school. Different communication materials (leaflets, banners, website content) will also be created. (from January to February 2020)
  • Action 3 – Valuing Sessions - sessions will be organized in partnership for 9th-grade students and carers. These sessions will be attended by alumni, current students or companies and will make known the opportunities offered by vocational education. (from March to June 2020)
  • Action 4 – Video Contest – a video contest will be held to meet students' expectations and motivations. (from March to June 2020)

3. Useful competencies of a problem-solving team to reach main aim (necessary tools, etc.)

Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities

This operation is based on a partnership agreement that provides for the articulation between partner entities, as well as the codification and archiving of the data and information produced during this pilot project, which will be shared by those who assume physical and financial execution responsibilities, as well as remnants, including cooperatives, as is the case for the remaining three schools involved in the proceedings, through the following mechanisms, namely:

Using Google's G Suite for Education collaborative platform, which enhances the development of intervention methodologies and tools and streamlines the decision making process;

Frequency of meetings (planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation): Meetings are planned for this pilot project in all project cycles to ensure that all 5 activities are properly planned, implemented and evaluated.

1.) Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Reception of foreign students

  • To carry out Action 1 will be needed working meetings with teachers, the establishment of a multidisciplinary task reception and distribution team and to design thinking and intercultural education workshops to prepare materials for intercultural education classes.
  • To carry out Action 2 will be needed to support teachers in the creation of an Intercultural Education Program, based on different aspects: Reception Kit for immigrant students, Training of the Reception Team, Activity Design and support materials for Intercultural Education classes.
  • To carry out Action 3 will be needed to have meetings throughout the year with teachers who feel this need, as well as to monitor and support the implementation of the program in the classroom and the process of welcoming new immigrant students.
  • To carry out Action 4 will be needed to hold awareness-raising sessions on vocational education for parents and 9th graders and make known the vocational education courses of the school, showing what they consist of and what opportunities they offer.

2.) Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Valuing of VET courses

  • To carry out Action 1 will be needed to analyse existing courses with teachers, identifying opportunities and weaknesses, characterize the profile or typology of students attending vocational courses and identify strategic vocational courses for the school.
  • To carry out Action 2 will be needed to define strategies to make the school's vocational education provision more visible and create an internal and external communication campaign.
  • To carry out Action 3 will be needed to define strategies to make the school's vocational education provision more visible and create an internal and external communication campaign.
  • To carry out Action 4 will be needed to define contest rules, advertise it, rate contest videos, and widely disseminate results.

4. What is the estimated timeframe of implementation? Is this a quick solution or a long-term investment? When is it recommended to be carried out?

1) Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities

  • To be developed between July 2018 and August 2021.

2.) Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council

  • Reception of foreign students
  • Valuing of VET courses
  • To be developed between November 2019 and June 2020.

5. How is this a systems change? 

It is a system change in two ways: 

by involving all the relevant stakeholders; 

by being developed within the context of an external school evaluation system for improvement, the project/plans are permanently monitored, regularly evaluated, periodically reformulated envisaging educational success, equity and social justice;

by being supported by the demands of implementing the new Decree-Law 54/2018 of July 6 which means to foster inclusion at all levels of curriculum development.

Impact of measures taken

1. Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities

Envisaged results:

  • To promote the academic success of students enrolled in professional courses, reducing the retention and dropout rate in the 2018/2021 cycle by 25%.

2. Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Reception of foreign students

Envisaged results:

  • Facilitate the integration of immigrant students in the school;
  • Helping immigrant students to better understand the functioning of the school and to overcome the difficulties experienced;
  • Strengthen the learning of the Portuguese language;
  • Create an intercultural education program that involves the entire educational community;
  • Increase the motivation of foreign students to school;
  • Acquire a stamp from Intercultural School.

3. Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Valuing of VET courses

Envisaged results:

  • Redefine School Vocational Course Offering
  • Create a new communication plan to publicise the educational offer of the School
  • Create new outreach and communication materials
  • Value professional education as a valid training path
  • Decrease School Dropout and Failure Rate Redefine School Vocational Courses
  • Create a new communication plan to publicize the educational offer of the School
  • Create new outreach and communication materials
  • Value professional education as a valid training path
  • Decrease the dropout and dropout rate

Resources needed

1. Pilot Project Inclusive Education in Double Certification Modalities

There is concrete representation in the intervention territories through the 4 cooperating schools (Moita, Lisbon, Amadora and Sintra). The coordinating entity, the Moita Vocational Technical School, is an organic unit specialized in Vocational Education, being a reference school in Portugal, and the largest Vocational School in the south of the Tagus, with highly specialized human resources in this modality. These resources enhance the development of this pilot project in an action research logic using as its object of study its educational community. 

The direct involvement of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area as a project partner gives a diffusing and replicating effect to the municipalities it represents, during and after the implementation of this project. The direct participation of the partner National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education, IP, a public institute, nationwide, which coordinates all forms of dual certification (vocational courses, youth education and training courses, education and training courses) courses, art-specialized education courses and apprenticeship courses) and structural instruments to support the regulation and operationalization of these teaching modalities. 

Direct participation as a partner without physical and financial responsibility of the Directorate General of Education, a public body of the Ministry of Education with more know-how on inclusive education and curriculum development, and is the body that designs and disseminates guidelines and support manuals for all. the school establishments. 

The direct participation as a partner without physical and financial responsibility of the Directorate General of School Establishments, a public body of the Ministry of Education that accompanies and gives direct support to all schools, both in the organization and development of curriculum, consultation and authorization of the school network. training, as well as the allocation of physical and financial resources to the organic units, constituting the first line of contact between the schools and the tutelage.

The development of the project count on funds from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) as a representative of all AML municipalities, that coincidentally had consecrated a grant from the Territorial Development and Cohesion Pact (PDCT) for the development of the Metropolitan Educational Project, which aimed to reduce school dropout, through the implementation of an Innovative School Failure Fighting Plan.

This pilot project was conceived, in close articulation with different actors of the educational and training context, through a set of initiatives of local inter-municipal scope, that will promote the reinforcement of the support to the students and their academic and professional success, namely through teams. multidisciplinary projects that assure multilevel responses and that fulfil, in a network, the aims of DL no. 54/2018 in the scope of Inclusive Education.

Therefore, it was necessary to ensure territorial representation of different municipalities of AML - Moita, Lisbon, Amadora and Sintra, but also of different types of schools in the project and school communities, covering all the modalities of double certification.

2. Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Reception of foreign students

Counts on Sintra ES + team for the implementation of 2 workshops (3 hours) for the 11 class directors involved in the project (6 hours),1 training session (3 hours) and 15 workshops with the host team during the school year, monitoring of Intercultural Education Program (30 hours) and supporting the realization of a final project presentation.

3. Sintra ES + Program - Powered by Sintra City Council - Valuing of VET courses

Counts on Sintra ES + team for the promotion of 3 brainstorming meetings with the teachers involved in the project (9 hours),1 meeting to define the Communication Plan (3 hours),the promotion, in partnership with Service and Psychology and Vocational Guidance of 6 awareness sessions with parents and guardians (9 hours),the organization and promotion of a Video Contest (30 hours) and the development and support in the definition and creation of a Communication Plan and its materials.

Read full descriptionClose full description

Target group of good practice:

School leaders & Teacher educators

Country:

Portugal

Author:

Lina Alves (head of institution)

Institution:

Escola Secundária Ferreira Dias

The ESLplus portal uses cookies to improve your user experience in compliance with our data protection regulation. Cookies help us to personalise content, to monitor our website traffic using web analytics services, and to improve site functionality. By clicking on the "accept cookies" button, you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions.