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CHAPTER 12
Guiding and counselling adults in Portugal: new opportunities for a qualification 227

instrumental and operational terms. To operate a programme of large scale
and scope, it was necessary to congregate education and professional training
policies, which were traditionally separated in Portugal. It was also crucial to
place adult education and training at the centre of educational policies.
The programme is fully integrated into national educational and professional
training structures, and benefits from financial support of the national strategic
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reference framework 2007-13 ( ). Its main goal is to overcome the structural
qualifications deficit in Portugal, and establish secondary education as the
minimum qualification level for all.
The initiative is based on two fundamental tenets. The first is that secondary
level vocational training must be a valid option for young people, providing an
effective answer to inadequate levels of educational attainment and high
numbers of dropouts. The second tenet (which will be detailed later) is that
adults must be given a new opportunity to complete and further their studies,
raising qualification levels of the working population, especially those who
entered the labour market with low educational levels.
Within the initiative framework, the aim of increasing adult qualification
levels is approached through deployment of a flexible qualifications offer,
which is specifically structured around an adultʼs existing competences. It
endeavours to recognise and build on competences that adults have already
acquired – through education, training, professional experience, or in non-
formal learning situations – by structuring a qualification pathway tailored to
the reality of each individual, and designed for both personal development
and the needs of the labour market in a particularly demanding economic
context and at a time of accelerating change.
The national qualifications system, created by decree-law in 2007, (Decree-
Law 396, 31 December 2007), took on the objectives outlined in the Initiative,
providing the institutional, technical and financial instruments necessary to
achieving these objectives effectively. Consequently, the national qualifications
system is structured so that all training activities are aimed at furthering both
educational and professional qualification of adults. This may occur by means
of a double-certified ( ) training in areas included in the National catalogue of
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qualifications ( ), or through the RVCC. Certification resulting from training

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( ) Under the national strategic reference framework 2007-13, the mentioned policies are financed by
the human potential thematic operational programme, which manages the European Structural
Fund in Portugal.
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( ) Low vocational training levels demand that the national qualification system envisage double
certification, provision of both an academic and a professional qualification.
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( ) http://www.catalogo.anq.gov.pt.