eLearning country report for PORTUGAL

National correspondent who has collected qualitative and, where available, quantitative information from national sources for this document:

Gonçalo de Sousa Santinha, Department of Environmental Studies and Planning, University of Aveiro, PORTUGAL

Issue: Main suppliers of adult education (excl. employers) in the country

The main supplier of adult education/training is the Portuguese State through the actions of the Ministry of Education (ME) and the Ministry of Economic Activities and Work (MAET). Other ministries may also be involved in initiatives for adult education/training, but these are directed to specific fields of economic activity or to the public administration, rather than to adults that have not completed their initial education.

The role of the private sector is mostly as an executioner of measures promoted and financed by the State. Thus the private sector, as well as the "third sector" (local and regional development agencies, private institutions of social solidarity and non-governmental organisations), acts as a complementary supplier of education/training services that the public administration (PA) cannot, by its own structures and resources, guarantee.

Professional Unions and Employers Confederations sector also play a role. Some of these entities provide important services of vocational training to their associates - through the Sectoral Vocational Training Centres - "Centros de Formação Profissional de Gestão Participada" (which are jointly managed with the public entity IEFP - Institute for Employment and Vocational Training).

The main types of education & training services directed to the adult population (and the providers involved) are as follows:

(i) Ensino Recorrente (Recurrent Education - Second Chance Education) is the only service framed by the regular national school system, i.e., in which the supplier is a network of schools (public, private or cooperative) that deliver the regular education services. This kind of service aims at providing second chance schooling to people who have not finished or failed to benefit from regular initial schooling. For the year of 2003/04 the number of participants has been 22,522 students in the basic education (3.7% of the overall basic education students) and 68,109 students in the secondary education (19% of the overall secondary education students). Numbers are hard to interprete since the minimum age for access is 15 years old. [See note 1]

(ii) Educação Extra-Escolar (Extra-School/ Non-School Education) is specifically directed at the adult population (although the minimum access age is 15 years old). It includes education services outside the national school system and does not aim at obtaining any school diploma. Another characteristic of this service is the high customisation of educational programs depending on the local context in which they are developed. Main common objectives are to fight literal and functional illiteracy; and to promote cultural, civic and vocational competencies. The typical suppliers of this service are local scope entities such as: municipalities' education services, cultural and recreational organizations, professional unions, civic organizations. No official statistical data available on numbers of participants.[See note 2]

(iii) Sistema RVCC (System for Recognition, Validation and Verification of Skills) works to identify the competences that an adult (who has not completed the 9 years of basic education) acquired throughout life, for purposes of its validation and certification (this last conducting to obtaining equivalent basic school certificates, and involving, if necessary, guidance paths for the needed supplementary education/training) and thus ensuring new opportunities for the adult to carry other lifelong learning initiatives.For the implementation of this system, a national network of RVCC Centres is being developed (since 2000) for a foreseen total number of 84 centres by the year 2006 (with a minimum of one Centre for each NUT 3). Currently there are 74 of these centres. RVCC Centres can be public or private, as long as they have social significance in the local/regional context and have a certification for such purpose issued by the National System of Entities Certification. They include some Public Vocational Training Centres, Entrepreneurial Associations, Basic and Secondary Schools, Local Development Associations, and Professional Schools. Minimum access age is 18 (88% are in the 25-64 group). [See note 3]

(iv) Cursos de Educação e Formação de Adultos - EFA (Courses of Adult Education and Training): provide an integrated pack of basic education and vocational training for adults aged 18 or older who have not completed the basic education studies and/or detain low vocational skills. At the end, the adult gets a double certification - educational and vocational. Like System RVCC, this service defines an education/training path for each user by firstly recognising the skills that the individual already possesses and then identifying which are his needs in terms of education and vocational training. Suppliers of this service are local/regional entities that can be divided in 3 networks: Vocational Centres of the IEFP; Private and Civic Entities; Other public entities. For the EFA Courses that took place between 2001 and 2003, 27% of the courses were offered by public entities (Vocational Training Centres of the IEFP) and the remaining 73% were offered by the private sector. [See note 4]

(v) Acções S@ber+ (Actions Know-More): this short duration actions (50h modules) are focused on population over 18 years old, irrespective of the academic or vocational training skills already possessed, and aim at encouraging adults to acquire, develop or reinforce their personal, vocational or academic skills. Tyical courses are about basics of mathematic, initial training on foreign languages, basics of reading and writing skills, basics of internet and technologic literacy, etc. Main suppliers of these actions are: Public basic and secondary schools, IEFP - Training centres, and other private and civic entities. No statistics available. [See note 5]

Issue: Role of traditional distance education in the country

Distance education (correspondence courses) has a limited significance in Portugal. From the public sector, two existing examples are:

• the Distance Learning service of the Open University - "Universidade Aberta", which recurs to didactic multimedia packages combined with tutor distance support;
• the Mediatised Basic Teaching - "Ensino Básico Mediatizado" which recurs to video technology to provide the basic education service to some populations (this one provided by the Direcção Geral de Inovação e Desenvolvimento Curricular of the ME).

From the private sector, some training entities offer solutions based either on traditional distance learning solutions (dossier) or on offline eLearning (CD-ROM). Main providers on the Portuguese market appear to be (no official statistics available): CEAC, CCC and CampusEsine.

There is no national observatory entity for this domain (distance learning and eLearning) and studies on their relevance for Portugal (in quantitative and qualitative terms) do not exist in the public domain.

Issue: Advice/counselling structures for people interested in adult education

Support/advice for promoting participation in adult education is mainly supplied by the same entities enrolled in the supply of adult education/training services (see previous issue), namely:

• The network of RCCV Centres: apart from the operational objective of giving physical viability to the RVCC System, this network is intended to act as an infrastructure for adults' advice, guidance and information on lifelong learning opportunities.
• The local and regional public education structures (Direcções Regionais de Educação, Coordenações Concelhias de Ensino Recorrente e Educação Extra-Escolar), the schools providers of recurrent education, through their cabinets of Vocational Guidance;
• The network of Employment and Vocational Training (Centros de Emprego e Formação Profissional - IEFP): providing guidance and support in finding the best solution for each unemployed person, most involving supplementary training - Advisers for Vocational Guidance (Conselheiros de Orientação Profissional);
• The other local entities (public and private) that provide other services promoted by the General Directorate for Vocational Training (e.g. EFA Courses, Actions S@ber +).
• The 'Clubs Know More' (Clubes S@ber+), developed in the context of the European project - Socrates-Grundtvig Program, which aim to be points for information, guidance and stimulus for the population (youngs and adults) enrolment in lifelong education and training processes.

Issue: Main barriers for participating in lifelong learning by adults

The following points sum up the main barriers as outlined by interviewed experts from the Unit for Adult Education and from the DGFV:

• Institutional obstacles: despite some good examples, the generalised lack of interest/motivation by employers and other public and civic entities for the development of actions in the field of adult education, training and lifelong learning;
• Societal obstacles: the generalised lack of interest (and of information about its importance) by the social groups in which education and training is most needed;
• Individual behaviour obstacles: a great part of the adult population does not consider education and training to be of great relevance;
• Domestic life obstacles: the role of the woman in the family structure and its consequences of time availability for involvent in other activities.
• Aspects related to the organisation of the adult education services such as the inadequacy of the learning facilities, inappropriate frequency of sessions, inappropriate selection of the student groups, inappropriate contents and pedagogical methods.
• The weak functional consolidation of the already existent (at the policy/regulatory framework level) mechanisms for promoting participation in LLL activities;
• The profile of the national industrial fabric, with a significant proportion of SMEs which typically do not recognize continuous education of the employees as a relevant issue.

Another hurdle that seems of relevance is the share of the adult population which still today has very low levels of literacy. As Reis Lagarto outlines in the book "Distance education and Continuous Training", to expect people to be motivated for self and lifelong learning, minimum skills level must be be in place in the individual (Basic Education). According to data from the National Institute of Statistics 64.5% of the population aged 25-64 have finished only six years or less of initial education.

Issue: Country-specific facilitators for participation in lifelong learning

An expert from the Unit for Adult Education stated that, in the absence of an integrated and functional national policy for education and training it is not expected that significant facilitators for increasing the interest in such matters can be found. Although recognising that a national debate is emerging (with some emphasis being provided by the media), the expert feels that no significant local consequences can be identified.

Experts from DGFV stated that the real chances for professional improvement/ progression as a direct consequence from the enrolment in LLL are not yet realised by the population to a significant degree.

Thus, the main stimulus for enrolment in LLL programs remain to come from the regulatory framework, through the financial benefits that are available for participants (e.g. training grants, transport and meal costs support).

Issue: National policies for supporting adult education and lifelong learning

• The Comprehensive Law for Education (Lei de Bases da Educação) and the Law for Vocational Training (Lei da Formação Profissional) (both still in public discussion), jointly underscore the importance for supporting LLL and aim to a better coordination between education and training;
• The National Plan for Employment 2003 (Plano Nacional de Emprego) includes elements of a National Strategy for LLL and defines a specific action axis concerning measures to be taken for under-qualified adults. It also underscores the need of a better coordination with the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2003/05;
• The Grand Options of the Plan 2003/06 (Grandes Opções do Plano) defines the major priorities for governmental action including as a measure relating to LLL the "investment in the qualification of the Portuguese people";
• The Plan for Regional Development of Portugal 2000-2006 (Plano de Desenvolvimento Regional de Portugal) lists as a core objective to "elevate the qualification level of the Portuguese population, promote employment and social cohesion" and asks for specific actions related to LLL;
• The Agreement on Policy for Employment, Labour Market, Education and Training (Acordo sobre Política de Emprego, Mercado de Trabalho, Educação e Formação) was signed between the Government and all Social Partners, and identifies specific targets on labour force participation in Continuous Training.

• Joint efforts with local and social partners for promoting education, training and employement (includes: fostering of educational and training services supply for youngs and adults)
• Involvement of schools and universities in projects and programs for LLL(includes: development of education and training systems for lifelong education and training - System RVCC and Actions S@ber+)
• Recognition of the importance of ICTs in the adult education processes of the RVCC System (includes: development of ICT skills via adult short-duration courses - Actions S@ber+)
• Development and continuous skills improvement of the educational and training agents(includes: training of professionals for the RVCC System; training of trainers of the Actions S@ber+)
• Investment in Human Resources(includes: promotion of workers access to training)

Issue: Role of user orientation in national strategies for fostering adult education

Issue: National policies for fostering eLearning

Issue: Role of user orientation in national strategies for fostering eLearning

No eLearning strategy exists.

The work carried out by IQF seems to be of great relevance in what concerns to the progressive inclusion of this sort of concerns throughout the supply side.

Issue: Current supply of eLearning courses (and related services)

With respect to public education/training providers, in general no eLearning courses are available for the adult education/training domain for each of the providers identified in L1. The exception is an isolated case of a basic and secondary school of the Autonomous Region of the Azores: EB3 Vitorino Nemésio which provides Recurrent Basic and Secondary education courses. In fact, the main (and eventually only) public supply of eLearning services is offered by universities and these are related with tertiary education.

Concerning private and 'third sector' providers, no studies or diagnoses are available in the public domain. An exhaustive Internet search brought up one provider that offers a distance learning solution for Recurrent Secondary Education, but this for a specific type of qualification: the Military Sergeants Course of the Centro Naval de Ensino à Distância (Naval Centre for Distance Learning).

Apparently the current national supply of eLearning services that does not fall in the tertiary education category is related to the acquisition of general or professional skills/competences, but not related to the adult education services identified under L1. Limited supply of eLearning services is provided by public organisations related with specific areas of the administration, entrepreneurial associations, trade unions and professional organizations, private training companies and Sectoral Vocational Training Centres.

Distance learning providers which make some use of eLearning are:

• the Distance Learning service of the Open University - "Universidade Aberta", which recurs to didactic multimedia packages combined with tutor distance support;
• the Mediatised Basic Teaching - "Ensino Básico Mediatizado" which recurs to video technology to provide the basic education service to some populations (this one provided by the Direcção Geral de Inovação e Desenvolvimento Curricular of the ME).

From the private sector, some training entities offer solutions based either on traditional distance learning solutions (dossier) or on offline eLearning (CD-ROM). Main providers on the Portuguese market appear to be (no official statistics available): CEAC, CCC and CampusEsine.

There is no national observatory entity for this domain (distance learning and eLearning) and studies on their relevance for Portugal (in quantitative and qualitative terms) do not exist in the public domain.

Overall, the existing supply seems to be in a early stage of development, characterised by great diversity both in contents and in the number and nature of suppliers and strongly directed to certain types of users (namely workers of specific entities) and a lot less to end-users (citizens in abstract) - as stated by both the key-actors contacted on the subject of e-learning. Examples of this "oriented supply" (the more relevant and successful model in Portugal) would be: public organisms related with specific areas of the administration (e.g.: www.ina.pt/e-learning ; aprender.cefa.pt/ ), entrepreneurial associations (eg.:www.e-cursos.com), trade unions and professional organizations (e.g.: www.ibjc.pt ), private training companies (e.g.: www.nova-etapa.pt/formacaoelear.htm , www.profiforma.pt ), Sectoral Vocational Training Centres (e.g.: www.cinel.pt ).

Issue: eLearning take-up by enterprises/ employers

A national observatory entity for this domain does not exist; neither are there many studies in the area.

Bearing this in mind, the experts interviewed for eUSER argued that, in general terms, the share of eLearning solutions used in firms for training their staff may be approximately 1/10 of the overall investments in training (note that, given the absence of studies for this domain, no exact value for this indicator exists and simply reflects an opinion). However, while the shift towards eLearning as a training method in companies seems to be slow, it seems to be irreversible.

The study "Evolution of e-learning in Portugal - context and perspectives" (the most comprehensive study carried out in this area in Portugal) states that:

• 89% of the companies studied have not yet implemented eLearning solutions. Only "large sized organisations" have projects in this domain, and the propensity for innovation in training and learning dissemination through the staff gains relevance in organisations with more than 10 branches/subsidiary companies.
• Among the organisations which use eLearning training solutions, a relative majority have adopted it in the last 18 to 36 months. The main training subjects covered by eLearning solutions were: ICT, specific job/function training, organisation and management, behavioural training. The majority finds that eLearning is more effective on delivering theoretic knowledge than practical contents.
• Most companies feel that eLearning will not substitute presential training solutions, although recognizing that eLearning might be as effective (or even more) than presential solutions. However, the prevailing opinion is that eLearning is more demanding either for trainers as for trainees. The transition from traditional trainers to e-trainers is one of the major identified barriers for the change and blended learning is considered as the most viable scenario for the future rather than "pure".

Issue: Advice and counselling for people who seek online courses for self-learning

In the public domain only IQF (Institute for Training Quality) supplies an online database for searching among available training courses.

As for the identified entities in previous issue, no advice for enrolment in e-learning solutions is made available through them.

Private providers of information about opportunitiies for self-learning mainly consist of job-finding portals which often feature guidance tools, tips and solutions for engaging in eLearning. There are also more generalist portals (e.g.: www.aeiou.pt , www.sapo.pt ) with directories for training and education solutions.

Issue: Overall supply-demand match with regard to eLearning in the country

"The eLearning supply market still appears to be at a very early stage of development. Characterised by a fairly large diversity (although only 36 entities are currently [11/2004] certified by the IQF) of available solutions (the same consideration is valid for the quality of delivered services) and strongly oriented to organisations (B2B) rather than to the end-user (B2C). It was commonly agreed by the contacted experts the need for a stronger and strategic/regulatory intervention from the State. As for the integration of "user orientation" concerns, it is accurate to say that there is much that can be done for improvement, such depending on the kind of State intervention to (urgently) take place as well as on the progressive maturity of the supply market.

According to the study "Evolution of e-learning in Portugal-context and perspectives" some relevant conclusive findings are:

• The Information Society in Portugal is not yet developed enough to ensure a wide-spread take-up of eLearning. However, some evidence can be found of a growing dynamic favourable to the development of this method of education and training;
• The flaws or imperfections of the supply side are still many and the information flow is deficient. Organisations and indiduak learners which make up the potential demand do not as yet recognise in the existent supply sufficient added value to stimulate take-up of eLearning. The adult population's ICT literacy is precarious which has direct consequences for the prefered solutions for education and training. The access costs for broadband connections are very high and the service quality provided to the end-user is still low.
• The potential demand for distance learning and eLearning in Portugal is high. On the one hand, the necessities for innovation and modernisation of the initial education systems are evident. In a market of more than 2 million trainees with annual investments (from the Public Sector) of approximately 8.5 million euros in education and training, the gradual implementation of eLearning solutions (namely blended learning) is still a very wide field for action. On the other hand, the increment of the Lifelong Learning training schemes, in formal or non-formal environments, through more versatile solutions for access knowledge and information represent a virtually endless ground for action. The foreseen scenarios for the needed improvement in educational and training skills of the Portuguese population points to annual minimum investments of 1.5-2.5% of the GDP for the next 20 years.