Vocational training of youngsters and adults
- Initial qualification and specialization

Vocational training for youngsters and unemployed adults is developed in cooperation with the National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training. Training is divided into following types according to application requirements and output profile:

• Apprenticeship, initial vocational training, double certification, for youngsters aged 14 to 25, with the 9th school grade. Approximately 3 years long, these courses confer an academic diploma (12th school grade – mandatory schooling) and a professional diploma (European Qualification level 4). Apprenticeship courses favor the integration in the labor market, but also allow the continuation of studies at university.
• Technological Specialization Courses, targets adults up to 40 years of age with mandatory schooling completed (12th school grade). These 1-year long post-secondary courses confer scientific or technological specialization in a given area (European Qualification Level 5). Besides the technological specialization diploma issued by ATEC, the trainees take an exam which gives them the possibility to obtain an international diploma issued by the German-Portuguese Chamber for Commerce and Industry, that acknowledges their qualifications internationally.
  
  
• Education and Training of Adults, double certification courses (European Qualification Level 4) for unemployed adults, with the 9th school grade, who wish to increase their academic and professional qualifications.

In the sum of the three training types mentioned above, ATEC develops a remarkable amount of training hours:

Training at ATEC is developed according to the German dual system.The trainees’ daily tasks as similar as possible of the routines and work environment that they will find in their future workplaces.

The courses are divided into four training components: sociocultural, scientific and technological, developed at ATEC, and practical training developed at the workplace in a partner company.  In this scope, ATEC establishes annually cooperation agreements with companies of various activity sectors.  

In the scope of vocational training for youngsters and adults, ATEC develops the following courses:

The annual average number of traineesattendingvocational trainingcourseshas increasedsubstantially:

Partners

ATEC has over 300 partner companies that host trainees during the on-the-job periods. Among many other, the following can be referred:

In the scope of Technological Specialization courses (European qualification level 5), ATEC has been establishing agreements with industrial partners in order to create and develop courses according to their present and future needs in terms of qualified labor force.

Additionally, ATEC has signed Cooperation Protocols with higher education institutions that aim at credit points equivalence for technological specialization trainees that wish to continue their studies at university.
Our academic partners in Portugal are:

• Higher Institute of Technology
• University of Oporto
• University of Aveiro
• Higher Institute of Engineering of Oporto
• Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal
• Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo
• Polytechnic Institute of Viseu

Mobility Programs

The international mobility of the trainees within the European Union has always been highly regarded, as a way of conveying contact with different training, work and cultural contexts.

Under the European exchange program Erasmus +, over 70 trainees have had the chance to undergo training and internship periods in factories of the Volkswagen Group in Germany, namely in Wolfsburg and Hannover and in Audi in Ingolstadt, and also in Bentley Motors, in England.

Corporate responsibility

‘Tu importas’ program

In 2013, ATEC accepted the challenge of the Volkswagen Workers Foundation (Volkswagen Belegschaftsstiftung), an organization with headquarters in Germany, to develop a social-oriented training project, aimed at young people with the 9th school grade, at risk of dropping out of school for socioeconomic reasons.

The project was called Tu importas (You matter) and is primarily intended to:

• prevent school dropout due to socioeconomic reasons
• promote vocational training in the dual system
• promote personal development
• facilitate the integration in the labor market

Totally financed by the Volkswagen Workers Foundation, the project embraces 100 youngsters from the Setúbal and Lisbon regions, divided by 5 apprenticeship classes, developed by ATEC and certified by the National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training.