Opportunities for professional qualification in Brazil: reflections based on a quantitative study

The objective of this study was to make a national mapping of opportunities in professional qualification, identifying the characteristics of organizations that invest more in this type of action. The research design was a survey with 1,150 questionnaires sent to public, private and third sector institutions in 115 cities in 23 Brazilian states. The sample was probabilistic, due to conglomeration, with 50 questionnaires per state, including the capital city, medium size and small towns. The results show that 25% of the organizations do not provide any qualification opportunities to their employees. An Index of Professional Qualification Opportunities was created for this study, and this index showed a positive correlation with the number of employees, organization size and time established in the market. The variance analysis (ANOVA) indicated significant differences of the indices comparing different Brazilian regions and public or private organizations. The characteristics of the organizations that most offer more qualification chances are: big organizations, with more than 100 employees, more than 22 years in the market and located in the South and Southeastern Brazilian regions. In this scenario, there would be important actions, especially public policies, which facilitate the qualification of the people who work in smaller organizations.