Project structure / summary 1. The Concept of Welfare State a) Causes for the emergence of the Welfare State b) Different approaches to the conceptual definition of the Welfare State today 2. Evolution of Public Employment in Portugal a) The period from 1974 to 2000 b) The beginning of the 21st century: shifters and causes c) Public employment in the EU: a comparative perspective 3. Consequences of the reduction and aging of public employment in the Welfare State as an actor providing services to citizens 4. Public employment and provision of public services: health and education a) Public employment in the Health field - evolution of medical and nursing careers - number of employees / per capita - the demographic problem / more elderly population in need of more health care - representations/perceptions of institutional actors, health professionals and citizens about the provision of health care and the adequacy in quantity and quality of the human resources assigned to it (questionnaires / interviews) b) Public employment in the Education field - evolution of staff (teachers, auxiliaries, special education teachers, psychologists, etc.) - representations/perceptions of institutional actors, education professionals and citizens about the provision of education services and the adequacy in quantity and quality of the human resources assigned to it (questionnaires / interviews) Objective and methodology The present study aims at discussing the concept of the Welfare State today, as well as the evaluation of public employment and its evolution over the last decades. Based on a definition of a Social State that preserves its universalist nature, the research will seek to discuss the public employment necessary (both quantity and quality) to ensure that the Portuguese State is able to maintain the solidarity and universalism in an appropriate way. After conducting a discussion on the conceptual definition of the Welfare State in the present day and characterizing and qu...

The objective of this project is to organize the publication of an anthology book, containing the description and analysis of this long journey of education policies in its various dimensions: the foundations of educational policies, decisions, human, financial and institutional resources that were being mobilized, through the identification and recognition of the role of different actors, including international organizations, and with the backdrop of the developments in the national and European political context.

The study is part of the evaluation and monitoring process of "The Secondary School Modernisation Programme”, having as a central concern to analyze the importance of schools as learning environments, given the principle, set at political level, of equitable access to education and the centrality of knowledge and learning processes in any society. The aim is to analyze the impact of the Secondary Schools Modernisation Program on the socio-educational dynamics and the use and appropriation of the new spaces, in connection with recommendations and proposals for intervention in the Program.

The ICT skills shortage has been growingly mediated by the political power, at a national and European level, as an obstacle to the economic competitiveness and development. In fact, the eEurope Action Plans diagnose the existence of a growing lack in skills, namely in ICT sector, where the number of working posts that remain vacant is increasing. Presently, in what refers to the Portuguese situation, the referred mismatch between the offer and search of ICT professionals as well as its significance is mostly unstudied. This project aims at analysing this mismatch as well as the measures designed to cope with it, within the specificity of the Portuguese situation. The central hypothesis orienting this research is: the ICT skills shortage is strongly influenced by the asymmetry between the logic and rhythm of the development of the economic and educational systems. Within this general framework, three analytical vectors will be addressed: 1) the processes and the conditions that model the search for ICT professionals; 2) the conditions that model the offer of ICT training; 3) the factors conditioning the search for ICT training.