10
for administering a national test for final-year undergraduates in selected subjects. Although the
universe is limited to the courses assessed, the data from INEP is sufficiently comprehensive as it
includes the numbers of graduates as well as an indication of the quality of each course based on
the students’ average scores. The main limitation of this data source is the omission of courses in
some important subjects, such as production engineering, which are not assessed by INEP’s test.
The results show that in 2002 there were 249 tertiary-level courses of a technological
nature in Sao Paulo State and that almost 13,000 students graduated from them. Almost half were
engineering courses (114), followed by biology (59), pharmacy (35), chemistry (27), and
agronomy (14).18 The regional breakdown shows a high level of concentration in the Sao Paulo
micro-region, with 30% of the total number of courses and 38% of the graduates in 2002. Next
comes the Campinas micro-region, with 17 courses and some 1,050 graduates. Third is Santos,
with 10 courses and about 520 graduates. This regional distribution indicates the importance of
the public higher education system but also suggests that the presence of large private universities
in these regions is significant.
The qualitative indicator, on the other hand, shows a very different regional pattern from
the one portrayed by the regional distribution of courses (Table 1). The number of students
scoring A or B in the Provao is smaller in the Sao Paulo micro-region, certainly because of the
larger quantity, diversity and heterogeneity of courses assessed. For similar reasons, the numbers
in the important micro-regions of Campinas and Sao José dos Campos are only slightly above the
average for the state. The micro-regions with the best performance in terms of the proportion of
high-scoring students are Jaboticabal and Rio Claro (100%, with only one course); Andradina
(100%, four courses); Botucatu (100%, two courses); Sao Carlos (69.4%, six courses); Limeira
(68.6%, two courses); Araraquara (66.8%, two courses), and Piracicaba (65.2%, two courses).
Another point worth noting with regard to higher education is the existence of 46 tertiary-
level technological courses, with 2,670 places, offered by 14 Fatec and Ceeteps state-run
technology colleges, three Cefet federal technology colleges, and 29 schools run by Senai, the
National Industrial Training Service. Although these technological courses and technical schools
are concentrated in the Sao Paulo micro-region, which has almost half the courses and places
offered throughout the state, it should be noted that in general they are linked to the productive
activities that predominate locally.
As regards secondary-level technical and vocational courses, we collected data from the
Senai, Cefet and Ceeteps systems. The results (Table 2) show the existence of 218 technical
courses and 194 industrial training courses.19 These are disseminated throughout the state,
whereas technological courses are strongly concentrated in a few micro-regions, especially Sao
Paulo. A regional breakdown of technical and industrial training courses shows concentration in
Sao Paulo and adjacent micro-regions, especially Campinas, Sao José dos Campos, Sorocaba and
Santos, but in this case concentration in these areas is far less intense than in that of the
technological courses or even the tertiary-level courses. The greater degree of regional dispersion
of technical and industrial training courses has to do with the regional distribution of industrial
individual performance but the average score for each institution is published as a proxy indicator of the quality of
instruction in that course.
18 Evidently, not all graduates of these courses can be considered directly employed in ST&I activities. The numbers
merely serve to quantify the pool of skilled labor potentially available to the science, technology and innovation
system in Sao Paulo State. In this sense it is worth noting that engineering courses train proportionally more
professionals who will be employed in activities of a technological nature than biology, pharmacy and chemistry
courses, where a large proportion of graduates go on to work in non-technological activities, mainly education
(teaching).
19 In this case, as in the case of technical courses, it was not possible to verify numbers of students or places.