Professional education and dependent capitalism: the enigma of the lack and excess of qualified professionals

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to debate professional education reforms and its adjustment to the social relations developed in capitalistic production. Initially, the text highlights how the theoretical production and political action spheres interrelate and differ from each other and, then, how, when it is impossible to solve the conflict between the individual and the consumer society, the liberal mindset transports the liberal economic theory to the neoliberal doctrine. It is in this context that not only the professional education reform undertaken in the 1990's, but the qualification and job concept movement to the competency and employability spheres become more compact. Finally, the text seeks to analyze professional education reform specificities in countries such as Brazil, where capitalism is dependent and development unequal and concerted. Such specificity keeps liberal and neoliberal thought from overcoming the dualistic view and leads to the establishment of clichés such as the current lack of qualified professionals to deal appropriately with the market demands. On the contrary, the text seeks to analyze the apparent contradiction between the lack of qualified labor and, meanwhile, the excess that causes the exodus of better-qualified young people to the international market.