Luis Filipe

Psychologist
Polytecnhic Institute of Leiria
The following are my personal thoughts and note related to the institution policies.
1. The information provided by the European Union isnt easily accessed, mainly
because we dont know it exists. There are some stakeholders that have
knowledge of the information but they dont publicize it or inform the technical
staff. The information cascade stops at ministerial level.
2. The school curricula and organization are not adjusted to todays reality. The
organization of the several disciplines taught is not flexible enough to integrate
demands or requisitions made by the labour market. Teacher are not flexible in
changing the subjects taught, mainly because they are not up to date with the
market reality.
The students should have some form of job experience, just by watching for
example, and then, coming back to school, should be able to choose is own path,
selecting the most important subjects or disciplines made available by the
education institution. This would improve the student engagement preventing
abandonment and increasing personal motivation.
3. The higher education teachers career should be based on scientific results, but
more on teaching results and on students professional development. The more
scientific papers published the more rich is the teacher curriculum and this does
not implies that they are good teachers or that the student reach the learning
outcomes defined. Also, the teachers do not feel that they need to go out and
experience new situations. Almost all of the teachers dont have professional
experience and know only what is written in a textbook. This lack of connection
with the market is one of the main issues in the student development. So, it is
extremely important to train teachers and force them to work with outside
companies in common projects. For example, motivating a teacher by evaluating
the number of projects that he has with different companies instead of number of
articles published.
4. One effective form of validate individual experience and learning outcomes, is
through a network of counselours, trained in an European skills framework, in
skills assessment and development, with training in psychology, that are

recognised (by EU) as specialist in validating competencies. This way, each

individual could make is own path and the counselour could recognise important
experience and learning acquired. On the other hand, this counselours could
encourage each individual on developing specific skills. This professionals should
be easily accessible to the population and not restrained to schools or other
institutions. They also would be the best link to enterprises in order to assess their
needs and providing them.
The CVs validated by this counselours would be recognized through European
countries as true and correct. This way, this counselours would be responsible for
applying common policies for the recognition of learning outcomes and
experiences, made by EU.

Best regards,
Lus Filipe
luis.filipe@ipleiria.pt