Organising the School Management — Colegio Luso Internacional Do Porto — A Study by Artur Victoria

The school management must actively endeavor to establish the broadest possible partnership. In this way many persons with special qualifications and with occupational experience of different working environments can be made to participate in instruction. The work done by teaching staff can be supplemented, for example, by white collar and blue collar workers, by representatives of employers and workers, and by safety delegates and safety technicians. The active participation of the Employment Service is also a natural ingredient. Parents can be a great asset if they visit the school to describe activities of different kinds. Elderly people who visit the school to describe working conditions as they used to be can enable the pupils to view the present day situation in another perspective. Measures of this kind are facilitated by a portion of auxiliary resource.

During their compulsory schooling, pupils must be provided by their schools with opportunities of practical vocational orientation. The purpose of practical vocational orientation and of the educational and vocational orientation provided at school is for the pupil to acquire knowledge of different fields of activity, occupational environment, jobs and also of the importance of work to society and its members. Pupils must acquire an appreciation of the different parties in working life and the interests and standpoints which they represent, a knowledge of legislation and agreements, a knowledge of the rights and obligations of employers and workers, a knowledge of the connections between these factors and a knowledge of the conditions attaching to enterprise. They must acquire knowledge of the tasks of employment offices and the services which they can offer job applicants and employers. At school, the pupils must be enabled, in connection with different teaching subjects, to analyze their experiences so as to help prepare for a judicious choice regarding their educational and vocational future.

Practical vocational orientation, like other school activities, must counteract the limitation of educational decisions by traditional sex role and status mentality or by social and cultural background. It must focus on the equality of the sexes in family life, in working life and in the community generally.

Like educational and vocational orientation in the broad sense, practical vocational orientation is the concern of all members of the school community. It must be included in school activities from the first to the last grade and in the transition from school to working life. Knowledge concerning working life and the labor market can be acquired both as a result of practical activities in school and elsewhere and through the teaching of the various school subjects. All job experience -including that which the pupils themselves have acquired during their spare time and their holidays -should be utilized in school work. Attention should therefore also be paid to the working life of school itself and to the duties and situation of the various staff categories.

Educational and vocational orientation must be intensified in grade 9, partly by means of direct contact between the pupils and different educational routes. in connection with upper secondary school admissions and outgoing educational and vocational guidance, schools must cater for the special needs of certain pupils regarding guidance in connection with educational decisions and also regarding contact with working life.

Direct contacts with working life must take the field trips and also prolonged periods during which the pupils actively participate in the activities at different workplaces.

As a result of their practical vocational orientation, senior level pupils must gain experience of each of the following sectors for periods of at least one week each:

-Technology and manufacturing industry

-Commerce, communications, services, agriculture and forestry

-Clerical and administrative occupations, nursing and care, teaching.

In this connection, schools are to encourage pupils to combine their choices within the three sectors in such a way that boys acquaint themselves with predominantly female occupations and girls with predominantly male occupations.