The Federal Centers of Technological Education (Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

: "Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica", shortened CEFET) are Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian educational institutes which are directly linked to the Ministry of Education

Ministry of Education (Brazil)

The Ministry of Education , MEC, is a Brazilian government ministry.Functions of this ministry: national education policy, early childhood education, elementary education, secondary education, higher education, youth and adult education, among other teachings Taking their proper decisions so that...

. They are focused on high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

, technical high school

Technical school

Technical school is a general term used for two-year college which provide mostly employment-preparation skills for trained labor, such as welding, culinary arts and office management.-Associations supporting technical schools:...

 and academic degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

s linked to technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

.

Although many of them offer academic degrees, just like Universities, the only of them that has officially gained University status is the one in Paraná

Paraná (state)

Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 (CEFET-PR), now known as Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR).

After December 28, 2008, most of them were transformed into Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology.