Facila is a training program, in Southern Europe, for adults with short primary schooling. The objective is to prepare students for validation processes and secondary education. Many participants are entrepreneurs, owners or employees of small and medium enterprises, SME

SME

SME may stand for:*Small and medium enterprises, a synonym for Small and Medium-sized Business *Subject matter expert, a work role description...

:s. In these cases the program provides opportunity for training in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...

 and "continuous improvement" to enhance the participant's employability

Employability

Employability refers to a person's capability of gaining initial employment, maintaining employment, and obtaining new employment if required . In simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work...

.

The program started in 2007 as a cooperation between Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. It is based on the Swedish program "Kunskapslyftet" and adapted to Southern European conditions on an initiative by Johan Frisk.

Continuous improvement projects

Apart from basic training, the main objective of the Facila program is to teach students how to prepare improvement projects.
The students review their work, both task and physical space, then look for patterns and flaws which are expressed using a mathematical analysis. The process, which increases the students employability

Employability

Employability refers to a person's capability of gaining initial employment, maintaining employment, and obtaining new employment if required . In simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work...

, is fundamental to finding clues for improvements in productivity and decrease in work related injuries.

Projectos de melhoria contínua

O ponto fulcral do processo formativo são os projectos de melhoria. Cada formando é convidado an analisar o seu posto de trabalho, aplicar componentes da Matemática para a Vida, procurar padrões e traduzi-los para a linguagem matemática. O procedimento permite aumento de produtividade e assim o aumento da empregabilidade do formando. Se a mesma metodologia é aplicada por donos de pequenas empresas, o resultado do processo leva an aumentos do empreendedorismo.

Método formativo

A metodologia contempla duas vertentes fundamentais, individual e social. O processo de orientar adultos, a andragogia, serve de base para depois construir sobre os conhecimentos existentes de cada participante. O processo social constitui a pedra angular na capacitação de formandos adultos, a convicção de ser capaz, o "locus interno", an inter-ajuda inspirada na pesquisa do Professor Sugata Mitra

Sugata Mitra

Prof. Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He is best known for his Hole in the Wall experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education...

, são todos componentes do importante "coaching de grupos" que caracteriza o programa Facila.

Financiamento

Este projecto é apoiado pelo Programa Operacional de Potencial Humano (POPH) na medida 2.3, formações modulares certificadas. Como em muitos programas comunitários, o POPH é financiado com verbas oriundas do Fundo Social Europeu (75%) e o Orçamento do Estado Português (25%).

Quadro Nacional de Qualificações

Como consequência da Estratégia de Lisboa há uma nova visão sobre conhecimento, uma visão mais preocupada com as evidências do que propriamente com o percurso da sua obtenção. Em Portugal, o Quadro Nacional de Qualificações pretende regularizar e valorizar os conhecimentos obtidos por vias não formais e informais.

O programa Facila, com a sua função na preparação de formandos para o processo de reconhecimento e validação da iniciativa Novas Oportunidades, pretende contribuir para a qualificação de adultos europeus.