Short of Skilled Workers, Brazilian Companies School Future Workforce

Acy de Vasconcelos Almeida, 28, at Vale: "I would be happy to work here my whole career." (By Fred P. Alves For The Washington Post)

Poor education leads to a lack of skilled workers. A survey of more than 1,700 industrial firms by Brazil's National Confederation of Industry last year found that more than half could not find enough trained workers. The biggest companies in Brazil, as well as elsewhere in Latin America, have taken it upon themselves to change this dynamic.

For the past several years, Embraer, an airplane manufacturer, has partnered with Brazilian universities to train thousands of engineers, and in June, the company opened an educational headquarters at its Eugenio de Melo plant in Sao Paulo state.

The declining global demand for minerals amid the financial crisis has recently slowed Vale's rapid growth. The company said last week that it would cut 1,300 jobs and that about 5,000 workers would take enforced holidays in coming months to slow production. But the company said it is still investing heavily in its future employees.

Over the next five years, Vale estimates it will need 62,000 new workers. This year, about 7,000 students are taking courses in its schools and training programs, from graduate studies for engineers and geologists to technical courses for high school graduates. The company has opened three schools and is building a fourth to educate potential employees. It pays students salaries and health benefits, provides food and dental care, and sometimes offers bus passes and hotel rooms to students who don't live close to their classes, all part of the fierce competition for skilled local labor.

"The biggest companies woke up in the past years, and they all need these kind of professionals," Dalpozzo said. "So the companies that want to have a sustainable future need to invest in that."

In Vale's sprawling compound in Vitoria, students in matching brown short-sleeve shirts and pants gathered in a classroom last month to discuss their training before heading off to work alongside their mentors repairing trains.

"When they arrive they don't know anything about trains," said Rosimar Mario Pignaton, 44, a 24-year Vale employee who is a mentor.

For three months, the students learn theory in the classroom, and for six months, they work alongside technicians to get a practical feel for the job. They work seven hours a day and are paid $170 to $510 a month. "It wasn't like I had a specific interest in Vale, but it was the course that attracted me. It is a very good course," said Acy de Vasconcelos Almeida, 28, as he twisted a wrench on a 2,300-gallon fuel tank. "But if I become an employee here, I would be happy to work here my whole career."

Vale says it hires nearly 70 percent of the students who complete its training programs. In another company class in Vitoria, students learned about railroad line signals and data transmission in preparation for working on a line from Vitoria to the nearby state of Minas Gerais. Monik Rodrigues Espirito Santo, 21, said she had always enjoyed math and physics and became excited about electrical circuits in high school. She hopes to eventually study engineering in college but decided to enroll with Vale first.

"Most of the people want to work as fast as possible, so the fastest path is to do a technical course and get right into the market," she said.

"The private colleges are very expensive, especially in engineering," said another student, Leonardo Pereira Alves, 27. "For someone who makes the minimum wage, the cost of university is terrible."

Educating a workforce also opens up marketing opportunities. The construction and plumbing supply company Amanco has launched a series of classes in 56 hardware stores to teach construction technique -- using Amanco products -- via lessons broadcast from a studio in Sao Paulo. About 26,000 students have completed the two-month course so far and graduated as "construction doctors."