TIM Tec
One of the priorities of the Brazilian government is to increase the availability of professional and technological education courses. In 2011, the government launched PRONATEC - National Programme for Access to Technical Education and Employment – on which 6 million people are currently enrolled. One of the initiatives of PRONATEC is the e-TecBrasil Network, which provides free technical and distance learning courses.
The TIM Institute, which shares the same ideas as PRONATEC, has created TIM Tec, a distance learning platform that uses the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) concept. These courses, which are provided and made available for free on the platform, are intended for students attending high schools and technical colleges.
Anyone can enrol on the courses, which teach programming languages and how to create databases, websites, games and many other things. There are also courses for primary school teachers and others intended to improve the skills considered to be basic for the training of any professional, such as how to write well.
The technology and content of the TIM Tec platform are share with the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology, with the support of the Department of Vocational and Technological Education of the Ministry of Education (SETEC/MEC).
The source code of the system developed for the platform can be downloaded on GitHub, thus allowing teaching establishments to use it free of charge and adapt it to their requirements. The TIM Institute supports the Federal Institutes in the process of installing and using the platform.
The first pilot course was organised for students from the Cultural Training Centre of the City of Tiradentes in São Paulo and the Sul-Rio-Grandense Federal Institute (Ifsul).
With TIM Tec, the TIM Institute has confirmed its commitment to vocational and technological education in the country thanks to an investment of around 10 million reais in the 2013/-2016 period for the implementation of this project.
