Students can download the tool for free and identify their own professional profile, as well as locate the technical courses that have the potential to meet their interests more appropriately.

The pre-launch of Soutec took place during Latin America’s biggest education and technology event, Bett Brasil, which was held from May 10 to 13 at the Transamerica Expo Center, in São Paulo.

Encourage Brazilian students to choose a technical course tailored to meet their profile of interests. This is one of the main objectives of the Soutec application, which is now available for free download.

With the application, young people can answer 72 questions to assess their work-related preferences. There is no requirement to answer all questions at once, the students may take a break whenever they wish and carry on from where they stopped. After answering the questions, the student will have access to a summary and full report of their professional profile.

Subsequently, the application automatically relates this result to the characteristics of 215 courses available in the National Catalog of Technical Courses (CNCT). Then, the application recommends the options that best suit each interest profile.

The tool also makes it possible to customize the searches using filters such as the location in which the course is offered according to the distance from where the students live. It is also possible to add their preferred options and institutions to their favorites list.

With a focus on the 11.9 million students who are in their last years of middle school (sixth to ninth), the technological solution was developed by a group of education-applied computing specialists associated with the Center for Excellence in Social Technologies (NEES) of UFAL. The demand came from the Secretariat of Professional and Technological Education (Setec) of the Ministry of Education (MEC), which identified the need for young Brazilians to know the professional courses offered by federal and state education. In addition, the tool can be used by professionals who wish to reposition themselves in their careers, stimulating lifelong learning.

The official launch of Soutec will take place next Friday, June 3, in a ceremony that will be held at MEC. The pre-launch took place during the largest education and technology event in Latin America, Bett Brasil, which was held from May 10 to 13 at the Transamerica Expo Center in São Paulo. Before that, the application had already been tested by 323 students in the 9th grade of elementary school and the 1st year of high school in institutions located in all regions of Brazil.

How was the application’s evaluation of professional interests developed?

The application’s 72 questions destined to evaluate the professional interests of students are a product of the work of professor and researcher Mauro Magalhães, from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). A specialist in occupational guidance and career development, the professor developed the questions for the application based on the studies of the North American John Lewis Holland.

Holland’s theory, which is a consolidated one in the field of psychology, has gathered over 60 years’ worth of empirical evidence of its validity. “Holland postulated that people and work environments can be characterized according to six vocational and environmental types, which are: realist (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), entrepreneurship (E), and conventional (C). In reality, “each individual or environment presents characteristics of all six types to a greater or lesser extent”, said Magalhães.

The professor also explains that, according to this perspective, people seek work environments or professions that allow the expression of their professional profile. The congruence between the person and the environment influences stability, satisfaction, and perseverance in career choices.

It is from the answers to the 72 questions of the test that the application categorizes each person’s interests. Subsequently, the system can automatically relate these results to the characteristics of the courses available in the National Catalog of Technical Courses (CNTC). Then, a recommendation of the options that better suit each user’s profile of interests is provided.

Text and pictures: Denise Casatti – NEES/UFAL Communication Department

Test the application:
Link to a free download (operating systems Android or IOS): https://linktr.ee/soutec

Contact regarding this agenda
NEES/UFAL Communication Department: (11) 9.9125.9459
Email: comunica@nees.ufal.br