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Wednesday, 02 May 2012


Image of Rio de Janeiro on a map

Image of Rio de Janeiro on a map

Education Sector in Brazil

Improving the education in Brazilis one of the objectives of the Brazilian Government, with national programmes that adapt new techniques to the classroom. The private sector is also booming with new investments.

Market overview

Brazil is the world’s 6th largest economy in the World Monetary Fund ranking. It has the biggest GDP in Latin America - 2010 GDP was US$2.172 trillion (approximately).

The Brazilian educational system is predominately public. Public schools and Universities are entirely free. In the last ten years the percentage of school-age children enrolled in public schools has steadily increased and the private sector’s share has declined sharply, with the exception of higher education.

Brazil has the highest return on education among the 17 Latin American countries. Also, the return on higher education in Brazil is higher than that in countries such as Argentina and Taiwan.

Young Brazilians are better educated, more familiar with English language and very keen to invest in the education and training sector.

Middle class Brazilians are increasing their expenses with education, going from 8% - 10% to 15% - 17% of their total income between 2010 and 2011.

In the past years there has been an increase of workers with higher education and post graduation courses. There has also been a major change in the corporate culture in Brazil. Companies fully accept that staff needs enhanced skills, including English.

Brazil recognises the need to upgrade and modernise its system of vocational education. Recent studies show that the country lacks qualified workers in many sectors, such as industry, in which 69% of the companies are affected by that. Some sectors, such as construction, consider the lack of qualified workers as their main challenge to expand.

The British NVQ and SVQ systems are becoming better known and respected in the Ministry of Education.

Brazilian educational institutions are generally open to the idea of international partnerships, which are seen as providing business benefits and added status to the internal market.

Key opportunities

  • Massive training and re-training in several sectors of the Brazilian economy namely in the telecom, healthcare, oil and gas, construction, retail and financial sectors.

  • Technological equipment is in demand. Brazil is anxious to purchase software and other associated equipment (ICT for education)

  • Distance learning: because of the vast geography of the country (8.5 million sq km), distance education has the potential to reach those areas outside the main urban centres where education provision is weakest.

  • MBAs: especially in management training and business administration.

In Sao Paulo alone there are 10,000 companies and organisations that run in-house and out-of-house training programmes. There are opportunities for UK companies offering training assistance.

  • Special educational needs,where the Brazilian government should invest in the next few years. Special needs is an area that is growing quite fast.

Latest export opportunities – Education & Training

Latest export opportunities - Brazil

Getting into the market

The route to the market will depend on the kind of product and service to be offered. As Brazil is a large and diverse country, the most common is to work with a business partner with strong commercial links in different Brazilian regions.

In terms of cultural standards Brazilians are well informed business people and brand orientated. Personal relationship is fundamental to find success in Brazil and in most cases is recommended that the company sends a representative to have face to face meetings when approaching the market.

Under Brazilian law is mandatory to have catalogues and promotional material in Brazilian Portuguese. Price is usually quoted in US$.

More about doing business in Brazil

Contacts

Market intelligence is critical when doing business overseas, and UKTI can provide bespoke market research and support during overseas visits though our chargeable Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS).

To commission research or for general advice about the market, get in touch with our specialists in country - or contact your local international trade team.

Contact your local international trade team

Major Events

Educar

Date: 16 to 19 May, 2012

Website:www.futuroeventos.com.br/educar

Office Paper Brasil Escolar

Date: 27 to 30 August, 2012

Website:www.officepaperescolar.com.br

Interdidatica

Date: 16 to 18 April, 2013

Website:www.interdidatica.com.br

UKTI Events

UKTI runs a range of events for exporters, including seminars in the UK, trade missions to overseas markets and support for attendance at overseas trade shows.

Latest events – Education & Training

Latest events – Brazil

Useful links

More about OMIS and other UKTI services for exporters