Proeja students: routes denied to other possibilities

ABSTRACT This academic paper is based on a research funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (2014-2015), aiming to know and understand the demographic, socioeconomic and educational profiles of students from Programa Nacional de Integração da Educação Profissional com a Educação Básica na Modalidade de Educação de Jovens e Adultos - Proeja [National Program for the Integration between Professional and Basic Education at the Youth and Adult Education Modality] from Instituto Federal de Alagoas, who are attending the Kitchen and Hospitality Technical Courses. In terms of methodology, a qualitative approach was assumed. The data were collected by interviews made with sixty-three students from both courses. Among other dimensions, the data have showed that the students are mostly from the interior of the State, what contributed to a social construction of an urban “sub-citizenship” and inside the Program, they experience new possibilities and perspectives of development in personal and professional life, fed by a sense of self appreciation. The data of this study corroborate to (re) think the public policies that can benefit the access and permanence of the young and adults to processes of the education and training, and simultaneously, advance of schooling and in the training of teachers who work with Youth and Adult Education (YAE).