Professional profiles of technical course plans in health: market, SUS and human education

Abstract The study that originated this article is qualitative, documentary and of historical-dialectical perspective, whose objective is to reflect on approximations and departures from the training of technicians in the health area in relation to the Brazilian Unified Health System and human formation, through the analysis of seven course plans, focusing on the professional profile of six schools (four public and two private schools) in the state of São Paulo. The analysis was based on the relationships established between professional profiles and some political-legal devices. The explanation of the Unified Health System in the description of the profiles is fragile, with no reference in most plans, except for two in nursing (one belonging to the Technical School of the Unified Health System). This weakness is in line with the national catalogs of technical courses in the versions used in the professional areas in focus. In the plans, with emphasis on technical courses in pharmacy and nutrition and dietetics, the explicit focus on the market stands out in the justifications and trends. There is appropriation of potentiating concepts of neoliberal logic, even with an indication of ‘critical training’. The proposition of human formation and in favor of the Unified Health System in technical professional education of medium level in health is challenging, considering the advances of the neoliberal logic.