In Vila Nova de Famalicão, around 50% of the students who entered secondary school chose the vocational route. In total, in the 2024/2025 school year there were almost 1900 students who went on to study at a vocational school in the municipality, making Famalicão one of the municipalities in the region with the highest number of students attending vocational schools.

‘Our vocational schools are increasingly capable of training staff of excellence, geared towards development, innovation and industry 5.0 and responding to the needs of the municipality's business fabric,’ said Mário Passos.

A reality that will be reinforced by the seven new Specialised Technology Centres (CTE) that are being created in the municipality and which represent an investment of around 8 million euros supported by the PRR - Recovery and Resilience Plan.

‘A new generation of schools that will boost vocational and technological education, better equipped and capable of responding to the new challenges of industry and digitalisation,’ he said. 

And it was precisely to closely monitor the construction of one of these CTEs that Mário Passos visited the CIOR Vocational School last Thursday, 26 September. 

The mayor was accompanied by the councillor for Education, Augusto Lima, and by the director of CIOR and also president of the National Association of Vocational Schools, Amadeu Dinis. In the case of CIOR, the investment is 1.7 million euros, in a CTE geared towards industry and metalworking, which will be equipped and prepared to teach courses such as Mechanical Construction Design Technician and CNC Machining and Programming Technician.

It should also be remembered that the municipality recently created the Vila Nova de Famalicão Local Network of Specialised Technological Centres, which involves the seven CTEs in the area: the Forave Professional School, the Camilo Castelo Branco School Group, the Padre Benjamim Salgado School Group, the D. Sancho I School Group and the CIOR Professional School.

‘We want to work as a network to boost articulation and inter-cooperation in implementation between the CTEs, but also to create synergies that can push education towards levels of innovation and technological specialisation, valuing intermediate qualifications and the growth of secondary level training with professional certification,’ added the mayor.