This article aims at drawing a comparison between the policies of professional education formulated between 1995 and 2005, i.e. in the second term of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and the administration of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, and the demands of the working class faced with the changes that have taken place in the world of work owing to the regime of flexible accumulation. The policies formulated for the working class during this time are thus analyzed based on the research that the author has been carrying out in the leather and shoe sectors of the economy, which have been hardly affected by the internationalization of capital. Based on the contradiction category, such comparison, which considers inclusion, precarization, the polarization of competencies and the relationship between the public and private sectors, seeks to analyze the possibilities and limitations of these policies as strategies of subordinate inclusion.
Professional education; Subordinate inclusion; Public policies