The National Policy on Continuing Education in Health was established in 2004 as the National Health System's strategy for human resource training. A Ministry of Health ordinance set guidelines for its implementation, reinforcing the technical Health System schools as priority institutions in coordinating and implementing the training of mid-level workers. This article was based on the results of a qualitative survey.Data collection consisted of the thematic analysis of documents originating from the awareness raising workshops and from interviews applied to regional, state, and technical managers of the regional health departments who attended the workshops, in addition to technicians from the State School of Professional Education in Health of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). The results indicate that they had knowledge of the ordinance and that the potential was in federal funding, access to the Regional Management Board, and in the commitment of those involved. The difficulties, meanwhile, were the lack of human resources in the State Department of Health, causing work overload; the fact that the school is neither decentralized nor accredited by the state; the release of municipal workers for training, and operational barriers in the implementation of financial resources in the state.
permanent education; technical school; Unified Health System
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