This paper discusses that the studies on the relationship between work and education have been using the notions of professional qualification to analyze the general and the vocational education of Brazilian youth according to two main thrusts, the technical and the social-political ones. The text initially refers to the taylorist-fordist period, but extends to the contemporary period in which flexible production and organization have prevailed. It concludes that, independently of the period, in most of the cases, both the studies based on the technical thrust and those grounded on the social-political one, turn to the "essencialist" (or substantialist) concept of professional qualification. It is suggested that future studies on this relation should be refined by the use of the concept of professional qualification as a social relationship (or relativistic concept), including as regards public school teacher qualification.
Work; "Essencialist" concept of professional qualification; Relativistic concept of professional qualification; Competence model